Labour Emigration from Thailand: Past and Prospects
Presentation Paper
Labour Emigration From Thailand: Past and Prospects
--------------------------------------Hoang Lan Hoa
Vietnam Asia- Pacific Economic Center (VAPEC)
Abstract:
This study aims to understand the complex issues
involved in Thailand’s labor emigration in the past 3
decades. These include the impact of emigration on
Thailand’s economic development as well as its sociocultural implications. It also identifies some emerging
trends, possible changes, problems and over-all prospects
against the backdrop of increasing regionalization and
globalization. It raises some pertinent questions and
recommends some measures to address a number of pressing
concerns. It calls for an increased investment in human
capital, for formulation of strategy for exporting skilled
workers and for economic policies to enable domestic market
to absorb
unskilled labor. The study has been designed
with the thought that Thailand’s experience holds some
valuable lessons for other labor-exporting developing
countries.
Problems addressed by the research project
This paper will focus on the role of Thailand as a
labour-exporter. It will provide a critical review of the
existing data on labour emigration from Thailand for the
span of over three decades. It will include profiles of
Thai emigrants and the reasons or factors that influence
the Thai worker emigration. It will likewise analyze Thai
government
policies
and
regulations
related
labour
emigration as well as the roles of private companies in
promoting Thai labour emigration. Aside from that, it will
identify the economic, social and cultural impacts, both
negative and positive, of Thai labour emigration.
Another aims of this paper include: (1) to identify the
emerging trends, the changing perception and the prospects
of Thai labour emigration in the coming years in the
context of regionalization and globalization;(2) to suggest
possible steps to enhance labour emigration’s contribution
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to Thai economy and (3) to formulate recommendations or
draw lessons for the benefit of other developing countries.
This research employed varieties of methods which
include collection and analysis of qualitative data, case
studies, questionnaire, interviews, etc. The research
design took into consideration the comprehensive picture of
Thai labour emigration in the context of International
labour immigration in the Asian and Southeast Asian region
as a whole.
Labour emigration from Thailand: an overview
Many studies showed that, similar to the special case of
Malaysia, Thailand is both labour importer and exporter at
the same time. In case of labor export, while Thailand has
not been as well-known as the Philippines (which is the
world’s second largest labour exporter after Mexico)
(Martin et al, 1995), it has been widely acknowledged that
labor migration outflow is the major type of population
movements from Thailand for years.
Aims of Thai labour emigration
Unlike Korea where labour emigration strategy is an
integral part of its export-oriented industrialization
strategy, Thailand’s focuses mainly to ease unemployment
problem and to create foreign exchange through remittances.
Although, Thailand embarked on an import substitution
strategy of economic development during the 1950s and
1960s, it experienced labour force expansion in the postwar
period(1960s). Not only rapid labour force growth raised
the challenge of job creation for youth but there were also
increasing signals of rural surplus labour, especially in
poor regions. Since 1970s, people within what is now
Thailand emigrated to areas outside Thailand’s current
borders for various reasons including trade, search for new
and better-paying jobs, desire better working conditions
and pursuit of better living condition.
Start and stages of Thai labour emigration
With the exclusion of the wave of Thai people going to work
and to study (mainly to study) in the 1950s and 1960s,
Thailand effectively began exporting labour in the early
1970s, following the first oil crisis in 1973. Like most
labour-exporting countries, Thailand’s labour emigration
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Presentation Paper
history has gone through two main phases with two subperiods included in each one. The first phase of Thai
labour emigration took place from the early 1970s (1973) to
1987, consisting of two sub- periods: 1973- 1981 and 19821987. The second is 1988 up to the present, with two subperiods of 1988-1996 and 1997 till now. The abovementioned divisions are mainly based on the changes in
labour export market in various periods, which will be
mentioned in the next part of the paper. Nevertheless, some
other factors, such as the quality of Thai migrant workers,
socio- economic changes by time, etc, have also been taken
into consideration.
