Bangkok – The soaring Burmese currency, at the money exchange market, is hitting the Mon community globally where many migrant workers are reluctant to send money home.
The Burmese Kyat in the market today is valued at 30.5 Kyat to one Thai Baht, 860 Kyat to the Canadian dollar and 1050 Kyat to the US dollar according to money exchange groups in Bangkok.
"The economic downturn has already hit Burma (Mon State). I was asked by my family to send some money home. But with this low rate and my job not paying well, I am not able to do it now. Two months ago the rate was 38 Kyat for 1 Baht," said Zaw Nai from Ye who works in the fishing industry, Maharchai.
Most family members of migrant workers in Mon State are local farmers and they have been asked to help their parents back home due to the low price of betel nut and rubber in Mon State. In Ye Township, betel nut farmers are earning less than 8 Kyat per nut and one pound of rubber is about 800 kyat.
A money exchanger said the soaring value of the Kyat has slowed down their business and fewer workers are able to send money. "They don't want to exchange their Thai Baht, Rangit and the dollar like before," said Chan Ong from Bangkok.
"We need some money to carry on with our business. I put up my farm up for sale over two months ago and still there is no buyer," said Nai Soe, a small business owner from Ye. "We heard that the Kyat is getting stronger but we earn less and all commodity prices are not cheap," he added. The consumers in Ye pay 5000 Kyat for a viss of pork or beef and 6000 Kyat for a viss of chicken.
"Even though the government media has been positively writing about the developing economy in Burma, the business (land and real estate) is stagnant these days and we have no idea when it will be more profitable," said another businessman Nai Win. "Many people want to sell their garden farms or gold, yet there is no buyer out there."
The global economic downturn is also affecting overseas Mon communities in the US, Canada and Europe. Mon students who work part time are hardly saving enough in British Pounds and many are finding themselves out of work.
Others, like Mon workers in the auto industry are being laid off according to sources from Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA. Fort Wayne has the largest overseas Mon Community in exile.
In Thailand's Three Pagodas Pass area, many migrant workers are crossing to the border heading home from the Kingdom. "Right now, the police
raid migrant workers and the wages for rubber plantation workers are low. It is not a good situation, but they have no choice, so they must go back. These people however will return to Thailand after their village festival or Songrant New Year. There is no job back home," commented Nai Ong, a resident of Waengka, Mon village.
