Support by Migrants to Their Elderly Parents in Rural Cambodia and Thailand: A Comparative Study

Internal migration in Southeast Asia raises questions about strains upon traditional systems of support for older adults. While remittances to parents’ households play a role in rural household economies, uncertainty remains regarding whether and under what circumstances children interact with their elderly parents. This paper focuses on the adult children of older persons living in rural Cambodia and Thailand and examines the determinants of personal visits, monetary remittances, and more general forms of household support. Analyses consider ways in which geographically distant children support parents, the extent to which characteristics of parents, children, and households enhance or detract from these intergenerational interactions, and how determinants of intergenerational interaction vary between the two countries. Comparisons between countries of conditions and characteristics of families provide insights into how social, economic, and cultural forces motivate provision of support to aging parents.