This study represents a new generation of inquiry that attempts to gain a better understanding of smaller urban places in the remote and frontier regions in Southeast Asia. A set of intriguing hypotheses attempting to unravel the complicated relationships between population movements and employment opportunities as they relate to the growth of certain urban places and the rural hinterland have been posited. The study is aimed at illuminating the processes of urbanization and development in North Sumatra Province of Indonesia and the Central Visayas and Northern Mindanao regions of the Philippines.