Life is tough for children of migrants

[PeteC]

Reading things like this really ruins my day. Although there seems to be hope, the high muckety-mucks who make the rules and implement procedures obviously forget that they were once children. If the opportunity arises for you personally, help kids like this if you can please. Pete

Life is tough for children of migrants

http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opin ... f-migrants

Published: 12/01/2012 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News

Although Chaiyong Hongsa is already 11, he is perfectly happy to be in kindergarten with the toddlers. For him, it is not only where he can learn Thai. It is also where he can have the chance to experience childhood.

"Back home, I didn't have enough to eat and I had to work in the fields raising cows. Here, I can eat until I am full. I can study, and I can play," says Chaiyong, an ethnic Mon boy from Burma.

His kindergarten friend Ongto, who is also 11, nods energetically in agreement.

"I can read Thai now, so I can help my parents when we go to the market," says Chaiyong with pride.

For them, being in kindergarten has a big plus. Having to get up as early as 3 or 4 in the morning every day to help their parents collect rubber sap from the plantation, they find it difficult to stay awake in class. "But we can get some sleep during afternoon naps for kindergarden kids," said Chaiyong, flashing his toothy smile.

At Ban Ta Kum Border Police School in Trat province it is not uncommon for big boys like Chaiyong and Ongto to study alongside toddlers in kindergarten classes.

This coastal town on the Thai-Cambodian border is home to tens of thousands of migrant workers from Cambodia and Burma. Many parents bring their children with them to work on rubber plantations or in the fishery industry. With little or no Thai, the children have to start at kindergarten level when they go to school, no matter how old they are.

Chaiyong and Ongto are the lucky ones. Not all migrant parents want to send their children to school. And not all schools are happy to accept migrant children.

Although the law gives all children the right to education regardless of nationality, the road to a better life for migrant children is a rough one. Every time their parents move, their education is disrupted. Poor Thai language skills also mean they often do not do well in class. Schooling and school lunch may be free, but transportation and the junk food children love are expensive, and this eats into the parents' hard-earned funds.

Education expenses also increase with higher education. Most migrant children quit after primary education and continue to be trapped, like their parents, in the same life-cycle of poverty, drudgery and oppression.

It is estimated that there are at least 500,000 migrant children across the country. They are illegal here and unwelcome back home if their parents illegally left the country, which is mostly the case. With 2,000 new births a year, the number of illegal migrant children is steadily increasing. They have little or zero access to education, public healthcare and work security. With no future ahead, many grow up alienated and angry, and are lured into the underworld.

The social time-bomb is ticking. Compassion can defuse it. Yet, state policies governed by ethnic prejudice and national security paranoia fed by ultra-nationalism are adding fuel to fire.

If we cannot talk compassion, let's talk money.

At a time when Thailand is fast getting grey, every child in the country needs to be nurtured to be quality, productive and tax-paying citizens. Why push them underground? Why allow heartless policies to destroy lives? Why continue to lose scarce budget to fix social problems and fight crimes that can be prevented by just giving children life's opportunities?

The parents of many of our prime ministers and ministers were dirt-poor Chinese immigrants before. Were they a national security threat? What is there to be afraid of?

Like other children this week, what's on Chaiyong and Ongto's minds right now is the excitement of the upcoming Children's Day celebrations at school, and not their grim future ahead.

Colourful balloons. Candies. Fun and games. It takes so little to make children happy. It also takes so little to make migrant children part of our social fabric. Yet we let prejudice and fear shut down our hearts. When the social time-bomb finally explodes, it will too late to be sorry.

[TingTongJohn]

This is very sad in so many ways..I remember back before we had kids and were on a trip to Koh Samet and while there my wife and I met some Thai childern playing on the beach whose parents worked at the resort where we were staying at. My wife started talking to the boys and was amazed they did not know how to count in Thai yet. The 2 boys were 7 and 8 years of age and had not yet been to school yet.

[Takiap]

Yes, very sad indeed, but also not an easy problem to deal with. The author makes it sound so easy.....just a little bit of compassion, but what country in the world is willing to show compassion to million of illegal migrants. I think one should rather be pointing fingers at the governments ruling the countries where these kids come from, instead of accusing Thailand for their hard lives. Let us not forget, Thailand is still fighting to provide their own people with a proper education, and I certainly don't think the country is strong enough to carry the burden of neighboring countries. Also, many Thais don't approve of so many illegal migrants, since it means their own people lose job opportunities and etc.


