Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand : coping strategies and living conditions | |
| Author | Bobby |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.RD-03-05 |
| Subject(s) | Migrant labor--Thailand Alien labor--Thailand |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Science |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | Myanmar is a resource-rich country and she was once Asia's leading rice exporter and had attained a higher level of development than surrounding countries. The Burmese Socialist Programe Party changed the economic and political situation through the "Burmese Way to Socialism" in 1962 with closed door and heavily centralized policy. Then the country became sucked into economic and political crises one after another. After 1988, a military junta took over power and proclaimed "open market" economy but not in its true vein. So, Myanmar has been a trembling state up to this date. Political instability, civil war, economic chaos in conjunction with oppression like forced labor and forced relocation induced people from border areas to migrate to other countries. Although previously most migrants coming to Thailand were fleeing conflict areas, today more and more migrants are fleeing for various reasons. For the studied sample of migrant, the most prominent reason for migration was to search a means to support their families. Some people migrated for social reason or due to political unrest. Although few . people gave human rights abuses as the reason, there may be more people who migrated for human rights and political reasons because many migrants don't want to talk about such sensitive issues. Networking is crucial for the migrants; they think that personal networks are conduits of information as well as social and financial assistance. The networking through family, relatives and friend in Mae Sot will assist potential migrants in the home place to migrate. Nearly three quarter of the respondents answered that they had relatives and friends who had migrated to Mae Sot before them. The functions of networks in the migration process are that they lower the costs and risks of movement and increase the expected net benefits of migrants. Respondents' types of work in Mae Sot include agriculture, factory work, selfemployment, services and casual. Many of them were working more than eight hours a day and some of them were not given any holiday. Many workers have to do overtime work outside normal working hours and some of those received no overtime pay. Some workers who are employed in factory, agriculture get accommodation provided by their employers but only few people get meal provided. Some of the respondents save and remit money to their family in Myanmar. Most workers have work permit but their employer kept some of their work permits. Migrants' children are generally denied from Thailand formal education system by means of enrolment procedure of the school including asking birth certificate and other necessary documents which migrants do not have. Some of the children get some informal education, but most of them do not complete primary school. In addition, their parents give low priority to education. Only migrant workers having work permit can access Mae Sot hospital. All migrant workers without work permit and some having work permit always visit Mae Tao clinic run by Dr. Cynthia Maung. Very few people rely on traditional medicine and informal medical assistants. |
| Year | 2003 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Development and Sustainability (DDS) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Rural Development, Gender and Resources (RD) |
| Chairperson(s) | Dale, Reidar |
| Examination Committee(s) | Zimmermann, Willi;Routray, Jayant K. |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Asian Institute of Technology;The World Bank |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2003 |