ဖော်ပြချက်/အကြောင်းအရာ:
Executive Summary:
"In the course of cross-border migration from Myanmar, many who are
involved in the migration process such as migrants, their families, money
lenders, brokers, transnational money transferors, etc., intentionally or unintentionally
maintain the status of illegality. However, with the objective to
negotiate their own way into the new livelihood space to secure their share
of development through migration, they see their exercises in maintaining
illegality as licit behavior, which is considered legitimate, given the social
context in which they live. The gap between what is considered illegal by
the state and as illicit by the people gets wider. It is easy for those who are
involved in the migration process to define the thin line between illegal and
illicit behavior – from their own social perception – which can never be identified
or recognized by the existing legal system in any country.
Strong social connections and networks of some ethnic groups that have
been in existence for a long time between Myanmar and its neighboring countries
have fueled cross-border human mobility in both directions, regardless
of legal border restrictions. Migration is often seen by the countries of
destination as a threat to national security and by the country of origin as
a problem to be solved. These negative perceptions got worse when crossborder
migration became more dynamic, taking place in various informal/
illegal forms. Most studies attempted to highlight push and pull factors of
this dynamic cross-border migration from Myanmar, as well as the living
and working conditions of Myanmar migrants living abroad and their remittances.
However, there are very few studies that shed light on the course
of cross-border migration from Myanmar from the view of migrants, their
families and their home community, and its implications on them.
Millions of Myanmar migrants are working under undesirable and vulnerable
conditions in foreign countries far away from their families. Most of
them got into such situations voluntarily, in order to improve the livelihood
of their families, and to provide education and health care for their children at
home. Although most of them are illegal migrant workers, they are far from
being criminals. They are making important sacrifices and live ?borrowed
lives? in order to send money back home to help their families. They are just
ordinary people trying to make ends meet, and for their extraordinary sacrifices,
they are considered heroes by their families.
Most people in the countries of destination normally hear a single story
about illegal migrant workers. There are endless stories of illegal migrants
portraying them as people who are sneaking across the border, stealing
the jobs of local people, committing crimes, etc. Most people have been so
immersed with negative media coverage that migrants have become one
thing in their mind, the bad guys. It may not be fair if the bad behavior of few
unscrupulous illegal migrants is considered representative of the millions
of them working under very hard conditions, simply to provide bread and
butter for their families back home and contributing to increased production
and economic development in the country of destination.
Although the acts of professional traffickers – who are committing serious
crimes of human trafficking across borders that have a series of negative
social impacts, not only on trafficked victims, but also on the families of those
victims – are perceived as illicit, the acts of local brokers who facilitate voluntary
cross-border migration of ordinary people (exploring job opportunities
across the border) at a reasonable fee, and finding appropriate jobs for them
(through their social connections in the country of destination), are not considered
illicit by most local people. Far from being thought of as criminals,
their services create win-win situations and are considered essential, and
their actions – that may have flouted the state?s rules and regulations – cause
no victims.
This paper highlights the perception of each and everyone involved in the
course of cross-border migration from Myanmar in each step they, internationally
or unintentionally, maintain the status of illegality. It also attempts
to identify the implications of cross-border migration on migrants? families
and their community in the country of origin. Interviews and questionnaire
surveys conducted in different projects in 2008 and 2009 in different places in
Myanmar and neighboring countries, coupled with qualitative and quantitative
analyses, attempt to enhance the reliability and representativeness of the
findings in this paper."
ရင်းမြစ်:
Institute for Security and Development Policy (Sweden)
Date of Publication:
2009-12-00
Date of entry:
2011-06-01
Grouping:
- Individual Documents
အကြောင်းအရာ/အမျိုးအစား:
Language:
English
မှတ်တမ်း:
ပုံစံ:
pdf
အရွယ်အစား:
1.22 MB