The objectives of this study were to investigate how household, personal andreinforcing factors affect the decision of labour in Nang Rong District, BurirumProvince to emigrate and work abroad. Both quantitative and qualitative methods wereused in this study. The samples used in the quantitative study were selected fromsecondary data of “Demographic Responses to Changing Environment Project in NangRong, Burirum (Phase 3)” in 2000 conducted by the Institute for Population and SocialResearch, Bangkok, and the Carolina Population Center, the University of NorthCarolina at Chapel Hill . Ninety-one internal migrants from 91 households and 91emigrants from 82 households aged 15-64 years supplied the material for the databasewhich was then analyzed by using Logistic Regression. This was supported by aqualitative study based on in-depth interviews with 10 workers who had workedabroad since 2000 but had returned to Nang Rong. In addition, two recruitmentcompanies and one provincial government officer responsible for sending workersabroad were also interviewed. Content analysis was used to analyze qualitative data. The basic characteristics of the sample groups were different in all of theseaspects: age, marital status, number of household members, number of dependents, useof land for agriculture, land ownership and income from agricultural products. Themajority of emigrants were older, more likely to be married than single, but with lesshousehold members and dependent members, land and income than the internalmigrants. The percentage of emigrants who had no land, no ownership of land and noincome from agricultural products was equal at about 40 percent each. The most statistically significant factors in the emigrant’s decision to workabroad were age and number of household member (p-value 0.05). This can beexplained by the fact that older workers had higher skills and previous migrationexperiences. Also, large families mean a more pressing need for money. The data from in-dept interview supported that there were many factors involvedin the decision to work abroad particularly, source of loan, recruitmentagencies/brokers, working skill, experiences of migration and social networks such aspeers, relatives and persons who had previously worked abroad.