Primary Research Report

Burmese Migrants: Both a Burden and Blessing in ThailandSthapanik Toongtong (Nik)

Primary Research Report

For my primary research, I conducted 2 main interviews, and site survey of the conditions and difficulties both the employer and the Burmese migrant employees were facing at a construction site in Bangkok, capital city of Thailand.

I prepared 2 sets of questions; first directed at the Burmese migrant employees, and the second for their employer. The questions for the migrants mainly concerned their reason for coming to work in Thailand, their living conditions back home compared to here, their process of getting here, difficulties they face with the Thai locals/authorities/jobs etc. As for the employer, I asked follow up questions from what the Burmese migrants said, and the difficulties they face with the migrants etc.

Introduction

The construction site that I conducted the interviews at is Suan-lum Night Bazaar Ratchadapisek’s future site, 450 meters x 40 meters, located on Ratchadapisek main road near the center of Bangkok city. Over 200 Burmese migrants work and live here, with the addition of about 100 Thai staff who do not live on site. This site belongs to my father’s company, so I am granted access to all areas and people.

The construction site consists of a temporary office, a warehouse to store materials and equipment, 2 separate temporary dormitories, and bathrooms for the workers. It is common for a project of this scale to have on site temporary shelters for the workers to reside in for the duration of the construction (up to 2 years).

Description of location

Photographs from the site

Part of the fence at the construction site


Me observing the work on the 2nd floor of the future building


Me observing and interviewing a Burmese migrant at work


A group of Burmese workers and some Thai supervisors working


A group of Burmese workers at work on the 2nd floor


A group of Burmese workers working on a pillar above ground


A group of Burmese workers binding a pillar under a Thai foreman supervision


Construction site


Thai workers showing Burmese workers what to do


Construction site


A foreman, my father and mother, and I on the 2nd floor


Crossing over the basement floor


Construction site


Thai workers communicating to Burmese workers from 3rd floor


Toon helping a Burmese migrant worker with his legal paperwork


The temporary shelter for workers with a store in front


Burmese snacks brought down by bus from the border sold at the store


The temporary shelter for workers


Burmese migrant workers watching television in the common area

Identifying information #1Name: ToonNationality: Burmese (Mon tribe)Description:

Toon is a Burmese immigrant worker (more permanent than migrant) who has been working for my family company for over 5 years. When he started off as our gardener, he could barely speak Thai, but now he is quite fluent. I asked him to be my translator and the representative of the Burmese migrants onsite since they all come to him for nearly everything, therefore he knows all the problems and situations.

He is not a construction worker like the majority of our Burmese employees, but rather a handy-man and coordinator of the Burmese migrants for the company.

Difficulties: Language/communication with Thai locals; most cannot understand or

communicate in the Thai language until after years of staying here. Many never worked in companies or have work experiences before...most have

never been out of Burma. Bullied by Thai authorities; if found wandering outside the site walls or work areas,

Burmese migrants are often arrested by the police even if they have copies of their legal documents to prove that they are legal migrants. Then they have to rely on their employers to bail them out.

Often seen and treated as a lower class by Thai natives. Employer owns their real legal documents (passport etc.) for the duration of their

employment. Have to pay the Burmese agent and authorities by the border a big amount of

money to get across to work in Thailand. Those who doesn’t have the money end up risking their lives crossing the border illegally, and if they survive, have to find jobs in Thailand on their own.

Highlights of interview #1: Burmese Migrants

Benefits: In Burma male skilled workers gets 180 baht a day, here they get a minimum of 300

baht per day (male or female, skilled or unskilled), and the cost of living is similar.

*300 baht (minimum wage by law) is about $10, to get an idea of living costs in Thailand compared to the US >> http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=Thailand&city1=Bangkok& country2=United+States&city2=New+York%2C+NY Most migrants come with near to nothing but hopes of better income and life

quality, many are not informed of the work that they will have to do, so it depends on their luck of where they end up with which employers-good or bad. The ones lucky enough to work with big companies who abide by the legal rules like this one gets proper wages, healthcare, and shelter.

Guaranteed pay, free housing, free electricity and water usage, and up to two free meals a day, plus insurance (VS lack of electricity and proper healthcare in Burma).

Opportunity to change jobs or extend stay in Thailand, more likely to gain more income than back in Burma.

