Childcare burden of burmese migrant workers in Talad Thai | |
| Author | Rattana Ngamying |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.GD-20-01 |
| Subject(s) | Migrant labor--Thailand--Talad Thai Child care workers--Thailand--Talad Thai Foreign workers, Burmese--Thailand--Talad Thai |
| Note | A thesis submitted in patial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Gender and Development Studies, School of Environment, Resources and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | The role of migrant workers in Thailand has become more prevalent to drive growth and economic activities of the country especially in the manufacturing industry. The number of migrant workers in Thailand has increased over years due to the higher demand for foreign labor together with the openness of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) that encourages the mobility of foreign workers in the labor market, particularly the migrant workers from Myanmar. Not only have the Burmese workers working in Thai territory but this also their children accompanied upon their career relocation. This has subsequently generated another constraint for them; that is the childcare burden such as schooling, healthcare, and relevant basic needs that must be responsible by either father or mother. This led to the critical research questions, which remained unanswered; that is, how the Burmese workers manage the childcare burden, and what are the barriers they are experiencing to raise their children in Thailand. All these justifications emerged to this empirical study aiming to examine the childcare burden of the Burmese migrant workers in Thailand at Talad Thai area, one of the largest locations of foreign employees of the country. This paper has core objectives to investigate the gender division oflabor, and factors affecting the childcare burden of the Burmese migrant workers in Thailand. It employed the qualitative approach using the documentary research and content analysis techniques to analyze the dataset, which retrieved from the semi-structure interview of 32 respondents, in-depth interviews of key informants from the World Vision Thailand, and supplemented by the non-participant observation. The results found that gender division of labor in the childcare burden of Burmese migrant workers is not equal between males and females; that means the burden to take care children is considerably given to the females as a mother in particular; while males are regarded to work to financially feed the family. This is consistent with the traditional way of life and previous research findings. In most cases, the findings unveiled migrant workers need to send back money for family living in Myanmar to support the entire family members and other children (if any.) The research outcomes also illustrated the main barriers, which the Burmese migrant workers facing, comprise of access to childcare services, medical treatment, and education. This is mainly because of the limitations of their incomes, which is apparently low. This includes unprogressive policy from the Thai government in terms of the budget allocation to the foreign workers, even it has a national verification scheme and MOU to support career opportunities for the foreign workers legally. |
| Year | 2020 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Development and Sustainability (DDS) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Gender and Development Studies (GD) |
| Chairperson(s) | Doneys, Philippe |
| Examination Committee(s) | Kusakabe, Kyoko;Ahmad, Mokbul Morshed |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Royal Thai Government Fellowship |
| Degree | Thesis (M. Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2020 |