As many know, I live in one of the provinces in Cambodia that borders Thailand (specifically to the northwest of Cambodia, called Banteay Meanchey). Banteay Meanchey is above Battambang and usually a stopover for tourists on their way to Siem Reap. Battambang is a popular province for tourists that is filled with rich Khmer art history. Sometimes if you take the bus to connect to Siem Reap, you go through Banteay Meanchey, or also if you go to visit Banteay Chhmar, a temple deemed a UNESCO world heritage site, then you will find yourself in BMC. Other than that, many tourists take the bus from Battambang to Poipet. Poipet is the border city with Thailand, and an international border crossing checkpoint. However, besides the international border checkpoint, there are small border crossings where people go between Cambodia and Thailand, that is not an official border crossing (therefore I do not cross the border there if I go to Thailand). I am just trying to put into perspective where my province is.
Cambodia is a beautiful country with rice fields for miles, kind people, good food, and rich history that includes the famous Angkor Wat temple and also the sad history of the Khmer Rouge. After the Khmer Rouge, families had to start over, rebuilding their homes, their lives, their families, and the economy.
On top of a past economic setback, today, only 20% of students graduate from high school and complete their academic degree (and even a smaller number of students go to university). And so, many people begin working jobs such as fishermen, builders, hairdressers, and sellers (selling snacks, clothes, beauty products -anything). But most of the time, these jobs do not cover the whole cost of living for many families.
Which brings me to today’s topic: the large amount of people who go to Thailand to work as laborers. As mentioned before, many students at my house live with us because they live far away from a high school, or their parents work in Thailand and are unable to watch their kids and make sure they go to school. Over a holiday, I went to visit a rural town of one of the student’s. I saw many people there then, but she told me during the dry season when people do not tend to the rice fields or harvest, the town becomes a ghost town because most people go to Thailand to work as laborers to make money to provide for their families. Similarly, one of the first graders at school came to my desk and my school director talked to her and ask what her mom and dad do for work. She said her mom was a snack seller and that her dad works in Thailand and she hadn’t seen him for several months. Hearing about family members going to work in Thailand is not a one off story. It is common. Even my older host brother used to work in Thailand repairing large trucks, before he decided to move back home because my host sister (his wife) was at the house alone taking care of all the kids.
In 2019, an IOM Migration study estimated that 650,000 Cambodians were working in Thailand. As a quote from the article (attached below) “Most Cambodian migrants in Thailand were relatively poor before they migrated and chose to leave because of better job opportunities and higher wages across the border. A majority now work in relatively low-wage jobs, concentrated in labour-intensive economic sectors including agriculture, construction, fishing and manufacturing.” Especially coming from Battambang, Siem Reap, and Banteay Meanchey, it is common for family members, neighbors, and friends to disappear from a community because they move to Thailand to work. The reality is, sometimes students stop coming to school too because they move to Thailand to help their families work. I recently had one of my 6th graders talk to me about how next year his family wants him to stop studying so he can go to Thailand to work and help support his family. Similarly, my younger host brother has recently not had a desk partner during class, so when I go to teach in his class, I have to be his “Ask and Answer” partner for activities. I asked him where his desk partner was since they haven’t been to school for awhile. He told me that they went to Thailand with their family because their family had to go find work.
Even at my house, I have a student who struggles to read and write in grade 8 because he spent the first couple of years in Thailand because his parents and siblings had to work there. Him being there set him back with learning to read and write Khmer, which continues to negatively affect him in school. His family urges him to stay studying and living at my house so he can go to school, but he has vocalized planning to leave to go to Thailand to work and help provide for his family because of his academic status at school. Within my family, the adopted niece of my host sister just packed up and left last month to go to Thailand to join her husband who works there. She just had a baby a couple months ago and so he went with her to Thailand as well. I remember the day we said goodbye to them before they left, and when I asked when they would return, my host sister said she did not know.
Driving through the rural areas, you will see houses that look nice and new, but many of them are locked up and it looks like no one is home. My host sister told me that the houses are empty because those families are gone to work in Thailand, and they have gone to work there to pay off the debt that they owe for building the house. Some people will stay for years not returning to Cambodia, in order to try and pay off debts to the bank.
All of this is to say, that it is common to hear of people going to Thailand to work. I do not know if it is more common in my province compared to others because my province is one of the border ones, but still it is something important to mention. An important thing that comes from this story, besides the large amount of families that move, is also how this affects child education. Kids who move to Thailand at such a young age miss out on the first couple of years of learning to read and write Khmer. Even students who leave at older ages, they still miss out on continuing their education which could maybe further their career opportunities. I wanted to raise up this topic because it is something that I have observed a lot over the past several months and it is heartbreaking to know people who decide to up and move to find work.
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