Highlights of interview #1: Burmese Migrants

Identifying information #2Name: Pairojana ToongtongNationality: ThaiDescription:

Pairojana is P. Thai Architect and Engineering Co., Ltd.’s head architect and owner, is an ex-senator in Thailand, a CEO and owner of Bangkok Night Bazaar Co., Ltd., and is my father.

As an architect, and unlike many CEOs, he works close to his employees on site and directs most of the work himself in order to ensure the results he wants. He has a little bedroom in the office at the site and spends most of his time there. Therefore, he knows everything that is going on there and all the major problems the company encounters with Burmese migrants, plus he was a senator so he is quite familiar with the laws and government policies.

Difficulties: Language/communication with the Burmese workers proves to be difficult even though

translators have been hired because “we’ve just found out that there are many different tribe dialects in Burma, and only Burmese who went to school can understand the standard dialect…So now we are working through body language and hand signals on a construction site, pretty dangerous and painfully time consuming.”-Pairojana Toongtong

Out of the 200+ Burmese migrants only about 10% of them can either speak some Thai or English, and only 30% have done or can do construction work properly. The rest are still learning their work as they go along, or are relocated to do other jobs in the company.

Many Thai police are full of corruption and they look to make money where ever they can, so they often bully migrants or jail them and wait for employers to bail them out even though they have done nothing wrong.

Binding contracts have to be signed with agencies at the border who provided the migrants worker to the company for legal purposes; stating that the company is responsible for this # of migrants, for this # of months (duration of project), and that company cannot charge the migrants for shelter and electricity/water if they live on site, have to pay them according to Thai law minimum wage like a Thai local, and have to get insurance coverage for each of the migrants etc.

Highlights of interview #2: Thai Employer

Difficulties (continued): “We’ve paid the Burmese-Thai agency by the border over $100,000 to get them to send us 200

legal, able-bodied workers with specific requests that they should be able to speak or understand some Thai, know how to work in the construction industry, and be healthy without fatal diseases. We even sent people from the company up to the border to pick and choose the migrants ourselves, but when the agency sent them to our site after we signed a contract with them…less than half were the people we chose. I feel like they are 200 children I have to take care of sometimes; when they get sick or injured we have to pay for all the costs that the insurance doesn’t cover, watch over them every second so they don’t get in trouble, we have to feed them twice a day, provide them with shelter, pay for their water and electricity usage, pay for their legal papers, teach them how to work step by step…many of them don’t even know how to hammer a nail properly. Two weeks ago a bunch of them had an accident because apparently communication wasn’t clear and they didn’t know how to do the work properly; 5 ended up in the hospital, 1 of my top foreman included. At least no one died, otherwise the company would have been held responsible. And there’s also a riot like twice a week due to misunderstandings. It really slows down the construction, and for a big project like this costs a lot and effects a lot of people…I don’t know if we made the right decision bringing them here, but now that they are here we are responsible for them and we all need to try our best.”- Pairojana Toongtong


Benefits:Thailand, especially Bangkok lacks labor forces to work in

construction sites. Therefore the Burmese migrants fill in these spots nicely since many of them do not get picky about what work they do.

If the migrants gets skilled, they fill in electricians, metal workers, plumbers etc. spots very well, and those are key spots that are lacking.

Burmese migrants are full of young and eager workers that are often more enthusiastic (less lazy) to work than most Thai labors.


I wasn’t surprised that there are a lot of difficulties going on in the site between the Burmese migrants and the company since we have just employed a large number of migrants to work in an alien environment from their home, but I was surprised at how tired my dad and the Thai foremen and workers looked after 200+ more people were there to help their work. I thought the new labor would alleviate and quicken their workload, but after the interview I found out that this past month since the migrants arrived has been the complete opposite.

Being a neutral person as an interviewer made me sense frustration from both sides very clearly, but hopefully things will get better as the migrants adopt some skills and Thai language. As the Burmese migrants are not to blame for this result so far either. Hearing from their side, they are just innocent people eager to make a better income to upgrade their living conditions from near poverty back home. They end up where ever the agents send them and they can only try and hope for the best.

I’ve just realized how strongly a language barrier can effect lives; I mean I’ve been bilingual and have been in an international environment since I was 3 years old, so I wasn’t so aware of it first hand. But now that examine this site, I see that everything would be so much easier if everyone could communicate properly, though it’s not like the Thais have time to learn Burmese and the Burmese to learn Thai in a classroom, so I guess that they would have to learn from each other and improvise along the way.

Reflection of Experience

Primary Research Report

Education

Transcript of Primary Research Report