both of these rates are relatively low compared to other middleincome economies which is often attributed to a large informal economy in thailand as well as considerable underemployment in private and public service sectors fry nieminen and smith considering the entire decade the increase of the foreignborn epr was more than percentage points it can be expected that this drastic change is related to other indicators such as the level of education or the nature of jobs taken by immigrants in thailand and these indicators will be discussed in the following sections