Migration is one of humanity’s oldest impulses. The first hunter-gatherers left Africa in the dim recesses of time for reasons we can only guess at but probably had to do with improving their lives. Entire modern nations, such as the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand have been built upon successive waves of migration. As in the past, the chance for better lives—whether through a well-founded fear of persecution or a desire to improve one’s economic circumstances—fuels most migration today.
Not all migrants move permanently and not all stories have ended well. Though not well-known, many immigrants to the US during the peak 1880-1920 years did return to their home countries. And migrants, even when they have relocated legally, have been vulnerable to all manner of exploitation. Yet, the perceived benefits outweigh the downsides. How many migrants are there in the world today? A lot, says the International Organization for Migration, which estimates the total at 214 million, or one in every 33 persons alive today.
Myanmar nationals in their millions in recent decades have voted with their feet and moved to neighboring countries or further afield. For many years the country was under military or quasi-military rule, severely economic-mismanaged, and there were few jobs to be had. The choice for many boiled down to stay and starve or leave and get by.
Myanmars have worked in factories, on ships, on farms, as domestic employees and in many other occupations. A case can be made that a significant portion of the economic prosperity achieved in some countries, especially Thailand, has come about as a result of the hard work done by the huge migrant population there, toiling away long hours.
There is something of a shared national experience here linking even the lowliest, most downtrodden day laborer with the likes of Zaw Zaw, one of the country’s wealthiest and most important businessmen. Both are or have been migrants.
Recently though, the negative aspects have come to dominate the news cycle when it come to Myanmar migrants. Twelve Myanmar were found dead floating in the sea near Ranong. They were believed to be migrants seeking work in Thailand and their boat probably capsized.
In Malaysia, which hosts 400,000 Myanmar migrants, one was killed and two others injured when they attacked by a gang or several gangs of youths in Kuala Lumpur. Others, fearing more attacks, have taken sanctuary in a monastery in that city. This provoked concern in Naypyitaw and the Malaysian ambassador to Myanmar was summoned to the Foreign Ministry and asked for a guarantee such attacks would not recur.
There have been many more such incidents over the years. Myanmar’s migrants have faced job insecurity, difficult and sometimes dangerous working conditions and the shifting regulatory frameworks adopted by host countries.
There are reasons to be more optimistic, though. As Myanmar’s own economy improves, fewer people may want to brave the stormy seas and border crossings in search of better livelihoods. Nations currently benefitting from the cheap labor migrants provide may come to recognize it will no longer do to offer extremely low wages and bad conditions if they want to keep the factories humming. And, as ASEAN moves towards its 2015 goal of having an ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), certain groups of workers will benefit from freer mobility. There are already calls to expand free labor mobility and migrant protection beyond what is now envisioned with the AEC.
