The survey findings suggest that there is a significant gap in the support system for migrants, particularly for those undocumented. The implications are far-reaching, necessitating policy interventions that can provide more comprehensive legal, informational, and financial support mechanisms. This chapter will summarise the key challenges that migrants face and provide suggestions on how to address them.

Intervention 1: Flexible and demand-responsive visa options

Context

Currently, Thailand is home to an estimated 5 million migrants, but only 1.9 million hold the required documentation. With Myanmar experiencing an economic downturn, it is anticipated that even more migrants from the country will head to Thailand. Adding to this complexity, a new law in Myanmar now requires workers migrating through the MOU process to send back 25 percent of their wages using the Central Bank of Myanmar (CBM) exchange rate. This significant financial implication may deter many from legal migration via the MOU process, potentially leading to an increase in irregular migration.

Thailand faces a unique economic situation characterised by low unemployment rates, an ageing population, and fluctuating demand for labour in various sectors and seasons. During periods of high tourism or agricultural harvesting, there is a notable surge in the demand for seasonal or temporary workers. Similarly, the construction industry frequently requires labour for short-term projects. Given these dynamics, there is a clear imperative for Thailand to develop flexible legal working options that can swiftly respond to the needs of the private sector.

From an economic standpoint, not only would such flexibility serve to fill labour gaps effectively, but it would also likely improve worker welfare by offering more regulated and secure forms of employment.

Research Findings

Survey findings and KIIs underscore the necessity for a more flexible and efficient legal framework for migrant workers in Thailand:

• Labour Market Mismatch: The current legal framework, which includes short-term border visas, often does not address the labour demands in Thailand's central provinces, particularly in the agricultural and construction sectors. There exists a gap between demand for labour and the legal means for migrants to fill these roles.

• Demand for labour: There are often significant surges in labour demand by employers that often goes unmet and leads to employers taking additional risks to hire undocumented migrants to fill these gaps. This can put migrants at risk of arrest or deportation whilst the employer is often subject to a fine.

• Administrative Hurdles and Status Instability: Migrants frequently transition between documented and undocumented status as they move between jobs or regions. This volatility is generally caused by administrative inefficiencies rather than unlawful actions by the migrants themselves. As a result, these individuals face reduced access to essential services like healthcare and education and may also risk deportation.

• Family Considerations: The MOU migration process does not provide a legal channel for dependents, such as children, to accompany working parents. This either incentivises irregular family migration or forces parents to leave their children behind in Myanmar, neither of which is a desirable outcome.

• Lack of information and available support: 95 percent of migrants relied on their family and friends for information about migration whilst 55 percent used friends or family to migrate.

• Vulnerability and Exploitation: Despite significant progress by Thailand in this regard, the deteriorating situation in Myanmar means that migrants are at an increased risk of exploitation or abuse during the migration process. More regulated channels would serve as a safeguard against such vulnerabilities.

As the political and economic situation continues to deteriorate in Myanmar, Thailand can anticipate an ongoing influx of labour migrants. Ensuring that there are regulated and legal channels that are sensitive to both market demands, and humanitarian considerations will be crucial. By doing so, Thailand stands not only to deter irregular migration but also to channel the labour force in a manner that is mutually beneficial. Specifically, a responsive legal framework can help Thailand meet its fluctuating labour needs in key sectors such as agriculture, construction, and tourism. In this way, the country can capitalise on these human resources for its own economic development whilst also offering Myanmar migrants a safer and more stable way of life.

In summary, creating more flexible and responsive visa options is not merely an administrative change; it is a comprehensive solution that could bring significant economic and social benefits to both Thailand and the migrant population.