Labour markets
There are a number of destinations for Thai Labour
emigration and this was reflected in every phase of its
development. In the very first period of its history, 19731981, the “heyday” of Thailand’s labour emigration, there
was a big demand in labour in the world market. Therefore,
Thai labour had a wide range of choice including some
Western
European
countries
such
as
Germany,
Italy,
Switzerland, Great Britain and the USA while some oil
producing countries in the Middle East also started to
become the magnet for Thai labour in this period. In the
following period 1982-1987, with attractive wages, simple
administrative procedures and low skill requirements, Saudi
Arabia, Libya, Qatar, Iraq, Kuwait, … attracted a large
number of Thai workers. Thailand was then one of the four
biggest labour exporters in East Asia and South East Asia,
i.e., Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea and Thailand.
In this period, the number of Middle East countries
employing Thai labour increased while several Asian nations
began hiring them as well, though the number was still
negligible. The period from 1988 till now was marked by a
definite switch in labour export market with East Asian and
South East Asian nations like Japan, South Korea, Taiwan,
Hongkong, Singapore, and Malaysia almost replacing the
Middle East countries as markets for a large and increasing
number of Thai workers.
Number of Thai labour emigrated and remittances
With the population of 60.6 million and labour force of 37
million (according to 1998’s official figures) Thailand had
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Labour Emigration from Thailand: Past and Prospects
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a big number of emigrated labourers and this number has
been increasing continuously.
In 1973, there were only 293 emigrant workers who left
Thailand for job overseas. As statistical data indicate,
the Thai contract workers going abroad numbered less than
1,000 in 1975, slightly increased to nearly 4,000 in 1977,
but then increased very rapidly to over one hundred
thousand in 1982. In a decade, from the early 1980s to the
early of 1990s, the total number of Thai worker worked
abroad was 658, 743 (the figures of 1981, 1984 and 1987 are
left out because they are not available). In the following
decade, from 1991- 2001, there were 1,609,569 Thai workers
working abroad, nearly 3 times in compared with the last
decade. As calculated, approximately 117,000 Thai workers
emigrate every year (average level for the period of 19732001).
Similarity, remittances sent back by Thai emigrant workers
have increased significantly year by year. In 1976,
remittances totaled only 485 million baht. In 1995, it
increased to 29, 422 million bath. In the year 2000, it was
risen more than 100 times, in compared with 1976’s, to
50,845 million bath, equally to 1,182 million USD. In the
first half of the year 2001 alone, Thailand received 55,349
million bath remittances, equally to 1,5 billion USD. If
remittances by all kind of means would be inncluded, the
estimated remittances sent back to Thailand would be 3
billion USD annually.
Background and quality of emigrated labourers
In fact, Thai guest workers are of rural background, coming
mostly from the North – East and Northern parts of
Thailand. Statistical data in 1995 showed that 73% of Thai
migrants came from the North East, 23 % from the North and
the remaining 4 % from the Central Thailand. These areas
have a big population but the North- Eastern and Northern
parts are the poorest, least developed rural areas, with
the lowest income level in Thailand.
Except for a small number of skilled workers sent abroad in
the very first stages of Thai labour emigration, the
majority of Thailand’s guest workers are unskilled or low
skilled, a common point indeed between Thailand and other
labour exporters in the same region. Their skills and
knowledge of foreign language (English) are much poorer
than their counterparts from neighbouring countries like
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Indonesia and the Philippines. This weak point has reduced
the competitiveness of labour from Thailand in the world
market.
In the period 1973-1987, over 80% of Thai emigrant workers
in Middle East worked in construction and mechanical
engineering. During 1994-1997, despite diversification of
trades in Thai migrant labour, construction still accounted
for a rather big proportion (9.2%), ranking third and
standing next to unskilled jobs (30%) and textile industry
(9.5%).
Female guest workers account for a small proportion of Thai
emigrants. In the early 1970s and early 1980s, almost Thai
guest workers were male as most of jobs offered were in
construction and mechanical engineering. Female workers
accounted for only 6.4% of total labour export in 1986, but
increased to 12.7%, that is up by two times, in 1988. In
the early 1990s, due to a big demand in female labour in
service and entertainment industries in East Asia, the
proportion of Thai female guest workers rose to 20.2% and
in certain countries and territories they did surpass their
male counterparts in number. That is the case in Hongkong
(96%), South Korea (70.2%) and Germany (63.1%). Yet, the
overall ratio between Thai male and female guest workers in
the 1990s was 10:1.
