Cover - Burma Library

BURMA HUMAN RIGHTS YEARBOOK 2008

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Human Rights Documentation Unit (HRDU)

Chapter 21: The Situation of Migrant Workers

21.1 Introduction

Every year, around 50,000 people reportedly leave Burma in search of work elsewhere.1 Estimates of the number of Burmese migrant workers who live outside Burma's borders have varied greatly however, and depend on whether both registered and illegal workers are taken into account. While Burma's Prime Minister, Thein Sein, claimed in December 2008 that a mere 46,057 Burmese migrant workers were legally employed abroad, Burma Economic Watch has estimated that around two million migrant workers and refugees live elsewhere.2 In contrast, Irrawaddy has reported that, of the estimated three million Burmese migrant workers who are employed abroad, around half work illegally.3 In contrast to this figure, Moe Swe of the Burma Workers' Rights Protection Committee (BWRPC) has put the overall figure at four million.4 It has also been estimated that up to ten percent of the Burmese population resides outside of Burma.5 Such patterns of migration are likely to persist, as the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has stated that it expects the flow of Burmese migrant workers to increase in the coming years.6

The reasons behind this steady exodus of Burmese workers have been well documented, not least in the preceding chapters of this Yearbook. Debilitating poverty and serious human rights abuses routinely perpetrated by the military junta have been the main causes. The Federation of Trade Unions?Burma (FTUB) has attributed the high number of Burmese migrant workers primarily to the disjuncture between the high prices of basic goods and very low incomes in Burma. 7 Indeed, over half of the Burmese population continued to live below the poverty line as of July 2008, and IOM has explained the flow of migrant workers in terms of Burma's lack of "adequate infrastructure" and its "low skilled workforce." 8 Given this economic stagnation, the desire for a higher standard of living has motivated many to leave Burma. As the UK Secretary of State for International Development Douglas Alexander, noted in April 2008, while Burma is "surrounded by some of the world's most dynamic economies, a third of Burma's people live on less than 30 cents a day." 9 The economic prowess of nearby countries such as Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore has remained a powerful `pull factor' for many Burmese. Conversely, as of October 2008 Burma was the only country of departure for migrants in the region predicted to have slower economic growth than countries of arrival.10 The abysmal state of the Burmese economy, especially when contrasted with those which surround it, represents a strong `push factor' motivating large numbers of migrants.

The fact that Burmese poverty has been a major catalyst for migration is demonstrated by the steady flow of remittance payments which migrant workers regularly send home to their families. In 2004, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its latest data on remittance payments to Burma, finding a net remittances surplus of US$56.8 million, although this figure did not include those transfers made through informal mechanisms, which may be three to four times higher.11 The authors of Burma Economic Watch, an academic periodical based at Macquarie University in Australia, found that the vast majority of such remittance payments have been used by Burmese families simply to survive and to meet basic needs such as subsistence, housing, health, education and debt repayments.12 In consequence, remittance payments have not been used in more positive ways that would foster Burma's economic development.13

Many Burmese migrant workers have not fled for a single reason or because of a single event. Rather, many have left as a result of what Andrew Bosson has described as the "cumulative impact" of coercive measures and economic conditions, which push down families' incomes until they can no longer survive in their present locations.14 For instance, the Burmese junta's policies of forced labour, land confiscation and compulsory cropping have further impoverished an already desperate rural population.15 The result, Bosson argues, has not been a dramatic or spontaneous exodus of migrant workers and refugees, but rather a slower process of "gradual displacement." 16 (For more information, see Chapter 7: Forced Labour and Forced Conscription, and Chapter 8: Deprivation of Livelihood).

National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB)

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