ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the eight migration categories. The chapter engages in a particularly high level of generalization in Migrations. It is essential, however, that an historical perspective be provided; without it, much of what is happening today would be difficult or even impossible to understand. Two broad generalizations can be made about the demographic histories of the countries that make up present Southeast Asia. First with the exception of Java-Bali, the region was sparsely populated compared with the Chinese cultural region to the north and the Indian cultural region to the west. Then the region has been subject to profound influences from both India and China, reflected in the name 'Indochina' applied to a significant part of the region. The migrations of Chinese had resulted in the integration of ethnic Chinese into the Thai population, and the emergence elsewhere of indigenized and mixed-race Chinese communities.
