A “pink boom” may be about to bloom. Thailand’s recently passed marriage equality law could produce economic benefits beyond the burgeoning business of gay weddings, according to experts who say LGBTQ+ professionals want to come live and work in Thailand.

Thailand is only the third country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage, and ABC Australia news network is reporting that LGBTQ+ professionals in other countries in the region are considering emigrating to lands where they are more welcome and their unions enjoy recognition.

“They don’t need to hide,” Niar Ibrahim Rose, a trans scientist from Indonesia, said about other gay Indonesians living and working in Thailand. “They can express their love to each other and enjoy their life more than in their previous lives, in their previous countries.”

ABC described the influx of LGBTQ+ professionals as a “gay caravan.”

Thailand is an aging society. Economies that stay strong and dynamic despite an aging population are those that embrace migration. Migrants replenish the workforce and can create a brain boom instead of a brain drain.

ABC reported that research in Singapore found only one in four LGBTQ+ people intend to build a life in the city-state, while three-quarters of trans people either want to move or are open to the idea.

“Thailand’s victory is yet another affirmation that LGBTQ+ equality is not a Western value competing with Asian tradition,” said Clement Tan, an LGBTQ+ advocate in Singapore. Equality is in line with the values expressed in Asian cultures.

Malaysian activist Dhia Rezki Rohaizad said visiting or moving to Thailand was not a new phenomenon, but now it is “becoming a more serious consideration” because of the marriage laws.

“People are saying, Thailand is where I want to move because back home in my country, I’m a criminal, I can’t be queer,” said Kyoka Shodladd, a 19-year-old advocate who worked on Thailand’s parliamentary committee on marriage equality.

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