Thai Labour Recruitment Operation
According to the Law on Labour and Employment issued by
Thailand’s
Government
in
1985,
licensed
private
organizations together with state agencies are permitted to
recruit migrant workers. So far, besides a number of state
agencies, 248 Thai private companies are engaged in this
field of business and have proved much more efficient than
state agencies, particularly in the exploitation of foreign
labour markets. Because of its importance for economic
development, since 1977, labour export has been regarded as
one of the goals of the successive 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th five
- year plan. At the same time, policies and measures have
also been worked out and implemented to promote the
efficiency of labour export. In particular, following the
financial and monetary crisis in the region, the Thai
Government has adopted flexible measures to encourage
labour export such as easy loans, reducing various fees and
charges and simplifying administrative procedures.
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Summary of findings
Impacts of Emigration on Thai Socio- Economic Development
It is no doubt that there is an intimate relationship
between socio-economic development and international labour
immigration,
in
general,
and
labour
emigration,
in
particular. This influenced reciprocal relationship has
been put on international agendas for years. Based on many
previous studies, there are many arguments pointing to the
impacts of labour emigration on the development of a
country, eiher origin or host. In the case of a country of
origin or a labour-exporting country, commonly accepted
views include the following:
first, labour emigration
plays an important role in relieving local pressures of a
growing population on agricultural sector as well as in
making less the pressures of increasing unemployment and
underemployment rates caused by the economic recession and
other
unexpected
reasons;
second,
labour
emigration
contributes to the socio-economic welfare of the country
significantly through the remittances sent back by emigrant
workers; and third, labour emigration helps improve skills
and gained experiences of workers themselves after working
abroad. However, in term of macroeconomic contributions,
contrasting ideas have been offered. It is said that
contribution of labour outflows is insignificant in term of
evaluation by contributed percentages in country’s GDP,
private consumption expenditures, or gross domestic fixed
capital formation. Meanwhile, apart from the positive
contributions
mentioned,
negative
impacts
of
labour
exporting to the country’s socio and cultural development
have been recognized and identified either in micro or
macro levels.
* Regarding economic sense
- Labour emigration from Thailand helps in acquisition of
scarce
foreign
exchange
through
remittances.
The
remittances from Thai out-migrants led to increased foreign
exchange for the country. It also helped to fill the trade
gap and reduce the current account deficit (17% in the late
1980s and 48% in 1987) and contribute to the country’s
total export value (4% for 1989-1991).
- Labour emigration helps to relieve unemployment and
underemployment of Thai workers. In term of reducing
unemployment rate, there are examples to prove the positive
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Labour Emigration from Thailand: Past and Prospects
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impacts of Thai labour emigration. Labour export promoting
policies have helped Thai Government in solving the high
pressure of labour surplus, especially the period since
mid- 1970s, after Vietnam War came to and end as well as
during and after the world economic down turn in mid1980s. The same was the case at the time of financial
crisis
in
the
mid-1997.
In
term
of
creating
job
opportunities, as many returned workers have a dream of
self- employment by setting up their own small businesses,
it has resulted in the creation of local employment
opportunities within their homelands. This activity, one
way
or
another,
contributed
to
the
reduction
of
unemployment and underemployment rates in the rural areas.
It also lessens the pressure from labour surplus, a
condition where numerous workers head from rural to urban
areas to look for jobs.
Labour emigration contributes to village economy, helps
increase national income per capita and consequently
increase in rates of savings and investment. As labour
emigration leads to increase in income of migrant’s family,
this results in the increase in consumption which leads to
the increase in consumption tax revenue for government and
the provision of public good for the economy. According to
the Household Socio-Economic Survey, National Statistical
Office 1999, the annual growth rate of per capita household
income increases by periods. It was 2.5% for the period of
1981-1986; 8.8% in 1986-1988; then increased to 12.7% in
two years, 1988-1990. And it reached its peak at the rate
of 18.8% during 1990-1992. Along with the increase of
household income, the poverty rates in Thailand declined
steadily from 32.6% of the population in 1988 (representing
17.9 million people) to 11.4% in 1996 (6.8 million people),
three times lower within 9 years, and then a bit increased
again to 12.9
% in 1998 (7.9 million people) due to the
consequences of the crisis. However, it is very difficult
to determine the actual impact of the remittances to the
household income in quantity but a significant proportion
could be estimated.
