Impact of Global Economic Crisis on the Employment and Migrant ...

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value. While, the real wage (weighted the nominal value by the headline consumer price index)had a decreasing rate <strong>of</strong> real returns from 90.8 in 1991 to 89.15 in 2006. The drop <strong>of</strong> real valuenoticeably appeared since the economic crisis in the late 1990s.The informal workers, yet their willingness is, in fact, desire to work formally. The workers inthis type have no or less collective bargaining than that <strong>of</strong> employers. In addition, they areexcluded from the minimum wage laws. This group is, mostly the poor. The occupations in thisgroup are, for example, domestic workers, home artisan workers, sales and serviceselementary occupations, agricultural laborers. Therefore, the employers mostly occupy thebargaining power to manipulate their employee’s income and benefits. (Not only are the Thaipoor, but also migrant workers in this category.) They are normally suffered in the poor workingcondition.2) Registered and unregistered migrantsThe foreign workers can be classified into two main types: registered (legal) andunregistered(illegal) migrants. Note that there are both inflow and outflow labor. The number <strong>of</strong>low-skilled immigrant workers (both documented and undocumented workers) is estimated atabout one million workers. Note that this study will not emphasize on the number <strong>of</strong> emigrantbecause the analytical framework focuses on the existing labor in the economy.There are wage gaps between foreigners and locals <strong>of</strong> high skilled and low skilled workers. Itwas found by Voon and Miller (2005) that in 1996, controlling individual factors for example,education, experience, and gender, the migrants from English-speaking countries earn about4% more than local born workers. In contrast, migrants from non-English-speaking countriesearn about 9- 12% less than comparable Australian-born. It is commonly acknowledged thatthe immigrants from English-speaking countries mainly work in the high skilled occupations,while those from non-english speaking counties are normally work in the low skilled jobs. Thisphenomenon is also found in Germany (OECD, 2005).For migrant workers in Thailand, the market behavior is completely different between highskilled and low skilled workers.(1) High skillThe high skilled migrants are easily to obtain the work permit, if they comply with the Working<strong>of</strong> Alien Acts. The coverage <strong>of</strong> the work permit for foreigner is quite broad. Even though themain purposes <strong>of</strong> Working <strong>of</strong> Alien Acts are to employ aliens in case <strong>of</strong> bringing about a largeamount <strong>of</strong> foreign currencies for investment or expenses in the Kingdom, and to generateemployment <strong>of</strong> Thai nationals in a large number. The amount <strong>of</strong> investment is stipulated at onlythree-million Baht investment per person (at about 100,000 USD based on the exchange ratein January 2011), and a number <strong>of</strong> exemption facilitate the high skilled migrants to work in thecountry.
(2) Low skillThe migrants compose <strong>of</strong> registered and unregistered (illegal) persons 9 . The actual totalnumber <strong>of</strong> migrants is impossible to count. Chantavanich, et al (2007) suggest that in 1996, the<strong>of</strong>ficial estimation <strong>of</strong> the overall foreign population is about 1.5-2 million. This number isnormally mentioned in the current literatures and interviews.The private sector demand for cheap labor for their production line, but local Thais were notinterested in the unskilled labor market due to the extension <strong>of</strong> basic education to secondaryschools and their preference to work in the service sector (Chantavanich et al., 2007: 42). Thefirms which employ low skilled locals face the very high turnover rate. Some firms decide topartially hire the immigrant workers, especially from Union <strong>of</strong> Myanmar and Laos.The majority <strong>of</strong> the migrant worker is found in the agricultural sector, followed by domesticwork and construction. The rest disperse in the fishery and fish processing, rice mill, icemaking, mining, transportation and others. Most migrant workers were normally registeredalong their national and Thai border; for example, Burmese migrant workers were registeredalong Thai- Myanmar border.As discussed in the previous section, the work permit is necessary to work in Thailand. Onewith a work permit is under the fair laws to the locals, including minimum wage, LaborProtection Acts. Their working conditions are quite equivalent to the formal employees <strong>of</strong>locals.Yet, the unregistered and low skilled migrants are suffered from the poor working conditions.Most <strong>of</strong> them gains wage less than half <strong>of</strong> Thais working as can be seen in the Table 4.1.Some <strong>of</strong> their employers seize their ID to prevent them to escape. Some do not receive thewage as agreement and they can do nothing to the employers (Chantavanich, et al: 2007).However, the unregistered workers are continuous increase since the minimum wage inThailand is still higher than those in their countries; for instance, 3-5 times to Lao’s minimumwage and close to their countries. 109 There are 2 <strong>of</strong>ficial checkpoint to Thailand; permanent international checkpoint (eg. Mae Sai, Chiang Raiprovince), and trade-check point (eg. Muang district, Mae Sarieng in Mae Hong Son province ). The illegallyentering migrant may enter across the river, sea, local pier, mountain border by foot or other vehicles. They arealso trafficking by trunks.10 Minimum wages. (11,154 Lao kip a day for private sector workers) (ranges from 148 Thai baht to 203 baht perday) Given 0.0039 Baht per 1 Lao kip. Available online:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_<strong>of</strong>_minimum_wages_by_country
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Page 7 and 8: workers. To capture all above affec
Page 9 and 10: The following section defines the i
Page 11 and 12: job seekers with high education pre
Page 13 and 14: Figure 4.1 Framework of</st
Page 15 and 16: political conflict and economic sta
Page 17: The informal workers who work infor
Page 21 and 22: Note: * There are some foreign work
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Page 25 and 26: 4.4 Labour marketLabour is measured
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Page 29 and 30: However, the migrant worker within

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