The Asian Research Center for Migration (ARCM) functions within the Institute of Asian Studies (IAS), Chulalongkorn University. It is thus a proud element of Thailand’s premier institution of higher education, which occupies magnificent tree-shaded campus in the midst of Bangkok.

ARCM grew out of an earlier unit of the IAS, the Indochinese Refugee Information Center (IRIC), which had been established in 1987 to observe and study the movement of refugees from Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and other points of Southeast Asian origin in search of asylum in Thailand.

As that refugee crisis abated with a variety of successful resettlement and repatriation programs, new concerns were emerging with respect to the rise of other refugee flows (both legal and illegal) in Southeast Asia, the magnitude of those flows, and the need for in-depth understanding of the process and the means towards its resolution. Thus, IRIC was reorganized and renamed ARCM.

ARCM was established on 1 January 1995 with the aim of monitoring, gathering data, undertaking research, and providing policy recommendations and related services to the government, non-government, and private sectors on cross-border migration trends and processes in Southeast Asia, with particular emphasis on Thailand.

ARCM’s core team is drawn from the Chulalongkorn University academic community, including both Thai and non-Thai experts with experience and technical back-up in various relevant fields, including sociology and anthropology, political science, economics, and law.