The following steps will be useful:

1. Temporary and Seasonal Visas: Extend the geographic scope of temporary and seasonal visas to include central provinces to fulfil the unmet labour demand in agriculture and construction sectors. Such an expansion could facilitate migrants in finding agricultural roles in Myanmar and construction roles in Thailand, depending on the season, for example, thereby reducing unemployment in both countries. To ensure this is implemented successfully, special provisions in healthcare and education must be established. For example, a special health insurance scheme could be introduced for these migrant workers. Also, children of temporary workers should be provided access to education. However, if migrants can confidently engage in temporary work in Thailand while maintaining their lives in Myanmar, this may reduce the need for family migration.

2. Private Sector Consultations: To ensure that new visa and work permit options align with private sector needs, consultations should be held with provincial government representatives and business leaders. These consultations will aim to gauge the seasonal and sector-specific demands for migrant labour, ensuring that the types of visas offered match labour market needs.

3. Develop informational materials: Work with private sector organizations to develop information materials that provide regular update to migrants with employment opportunities in Thailand and clearly state what is required for migrants to work in these roles, including the recruitment and visa process. By working with the private sector to provide information on the migration process and advertise jobs will ensure that labour demand is filled and reduce the risk of employers having to employ undocumented labour during times of high demand. This is particularly important in central provinces that do not use border visas and industries, such as agriculture, construction, or hospitality, which have varying demands for labour.

4. Simplify and reduce costs of documentation: Streamline the documentation required for visa and work permit applications. For example, on 23 June 2023, Thailand’s Ministry of Labour and Cambodia’s Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training agreed on using an online platform to serve MOU migrant workers from Cambodia who have completed their four years of employment in Thailand to process their documents. Expanding online platforms for applying for visas and work permits, reducing the number of documents required, and allowing private sector organizations to advertise jobs on this platform would streamline the process and ensure that labour demand is more efficiently met.

5. NV and cabinet resolution employment: The MWG has highlighted several issues with this process, namely the unpredictability, limited transparency, and limited long-term planning. The MWG also described the legal process to solve several of these issues. This involves expanding the coverage of one-stop services for workers to register, increasing awareness and information on the process, and improving accessibility to this type of visa will encourage uptake and ensure migrants are properly documented.

By following a multi-faceted approach like this, Thailand could create a more flexible, efficient, and humane immigration system that serves both its economic interests and the welfare of migrants.

Intervention 2: Healthcare Access and Mental Health Support

Context

Access to healthcare is a complex issue that varies greatly between documented and undocumented migrants. For those who are documented, the healthcare system in Thailand offers access comparable to that of Thai citizens. However, undocumented migrants face considerable barriers to obtaining essential healthcare services. One significant issue for both documented and undocumented migrants is the geographic limitations imposed on migrants, who are often registered at a specific hospital, yet find employment in different provinces. This geographic misalignment poses a significant challenge to healthcare access, requiring them to travel long distances or navigate complicated administrative processes to get the medical attention they need.

In addition to these logistical issues, the current socioeconomic and political climate in Myanmar is escalating the need for special healthcare provisions, particularly mental health support. The rapidly deteriorating economic conditions and increasing conflict have led to forced and stress-driven migration patterns. These factors place substantial mental strain on migrants, who often find themselves in situations where their physical and mental wellbeing is compromised. Furthermore, the precarious legal standing of undocumented migrants intensifies these strains, exposing them to a heightened risk of exploitation, abuse, and legal repercussions. All these factors combined underline the urgent need to rethink how healthcare accessibility and mental health support are provided to Myanmar migrants in Thailand.

Research Findings

Whilst 54 percent of documented migrants used public hospitals, only 12 percent of undocumented migrants did the same. A staggering 68 percent of undocumented migrants had not used any healthcare services at all, as compared to 39 percent of documented migrants. These statistics suggest that while the quality of healthcare services in Thailand may be high, logistical barriers such as distance to healthcare facilities and a lack of proper documentation significantly hamper healthcare access for migrants. This lack of access also impacts their children, potentially leading to long-term health issues due to inadequate healthcare coverage.

