Moving back to Thailand: why we go, and what it's like

Every summer trip ends the same way for a lot of us: the airport, the long goodbye, and a thought on the plane. What if I just stayed? Some people do. This page is about why, and what they say it’s actually like. The practical side, the papers and the order of things, is in moving to Thailand as a luk khrueng: the first 90 days.

Last checked 14 October 2026. This page draws on research and reporting about mixed-heritage and second-generation people. Everyone’s move is different; take it as a map, not a prediction.

Why do luk khrueng and the Thai diaspora move to Thailand?

There is no official count of people who are Thai by family moving to Thailand, and we didn’t find a study about this group in particular. What we hear most, and what research on similar moves describes, falls into a few groups:

• Family. Being near grandparents while there is time. Following a Thai parent who has retired back. Giving your own children the cousins you had in the summers. Thailand’s population is ageing: in 2016 the Fiscal Policy Office projected that about one in five Thais would be 60 or older by 2025, so caring for a parent is likely to be part of more families’ plans.
• Belonging. Wanting to know the Thai half of yourself from the inside, not just from holidays. Wanting your Thai to stop being “holiday Thai”.
• Work and life. A job, a business, remote work, or a different pace of life. For some, a career where speaking English and Thai is an advantage.
• The visits themselves. Researchers who studied second-generation Greek-Americans and Greek-Germans who moved to Greece looked at how earlier “home-coming” visits shaped the decision. Anyone who has cried at Suvarnabhumi departures will recognise that.

The researchers Russell King and Anastasia Christou have a name for this: counter-diasporic migration, the second generation relocating to their parents’ homeland. In 2008 they pointed out that research on the second generation, on diasporas and on return migration said very little about it. Their later book on Greek returnees explores family solidarity, kinship, food, language and religion. That research is about Greece, not Thailand, but many of us will recognise similar patterns.

What about the “moving to Thailand” videos?

If your feeds are full of “I moved to Thailand” videos, you’re not imagining it. We didn’t find reliable reporting that measures the trend, so we won’t put a number on it. Many of those videos are made by people moving on another passport, with visas, budgets and plans that may look nothing like yours. Your move is different. You arrive with an aunt who has opinions about your flat, a district office that wants your parents’ papers, and a family that will feed you whether you planned it or not. Take the videos as inspiration and your family as the reality check.

What is it really like to live in Thailand as a luk khrueng?

Often, two things at once. Christou and King describe second-generation returnees’ “evolving, often ambivalent” sense of belonging, and that word, ambivalent, comes up a lot.

It can feel like coming home. The food is the food you grew up with. Your Thai can grow faster than it ever did on holidays. You understand jokes at family dinners you used to only laugh along to. You stop being “the Thai one” at work abroad and start being simply you.

It can also feel like being new. In a 2020 Prachatai English piece about an exhibition on luk khrueng identity, one woman described a cousin calling her foreign, another a teacher who told her to dye her red hair until she showed family photos to prove it was natural, and others talked about being judged, for or against, on how they look. One said he can’t be in either of his countries for too long; another said he feels like a foreigner everywhere and has chosen to embrace it. None of this means you’re doing it wrong. It means you’re doing it.

When someone asks, and someone will, there’s a short answer:

โตเมืองนอก

toh mueang nork

โตเมืองนอกครับ

toh mueang nork khrap

โตเมืองนอกค่ะ

toh mueang nork kha

Who is speaking?

ครับ said by a manค่ะ said by a woman

Draft: waiting for a native speaker’s review.

And a longer, warmer one:

โตเมืองนอกแต่ใจยังเป็นคนไทย

toh mueang nork tae jai yang pen khon thai

โตเมืองนอกแต่ใจยังเป็นคนไทยครับ

toh mueang nork tae jai yang pen khon thai khrap

โตเมืองนอกแต่ใจยังเป็นคนไทยค่ะ

toh mueang nork tae jai yang pen khon thai kha

Who is speaking?

ครับ said by a manค่ะ said by a woman

Draft: waiting for a native speaker’s review.

Is moving back a good idea? The pros and cons

Here are the things people who have moved tend to bring up. They’re not a score; weigh them for your own life.

What people tend to love

• Family close enough for Sunday lunch, not just Sunday calls.
• Thai that tends to improve because you use it every day.
• Knowing the place behind the holidays: the ordinary Tuesday version.
• For some, work where two languages and two cultures are an advantage.

What people tend to find hard

• The language at work and at the office counter. Family Thai and paperwork Thai are different languages. It’s fine to say so:

ฟังออก แต่พูดไม่ค่อยเก่ง

fang ork, tae phuut mai khoi geng

ฟังออก แต่พูดไม่ค่อยเก่งครับ

fang ork, tae phuut mai khoi geng khrap

ฟังออก แต่พูดไม่ค่อยเก่งค่ะ

fang ork, tae phuut mai khoi geng kha

Who is speaking?

ครับ said by a manค่ะ said by a woman

Draft: waiting for a native speaker’s review.

• Being seen as foreign, or being treated differently for how you look, whether that’s flattering or not. The Prachatai interviews show both.
• Paperwork, especially the first year, and especially for a non-Thai partner. See the first 90 days.
• Money in two currencies. Salaries, prices and pensions don’t map one to one. Do the sums for your own job and city before you go; we don’t publish averages that would be out of date by next month.
• Missing the other home. And when you visit it, reverse culture shock can hit too, and it can catch people by surprise.

How do you make the move easier?

• Do a long stay first, if you can. Some months, not two weeks, so you see the rainy season, the office queue and a normal working week.
• Agree the family’s role. Living near family is different from visiting. Talk early about where you’ll live and how often Sunday lunch really is.
• If you have children, start with school. Where they’ll go to school often decides where you live, and the Thai school year starts in May. Our guide to schools in Thailand when you move back compares the options and the questions to ask.
• Work on the Thai you’ll need, not just the Thai you have. Our learning Thai to talk to your family page starts there.
• Find people like you. Other luk khrueng and diaspora returnees get it without explanation. You’re not the only one: see life between two homes and what “luk khrueng” means.
• Introduce yourself to the neighbours. It still works:

ฝากเนื้อฝากตัวด้วยนะ

faak nuea faak tua duai na

ฝากเนื้อฝากตัวด้วยนะครับ

faak nuea faak tua duai na khrap

ฝากเนื้อฝากตัวด้วยนะคะ

faak nuea faak tua duai na kha

Who is speaking?

ครับ said by a manค่ะ said by a woman

Draft: waiting for a native speaker’s review.

What we couldn’t confirm

• How many luk khrueng or diaspora Thais move to Thailand each year. We found no official figure.
• Research on Thai second-generation or mixed-heritage returnees in particular. The research above is about other countries, quoted because the patterns are similar, not identical.
• The size of the “moving to Thailand” trend on social media. We found no reliable measurement.

Thai words on this page are a draft until a native speaker has reviewed them. Last checked 14 October 2026.