Crossing the Border—Into Thailand

11.21.06

What’s in that bowl of Thai shrimp curry? The sweat and sorrow of migrants. Not far from Bangkok is a small province called Samutsakorn, home to an estimated 200,000 laborers from Burma. They take a bus to Thailand (many illegally), and cross the border as economic immigrants who dream of a steady job. Their goals: to eat, to survive, to live a better life. Sometimes they pay an agent 8,000 baht (about $215) to find them work. What they get is a job in seafood processing. They stand for hours, arms deep in piles of raw shrimp or buckets of liquid chemicals. Their backs ache, their skin grows infected with scabies and eczema. They earn a few dollars and work up to 16 hours a day. Many sleep 10 to a room for no more than a few hours each day. If they don’t have work permits or citizenship papers, their children are often barred from Thai schools.

Some are grateful to have a job. But in time, many harbor dreams of returning to Burma, where their relatives remain. Yet they haven’t the money, and they find themselves in the morass of an industry that needs their cheap labor and a country that often neglects their rights and those of their Thailand-born children. For these reasons, Raks Thai Foundation is fighting for Samutsakorn migrants. This non-profit development group runs classes for migrant children and also provides legal services and information on health care, including HIV prevention.

Meanwhile, the shrimp keep coming, and Thailand keeps eating.

Subscribe to Gourmet