- Labour emigration helps improve the skills of Thai
workers. More than half of semi-skilled and skilled Thai
workers who return after working abroad said that they have
learned much from working abroad and that they were willing
to apply what they have learned in their jobs at home upon
their return. For the “special” skilled Thai workers who
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Labour Emigration from Thailand: Past and Prospects
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extended visas for job contract after graduation abroad,
the benefit from skills learnt abroad is much higher.
However, impacts of Thai labour emigration on the economy
are not only positive, but also negative. There are both
short- and long- term impacts which include shortage of
labourers for domestic employments especially farming
employments, the decline of labour competitiveness in the
labour markets as well as troubles in finance faced by
emigrant workers, among others. The negative impacts of
labour emigration from Thailand can be accounted as
follows:
Remittances have not been properly saved and utilized
for wise investment. This problem may lead to a less
effective contribution of this capital source to the
economic development as a whole. Remittances in Thailand
are used mainly for consumption rather than investment, a
situation that may favor imported goods and dissipate the
foreign exchange earned. Likewise, increase in consumer
goods import leads to decrease in domestic production and
to increase in trade deficit of the country. No savings and
investment in business for long term may lead the workers
to revert back to the former bad economic situations and
end up contributing nothing to the development of economic
development.
Labour emigration could widen further income inequality
between the poor and the non- poor.
Since the late half of the 1980s, the income inequality
increased very rapidly. Not accounting other factors such
as
export-orientation
policies,
the
economic
growth
rapidly, etc, the increased income inequality was partly
caused by the wage differentials between Thailand and other
countries where Thai labour have been exported. The much
lower wages in Thailand compared to that in other countries
was due to cheap labour policy in Thailand. So, while the
poor who leave for job overseas can have high level of
earnings, the poor who stay in the country just receive the
low wages for similar jobs. As consequences, income
inequality will increase accompanying the increase in a
number of emigrant workers.
- Unskilled labour emigration from Thailand may lead to the
lower and lower quality of Thai labourforce for the time
being and bad effects on human resource development (HDR)
of the country for long term development.
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Due to lack of long-term policies for labour export, most
of Thai emigrants are unskilled labourers. Normally, the
impact of labour emigration on education, in particular,
and in HRD, in general, would be positive if the country
would sent a large number of skilled workers abroad.
Unfortunately, Thailand is not really enjoying the benefit
from the skilled labour emigration since most of the Thai
workers going abroad are unskilled. Due to language
limitation and the desire to make as much money by any
means at the soonest time possible, Thai workers tend to do
manual labour that do not require learning or
improving
their skills. De-skilling of workers is also another
problem that needs to be addressed. Higher remuneration
abroad is the main driving power in encouraging Thai
workers to accept job conditions that they would not
otherwise accept. In short, in long- term perspective, outmigrant workers neither gain any significant development
nor growth, either in term of technical know-how or manual
skills.
According to the conclusion of Skeldom (1992: 54),
emigration
and
remittances
almost
certainly
produce
improvements at individual, family, community and national
levels but they are unlikely to be the sole or even the
major cause of development. This idea also agrees with the
idea of Stahl and Haibid, (1991:177) who pointed out that
labour emigration has, on the whole, provided substantially
more benefits than costs to labour sending countries,
although this does not mean that it will stimulate
development.
For
remittances
in
general,
unequivocal
conclusions on their role in economy development of a
labour exporting country have not been reached yet. This is
also true in the case of Thailand.
It can be said that in economic sense, labour emigration
has positive impacts, increasing the wealth of Thai people
and contributing to the development of the country economy
by any chances. However, as mentioned earlier, the negative
impacts come from the other side of the issue. The ways in
which Thai people spend their remittances are not always
optimal in term of the long-term development of the economy
in the sense that purchasing consumer goods may not create
as many benefits as investing in a child’s education. Also,
the quality of the labour force would decline due to outmovement of large number of unskilled worker who did not
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Labour Emigration from Thailand: Past and Prospects
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benefit
from
development.
long
term
policies
on
human
resource
* From the socio- cultural point of view
The consequences of Thai labour emigration must not be seen
only from economic points of view. There are profound
social and cultural implications too.