In this survey undocumented migrants reported higher levels of anxiety and persistent sadness, likely fuelled by their vulnerable legal status, fear of deportation, and separation from their families. The study also highlights the disparities in perceptions of workplace fairness between documented and undocumented migrants. Despite these challenges, both groups value the support of friends and family above all else, indicating the crucial role of social networks in their lives. This emphasises the need for targeted mental health services and social support structures to help mitigate these concerns, especially for the most vulnerable undocumented migrants.

One of the key challenges for both accessing healthcare remains documentation. However, KIIs also revealed that awareness of provisions such as hospital-specific insurance policies, which can cost as little as THB 40 ($1.20) per month, was limited. Therefore, promoting availability and awareness of insurance packages remains an option.

The following steps could be taken for improving general health care access:.

1. Geographic Flexibility: Revise the current hospital registration system to allow migrants to access healthcare services in any hospital or clinic, regardless of the province they are registered in. This would mean that migrants can receive care at any nearby hospital or clinic through their social security benefits without having to travel to the hospital at which they are registered. This can be facilitated through a centralised healthcare database or through healthcare cards that can be presented at any public hospital in return for care.

2. Promote the use of hospital or clinic insurance policies: Many hospitals or clinics in Thailand offer specific insurance policies for very low monthly costs. These allow for greater flexibility and have the potential to be even expanded to migrants without proper documentation. The key barrier to uptake of these is the lack of awareness that they exist. By providing information when migrants are entering Thailand that cheap and flexible health insurance exists whilst highlighting the benefit of this would massively encourage uptake. Secondly, ensuring more hospitals offer this sort of insurance would be beneficial.

The mental health of migrants remains a significant challenge and will impact productivity. Targeted support and measures to address this should be a key priority. To implement a targeted mental health approach, the following steps should be taken:

1. Understand the issues: the first step in designing targeted mental health support should be an initial assessment of the issues and identifying the needs. The results here show that mental health issues are prominent among migrant workers, and they can lead to persistent sadness and difficulty concentrating at work. Obtaining a clearer picture of the challenges through engagement with community leaders, healthcare professionals, social workers, and employers familiar with migrant mental health issues is necessary to design a support framework.

2. Service design: The next step would be to develop mental health interventions that are culturally sensitive and tailored to the experiences of migrants, such as programs that address trauma related to forced migration, conflict, and separation from family. This could involve developing counselling services or informational materials and ensuring these are accessible. This could involve utilising digital health platforms to deliver these services. Ensuring they are in languages understood by migrants is important so the nuances of how they are feeling is properly accounted for.

3. Accessible Locations: Set up mental health service points in locations that are easily accessible to migrants, such as community centres, religious places, and even work sites if feasible. These would allow migrants to get information related to mental health issues and discuss with trained counsellors.

4. Provide training and capacity building: Provide training and capacity building to migrant processing centres, immigration officers, employers, and other public staff who deal with migrants to ensure they are equipped with the knowledge to identify mental health issues and are confident to engage with migrants to point them in the direction of support services. Initially, this could be targeted in border zones and in industries where wages tend to be lower, such as agriculture.

5. Community engagement and education: Conduct workshops and seminars aimed at enhancing mental health literacy among migrants, with a focus on dispelling associated stigmas. Given that migrants frequently seek support from family and friends when grappling with challenges, equipping them with accurate knowledge and fostering sensitivity in discussions around mental health will optimise this existing support network.

By taking a structured, multi-step approach to developing and implementing targeted mental health services, the Thai government can more effectively meet the complex mental health needs of the migrant population. Effectively solving mental health issues will improve concentration and productivity of the workforce.

