This paper examines the dynamics of institutional and policy change in the PMD (protection of migrants from disasters area, with special focus on the role of local government in migrant-receiving states in desigining and implementing protection policies. I hypothesize that adequate and sustainable PMD systems require judicious local governments. Through a comparative case study of Japan and Thailand, I examine actual processes of national efforts to institutionalize PMD, upon which local agents exert positive or negative effects, driven by their distinct preferencw and norms.