I don't mean any of the above in a bad way, but I'm just saying it's a complex issue. There's also the fact that, as pointed out in the article, many parents don't want their kids to attend school, or else they just can't be bothered. I still see Thai kids, who are entitled to free education, not going to school. On one occasion when I asked why a child wasn't in school, his father replied that the kids doesn't like to go to school


In the end though, I do feel sorry for the kids, and if it were up to me, each and every one of them would be having a great life. Well maybe not some of the lippy teenagers....lol.

[migrant]

First I thought "How does Pete know my kids??" but then read it through

When younger, to make some money, I sort of ran away in the summer and went to pick produce in Michigan. There I ran across the migrant farm workers that followed the crops as they ripen across the US.

Great people, but tough to educate kids when you have to move constantly.

Gave me quite an education though and I returned home looking at school, and local work, in a whole different light!

[margaretcarnes]

Yes, very sad indeed, but also not an easy problem to deal with. The author makes it sound so easy.....just a little bit of compassion, but what country in the world is willing to show compassion to million of illegal migrants. I think one should rather be pointing fingers at the governments ruling the countries where these kids come from, instead of accusing Thailand for their hard lives. Let us not forget, Thailand is still fighting to provide their own people with a proper education, and I certainly don't think the country is strong enough to carry the burden of neighboring countries. Also, many Thais don't approve of so many illegal migrants, since it means their own people lose job opportunities and etc.


I don't mean any of the above in a bad way, but I'm just saying it's a complex issue. There's also the fact that, as pointed out in the article, many parents don't want their kids to attend school, or else they just can't be bothered. I still see Thai kids, who are entitled to free education, not going to school. On one occasion when I asked why a child wasn't in school, his father replied that the kids doesn't like to go to school


In the end though, I do feel sorry for the kids, and if it were up to me, each and every one of them would be having a great life. Well maybe not some of the lippy teenagers....lol.

A great post Takiap IMO. Yes, It is a very complex issue and one which many of us in the west should relate to. We moan and groan about the number of immigrants to the UK - and the way in which they - and their children -are provided for. Yet we still moan about the way in which Thailand treats immigrants from Burma, which is it's neighbouring country.
There are a few things though which concern me about all this. Not least the way in which immigrant peoples to ANY country expect the grass to be greener on the other side - and also continue to produce children regardless of the consequencies.
It is good that Thailand will at least provide some basic education for those Burmese children who are able to take advantage of it. That at least is a start. It is bad that so many Burmese still feel the need to migrate - given the present state of potential improvement in Burmese democracy.
The Burmese people I have met are lovely folk who just want a peaceful life without the threat of opression. Those I know who have made a life in Thailand are hardworking, and have better Englsh skills than their Thai counterparts. Yet they have to live in fear of the Thai authorities all the time, even when they have work permits.
Much of this problem has to be down to Thailand itself, and it's attitude towards the perceived threat from any other bordering country. Thailand continues to insist that it is a country which has never been colonised - which those of us on here know to be untrue - and yet most of the world continues to believe that and tries to make allowances for it. Fact is Thailand simply can't have it all ways. But the next fact is that they can - because no other country has any say in what they do.
Mind boggling but we still love the place.

[Takiap]

Yes, well said MC. I also can't see how a grown up couple can sneak into a country illegally, and then still continue on to have kids. This, in my opinion, is not something you have to learn about in school. It should be common sense, so again, most of the blame falls squarely on the shoulders of the parents. In most of Africa, the problem is even worse. For example, a Xhosa man in South Africa can have as many wives and as many children as he wants, despite the fact that he can't support a single one of them. I've had workers working for me in the past who had more than 30 children, and yet they have been earning the minimum wage, which, if I might add, gets spent entirely on themselves. These are the same folk who are nowadays demanding government assistance, and complaining about how hard life is. Sure life is hard for them, but it didn't have to be quite as hard.


I can't even begin to express how sorry I feel for kids in these extremely difficult situations, but at the same time, I don't think it's Thailand's responsibility to care for every illegal immigrant's children. In general, there are just too many people in the world nowadays who expect everything to be handed to them on a plate. Of course the sad thing is though, innocent children end up suffering because of all this.