The impacts of
labour emigration on social structure in Thailand are
significant but reveal themselves less obviously than the
economic impacts. The social-cultural impacts of labour
emigration depend on many factors, for example people’s
viewpoints, socio-economic situation of each development
stages, the emigrant workers background, etc, ... That‘s
why the clear-cut analysis for answers on this problem have
not been given yet.
On the side of emigrant workers themselves, in term of
social status, the impacts are shown through the enhanced
prestige and social acceptance. It can be understood
implicitly that the wealth created by earnings from
emigration is the most important factor that makes returned
workers more respectable. In addition, knowledge and
experiences gained while abroad are also factors that play
a role to make returned workers more self- confident in
society. However, to understand deeply the impact of labour
emigration on social status in rural areas, there is a
need
to
understand
the
social
context
in
a
more
comprehensive terms.
With regards to cultural aspect, values or worldviews of
Thai workers have been changed -- toward more modern and
civilized life than before working abroad. Most of them
became open-minded people, more active, less lazy and dress
neatly. These are the indirect impact of emigration that
made changes in the behavior of emigrant workers. On the
side of Thai society, social welfare has been improved
significantly especially in the poor areas. It is very
important to recognize that labour emigration has led to
improvement in the living conditions of people in remote
areas, in particular, and regional welfare, in general.
This is what the national government has failed to
accomplish with its National social economic development
plans. In addition, positive “imported cultural values”
have been imbibed and these helped increase the level of
‘internationalization’ of Thai people with reference to
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Labour Emigration from Thailand: Past and Prospects
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adoption/adaptation of modern life style and modern work
ethic. This will help Thai society integrate more easily
to the global economy.
Other negative socio-cultural impacts of labour emigration
include, but not limited to, the following:
breakdown of
families; changes in social and family roles between men
and women; changes in thought and behavior patterns in
“Village society”; exploitation and abuse of
emigrant
workers which may lead not only to bad economic situations
but also to serious mental problems; and unfavorable
attitude towards emigration and “sex” employment abroad.
Beside these above mentioned problems, the time lost as one
tries to re-integrate into the home country society after
working abroad for a while has also affected emigrant
workers upon returning home. They do need time to re-adjust
themselves to match the changing working environment and
new careers since most of them come back from the more
advanced societies. Actually, at the center of analysis of
emigration is cost-benefit consideration that will lead to
right policy on it. This has to be reviewed and evaluated
carefully by Thai government. Even if temporary labour
emigration is considered to give more benefits than the
costs it entailed in general, there is a need to look more
closely into the situation.
Pending- questions
In some senses, it cannot be denied the successes and
benefits that Thailand has gained and enjoyed from the
labour emigration process over the past three decades.
However, there remain some pending questions that have to
be addressed. These are as follows:
- There is only one law governing on labour emigration as a
whole.
-
The lack of human resource development policy for long –
term development of Thai human capital.
-
Governmental organizations play an inactive role in labour
export recruitment system: this includes a series of
problems such as inactive leading role; red tape; the weak
enforcement of Law and regulations; asynchronous cooperations between functioning organizations.
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-
There are some limitations on right protection for Thai
workers abroad.
-
The lack of knowledge and concern on the important role of
social networks in promoting and driving the labour
emigration development.
-
Lack of policies and solutions to make use the remittances
thoroughly in the process of economic development.
-
Concerns on female emigration
impacts of labour emigration
and
cultural
and
social
The link between labour emigrations with these pending
questions is a “cause – effect” relation. Increasing Thai
labour emigration caused the labour shortage phenomenon in
Thailand. This, in turn, resulted in the increasing foreign
worker number inflows. Then, along with the new waves, the
re-emigration of Thai labour also appears increasingly due to
the shortage of employment occupied by foreign workers. It
seems that the Thai government now is confused in solving the
causes and effects circle of migrants in to Thailand and
emigrant out of Thailand. All in all, what was mentioned
about pending questions focus on finding the proper solutions
to the questions of how can the government make most use of
labour emigration to optimize its benefit to the social and
economic development of the country.