Intervention 3: Improve workplace practices

Context

The employment situation for Myanmar migrants in Thailand is a complex mix of opportunity and vulnerability. Concentrated mainly in sectors like construction, agriculture, and hospitality, these workers often find working conditions better compared to their home country. However, gaps in legal protection and inconsistent enforcement create challenges, particularly in under-regulated sectors like agriculture and domestic work. Despite Thai laws aiming to afford equal rights to migrant workers, issues such as deceptive recruitment and wage withholding persist. This highlights the need for targeted policies to improve the employment experiences and legal protections for Myanmar migrants across various sectors in Thailand.

Research Findings

The research findings point to certain important disparities between documented and undocumented Myanmar migrants in Thailand, particularly impacting females in sectors like agriculture, hospitality, and seafood processing. Despite existing labour laws, the study shows that these regulations are not uniformly enforced, resulting in significantly worse conditions for undocumented workers. For example, whilst 75 percent of documented migrants reported no work-related issues, only 41 percent of undocumented migrants could say the same. Furthermore, the study points out that only 20 percent of documented migrants lacked additional employment benefits, whereas this proportion is significantly higher for undocumented migrants at 40 percent and rises to 44 percent for undocumented females. These figures indicate that existing policies may reduce exploitation in some sectors but shift vulnerabilities to less-regulated industries. Most concerning is the near-complete lack of support or assistance reported by almost all migrants, both documented and undocumented, highlighting a critical gap in the existing support infrastructure.

Improving the working conditions for Myanmar migrants in Thailand presents a myriad of economic advantages for Thailand itself. Enhanced working conditions can significantly increase worker productivity, as individuals who are treated fairly and work in conducive environments tend to be more efficient and committed. This heightened productivity can bolster Thailand's industrial and service sectors, leading to increased economic outputs and growth.

To improve working conditions and ensure employers are operating inside the current regulatory framework surrounding conditions, there are several measures needed:

1. Monitoring and accountability: Ensure that employers in sectors that have high proportions of migrant workers, are regularly monitored for compliance with the law. This would require the following steps

• Implement periodic reporting requirements for employers in these sector, to disclose key employment metrics such as wage levels, worker documentation, and working conditions.
• Establish complaint mechanisms for employees where they can anonymously and discretely report instances of labour abuse or poor employment practices.
• Ensuring employees are both aware of this and do not feel as though they are at risk of retribution from their employer if they do complain will be key for ensuring the effectiveness of this. For example, when migrants have to do their regular reports to immigration, there could be the option of reporting any issues in the workplace. However, this would not extend to undocumented migrants. To ensure this recommendation reaches undocumented workers, it might be beneficial to work with CSOs so that migrants can report issues to CSOs working on migrant issues who can then report to the Thai Government. This would add an extra layer of protection to migrants, which would encourage use.
• Encourage independent supply chain audits for companies working in export orientated industries, such as agriculture, seafood processing, fishing, and manufacturing. This would allow independent firms to assess the working conditions of migrant labour in these industries. Working with these firms to create a monitoring framework based on Thai labour regulations would ensure firms are operating within the regulatory framework.
• Develop a robust penalty system for non-compliance, including hefty fines and potential operational suspensions.

2. Improve collective bargaining process: Introduce a legal amendment that allows migrant workers to hold leadership positions within existing trade unions. This change should be accompanied by a mandate that each union must reserve a certain percentage of its leadership roles for migrant worker representatives. This policy could be enacted through a quick legislative change, followed by awareness campaigns to ensure migrants are informed of this new opportunity for representation. Over the longer term, work with CSOs to help them establish migrant specific trade unions to facilitate collective bargaining on working conditions on wages and working conditions. Currently, less than 1 percent of respondents were aware of trade unions, demonstrating their low popularity despite the benefits they can bring.

3. Minimum wage compliance: Workers who earned less than the minimum wage were primarily found in agriculture (26 percent), garment factories (22 percent), and seafood processing (17 percent), whilst 55 percent of those who earned less than the minimum wage were undocumented females. Workers in Tak also often earned less than the minimum wage. Therefore, working with large employers in these sectors in Tak to pilot methods of ensuring minimum wage compliance, for example, by collecting regular data on contract situations and wage levels can be tried and later introduced in other locations.

