GUIDELINES ASSIGNMENTS - Essay Example

Effects of Rural Urban Migration on Ageing People Effects of Rural Urban Migration on Ageing People It is a common belief that people who are getting older feel lonely especially when their children have all grown-up. This is even compounded by other factors such as death of a spouse or outmigration of children. Due to globalization, younger people have more access for social mobility since developing countries are the common choices of transnational companies. In the case of Thailand, there are more opportunities in rural areas since business headquarters are often established at major cities.

For this reason, adults often migrate from rural to urban areas hoping to find good employment opportunities that the local business cannot provide them. Because of this situation, a large percentage of young adults relocate to the city leaving their elderly parents behind. The study aims to establish a relationship between incidence of depression among elderly parents and outmigration of children ( Abas et.al, 2009). The study was conducted among a rural area in Thailand using a population based survey of 1,147 ageing parents (p.56). The subjects were recruited based on the following criteria: must at least be 60 years old, a parent of at least one living child, and Thai-speaking.

Certain conditions were set by the researchers to establish the term “outmigrant” child. The researchers classified an “outmigrant child” as someone who has not come home for at least three successive months and lives no less than 15 km from the area being surveyed (p.55). The researchers formulated a survey wherein teams were dispatched to interview the subjects. Assistance from local administrators were sought to be able to have access to the community. The research was carried for 3 months (November 2006-January 2007) in Kanchanaburi, western Thailand (p.54). The main procedure for data collection was interview wherein a team of 4 supervisors and 12 interviewers were deployed to the communities (p.56). The number of participants numbered to 1300 (80%) of the original 1620 target subjects.

Most of the participants were ages 60-93 years old, 55% were female and 55% were married (p.56). The results of the study were very interesting for the following reasons (p.59): 1. First, the study disproved the fact that areas with high outmigration rate would result to abandonment of parents by children; in fact, a parent lives with at least one child; 2. Not all parents left alone by their children are really depressed; in fact, there are parents who live with some of their children and experience depression; The results further revealed that the economic costs of outmigration are more important than the social costs because parents are the receiving end. ( p.59) Although this mindset is common among poor families, parents who are better educated perceive outmigration as a reward for being able to give their children a chance to seek better opportunities in life through education.

Marginalized ageing parents who were left with some children were even more depressed because they feel a sense of failure for not being able to encourage their children to migrate. Although the study does have limitations, the findings can be used for further studies to validate the findings. Indeed, most people believe children who left an ageing parent behind due to outmigration may cause depression. The study refuted such common concept as it delineated the real sources of depression for ageing parents.

The parent’s perception of outmigration as well as economic conditions highly influences the incidence of depression. References Abas, M. A., Punpuing, S., Jirapramukpitak, T., Guest, P. Tangchonlatip, K., Leese, M., Prince, M. (2009) Rural-urban migration and depression in ageing family members left behind. The British Journal of Psychiatry 195, pp.54-60.