Prospects of Thai labour emigration
What will be the patterns of labour emigration from Thailand
in coming years? To answer this question with any degree of
certainty, it would require knowledge of many factors
including social- economic developments that are likely to
happen not only within Thailand but also in the region. While
no one can be certain, based on the development of labour
emigration over the past three decades and given the context
of Thai economic development as a whole, I feel relatively
confident in making the following predictions.
-
Increase in number of Thai labour emigrants and decrease in
emigration
selectivity. Labour emigration from Thailand
grew rapidly in the 1970s and 1980s up to now and it has
shown an enormous potential for further expansion in term
of number emigrants in coming years. The reasons for this
lie on some influential factors both external and internal.
For the external situation, higher levels of migration will
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Labour Emigration from Thailand: Past and Prospects
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surely happen because of increase in concentration of
economic development in the global economy, the interdependence between economies within the regions, and the
co-operations between regions in the world economy as a
whole. For the internal situation, some main reasons have
been taken into account. Although, it is not so clear-cut a
picture, labour export has been understood as one of the
favour policies for the development of Thai economy since
early 1970s.
It has been used not only as an effective
solution for economic development to increase the foreign
exchange and to make less the pressure of unemployment
rates, but also as a speedy and timely response measures in
the difficulties of economic situation of the economy.
For all the reasons mentioned above, it is no doubt to say
that there will be an increase in the number of Thai labour
emigrants from now to, at least, the first half of the next
decade. As calculated, the average annual growth rate in
term of number emigrants is around 14% during the past ten
years, 1991-2001. And as forecasted, this rate will
continue in the next ten years with an insignificant
fluctuation.
-
Unskilled and semi-skilled contract emigrant workers are
still the main types of Thai labour emigration and the
number of emigrant workers originated from cities will not
be expected to rise. Except the Philippines, a labour
exporting country who has set up long term policies for
labour export activities by improving exported labour
quality, exported unskilled labourers is a common feature
shared by most of labour exporting countries in the region
such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. It can
be predicted that, until the end of this decade and it may
extent to the first half of the next decade, temporary
labour emigration in form of unskilled and semi-skilled
labour contract workers from Thailand will still be
dominant.
Although, improving the quality of the labour force, by
increasing the number of skilled workers through supported
policies and measures, was set up as one of the development
targets in the 8th five-year national socio economic
development plan (1997-2001), it will take times to produce
skilled labour whose number are enough to supply both domestic
and export demands.
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Despite an increase in number of emigrant workers who
originated from urban areas, the number of emigrant workers
who originated from the poor areas in the countrysides will
steadily remain large.
-
Countries in East and Southeast Asia are still the main
destinations for Thai emigrant workers. Today, most Asian
migration discussions refer to “labour immigration within
Asia” as workers move from one Asian nation to another.
Asia includes some of the world’s economic superpowers like
Japan,
and
the
world’s
second
leading
country
of
emigration- the Philippines- setting the stage for an
apparent match between labour demand and supply. From the
view point of Thailand, there are some factors to consider
in weighing the accuracy of this prediction. First, we can
see the number of Thai emigrant workers to the countries
within the region has increased rapidly for years,
especially since the early 1990s. This rising trend depends
mainly on the demands for labour importing from these
markets. As discussed, for their economic development in
the long-term and to overcome economic recession in the
short-term, demands for foreign labourer import will keep
increasing. Second, with the same salary and working
conditions in other destinations in other regions outside
of Asia, the countries within East and Southeast Asia
region will be the best choices for Thai workers to go for
jobs since the proximity, socio- cultural similarity as
well as customs and life style agreeing between Thailand
and these countries. It does not account the amount of
savings
by
not
having
to
spend
on
long
distance
transportations. Thai workers could also enjoy other
intangible benefits. By going outside country for works in
the countries within the region, the relations between Thai
emigrants with their families will not be interrupted for
long time; they have chances to visit their homes during
work breaks, even for short period of time.
To live and
work in a society where it is not so strange for them in
term of culture and life style, they will feel more
confident than living in other Western countries. And the
very important thing is that it will be easier and more
convenient for them to remit their earnings back home.