Intervention 4: Family Unity

Context

The deteriorating security situation in Myanmar, as well as declining educational attainment among children in Myanmar means that more and more families will migrate to Thailand to avail education, healthcare, employment, and safety. Existing legal frameworks in Thailand often make it challenging for migrants to bring their families along, resulting in difficult choices that can have lasting psychological impacts. The fragmentation of families due to migration not only exacerbates the mental and emotional strain on adult migrants but also has long-term implications for the children left behind.

Research Findings

The survey reveals significant insights into family dynamics among Myanmar migrants in Thailand. Of the total sample, 59 percent reported having children. Among these, 37 percent had their children with them in Thailand, with a marked difference between documented and undocumented migrants. Specifically, 43 percent of documented migrants had their children in Thailand, compared to just 30 percent of undocumented males and an even lower 23 percent of undocumented females.

Regarding education, the data shows that a majority of migrants' children are enrolled in public schools, with 86 percent of documented migrants' children and 84 percent of undocumented migrants' children attending. However, there exists a concerning subset of children not in school, particularly among undocumented families. 15 percent of children from undocumented migrant families are not attending school, slightly higher than the 13 percent observed among children from documented families. This underscores the need for targeted educational policies to ensure that all migrant children have access to education.

These research findings illuminate a pressing dichotomy faced by migrant working parents in Thailand: they must navigate conflicting policy frameworks—one aiming to provide universal access to public services like education and healthcare for their children, and another that restricts the entry and stay of migrant children in the country. While the Thai government has taken steps to ensure access to essential services, there remains a discernible gap between policy and its practical implementation. Steps needed would include:

1. Review current migrant labour policy: Undertake a review of MOUs and other visa options for migrant workers to better understand the provisions in these for the migration of dependents. Introduce increased provisions for visa options for dependents of migrant workers.

2. Introduce dependent visas: Provide visa options for the dependents of migrants to facilitate their migration process. This should focus specifically on children and grant provisions for education so that children who migrate to Thailand have access to the education system. Further consultation with CSOs who focus on migrant education should be done to develop a comprehensive plan on how to integrate migrant children into the education system.

3. Flexible schooling policy: The Ministry of Education should ensure that schools, particularly those in areas where migrants are typically found, can flexibly enrol children throughout the year and these children can easily move between schools without breaks in their education if their parents have to switch jobs.

Intervention 5: Gender equality

Context

The gender dynamics among Myanmar migrants in Thailand present a unique set of challenges that intersect with labour and social issues. Officially, females make up slightly less than half of the migrant workforce, but the real numbers are likely higher given the prevalence of undocumented female migrants. Many of these females are the primary breadwinners for their families in Myanmar are engaged in jobs like domestic work and agriculture that often go undocumented due to restrictive migration policies. This invisibility in official statistics exacerbates their vulnerability and marginalisation.

Research findings

The survey reveals certain forms of gender discrimination, lack of support structures, and awareness of workplace policies. Women, and especially undocumented female migrants, face the brunt of workplace harassment, unequal pay, and discrimination, while a majority of migrants believe that not enough support is available for addressing these issues. Additionally, there is a significant knowledge gap concerning company policies on sexual harassment and discrimination, more so among undocumented migrants. These findings underscore the need for policy reform and interventions that are gender sensitive. These can be addressed through:

• Gender sensitisation: Awareness campaigns to educate employers and employees about the importance of gender equality and how to maintain a discrimination-free workplace.

• Incorporate gender into the regulatory framework: Thai law should mandate that companies have a sexual harassment policy in place, aligning with the ILO conventions that Thailand has ratified.

• Gender-specific benefits: Considering the unpaid domestic work and childcare responsibilities often shouldered by women, policies that offer flexible working hours, parental leave, or childcare facilities could help alleviate these burdens.