As Martin (1996) believes that all factors- demographic
pressures, economic and political- in both international and
national levels, will make no changes in the trend of
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Labour Emigration from Thailand: Past and Prospects
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destinations for labour emigration
Thailand is not an exception.
within
Asia,
that
of
- Thai emigrant workers tend to be younger and more and more
female will be involved. Although, the main characters of Thai
labour emigration seem to have been kept the same as what
happened in the past, some features of Thai labour outflows
will be changed. We can see a reduction in the age
concentration of emigrant workers. Thai emigrant workers tend
to be younger than those in the past. We can also expect to
see rise in female emigration to meet the rising demand of
international labour markets. The economic shifts of labour
importing countries to the service economies will create more
employments for women mainly in service and entertainment
industries. They will be ranged from made, nurse, service
worker, dancer, to seller, teacher, secretary, … and so on.
Event now the number of Thai women who has been working in
small and medium sized enterprises in manufacturing of these
countries are getting bigger and bigger.
In conclusion, there are many reasons to expect more rather
than less labour emigration from Thailand in the first ten
years
of
the
21st
century.
The
reasons
related
to
demographic, economic, social as well as political factors.
Recommendations
Based on the foregoing effort to understand the comprehensive
picture of Thai labour emigration over past three decades,
some recommendations are given bellows:
There should be a review of the Labour law. There is a
need to supplement and amend it to match the new contexts of
national and international socio-economic development.
-
Strengthen the role of governmental organizations in
managing
and
running
the
labour
emigration
activity
effectively.
-
Labour emigration policy should be geared towards human
resource
development
(HRD)
and
other
socio
economic
development policies of the country.
-
As the most obvious benefit of labour emigration to a
labour exporting country is remittances, so the Thai
government policy towards remittance mobilization has to be
paid more attention on.
-
Support policies, regulations, solutions and measures
should be made by government in combination with other
15
Labour Emigration from Thailand: Past and Prospects
Presentation Paper
functioning organizations to drive the labour emigration to
the right development path. Some suggestions are specifed
below:
+ Create income possibilities to reduce income gaps between
people
in
the
potential
destinations
and
emigration
countries. By the way, government could be able to balance
of in and out flows of workers.
+ Create social networks that are emigration-stimulating;
+
Establish and strengthen
importing countries
relation
with
other
labour
In short, for a better future of Thai labour emigration, Thai
government should pay much attention on three main things.
First, to increase the macro economic contribution of labour
emigration, the government should further increase investment
in human capital of the emigrants, in particular, and the
Thai population, in general. Second, try to take the most
advantage from labour export by having strategy to export
skilled labour because the contribution of this kind of
labour to the economy both in short and long term is likely
higher than unskilled labour as what is happening now. And
third, Thai government should establish economic policies to
absorb the bulk of unskilled workers for its own economic
benefit, instead of encouraging them to work oversea.
Conclusion
By studying the labour emigration process from Thailand over
three decades in the context of the East and Southeast Asia,
we can see that the labour emigration movement has some
typical features that should not only be recognized but also
understood.
These features include:
1. Labour emigration is considered as an economic activity
from the viewpoint of economic.
2. Labour emigration is also a social activity from the
viewpoint of sociality.
3. Labour emigration is harmonious combination between
governmental management at macro level, on one hand,
the responsibility of both the organization who is
charged of arranging and sending workers abroad and
responsibility of workers themselves at micro level, on
other hand.
16
the
and
in
the
the
Labour Emigration from Thailand: Past and Prospects
Presentation Paper
4. Labour emigration has been happening
competitive international environment.
in
the
tough
-
5. Labour emigration is a changeable activity
For all common features of labour emigration above mentioned, each labour sending country within the region
has to have the proper policies and specific solutions to
manage the labour emigration activity. However, some
suggestions will be given below in a form of guidelines to
create
sound
policies
for
a
more
effective
labour
emigration in the future. The given suggestions are:
*
Labour
sending
economies
should
consider
labour
emigration activity as a strategic and long-term issue
since it does not only influence the socio- economic
development of these countries but also plays the key role
in the human resource development of the country as a
whole.
* Labour emigration activity should be developed in the
diversified direction.
* The responsibilities of parties who take part in the
labour emigration activity should be strengthened for a
healthy social- economic relation and balance in benefit
sharing between parties.
* Labour emigration and human resource development are a
cause and effect relation in the context of the country’s
socio-economic development.
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