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DE RUEHGO #0265/01 1021108
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O 111108Z APR 08
FM AMEMBASSY RANGOON
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7392
INFO RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC IMMEDIATE
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RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 8141
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RUEHCHI/AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI 1501
RHHMUNA/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 RANGOON 000265 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP/MLS, DRL, AND IO 
PACOM FOR FPA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM BM
SUBJECT: THAI DREAMS: THE ECONOMIC PULL ON THE KAREN 
 
REF: RANGOON 258 
 
RANGOON 00000265  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary.  The increasingly poor economic conditions 
in Karen State drive many young people, particularly women, 
into Thailand every year.  While jobs and money available 
there have the potential to lead to a better life, women are 
often lured into situations where they work under abusive 
conditions without receiving their promised salaries.  The 
migration also breaks up social structures and leads to the 
spread of disease in Karen State, particularly HIV/AIDS.  End 
Summary. 
 
The Push Out of Karen State 
--------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) On March 28-30, Poloff traveled to Hpa-An, Karen 
State and observed first-hand the severe inequality, poor 
education, and inadequate healthcare in the area.  Most 
houses in villages around Hpa-An consist of a single room 
built from basic wood poles and leaf thatch that owners must 
replace each year in advance of the monsoon season. 
Scattered among them are new houses constructed from 
concrete, tile, and glass with several rooms.  These better 
houses are owned by people who have gone to Thailand to work 
and save money for a few years before returning to build 
their new homes. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Education facilities in the area are far from 
adequate.  One school that we visited, which teaches 
approximately 300 students, consisted of two small dark rooms 
with almost no furniture.  Of the seven young women in their 
late teens and early twenties with whom we spoke, only three 
have passed their tenth standard exams, the Burmese 
equivalent of a high school diploma.  Although all of them 
had been taught in Burmese, only a few understood it and 
fewer still spoke it, because they were never asked to 
respond to their teachers throughout the course of their 
school education.  They communicated solely in Karen. 
 
¶4. (SBU) The healthcare situation in Karen State is equally 
insufficient to meet the needs of the population, explained 
Helen Yin, a retired nurse.  While there are doctors and 
clinics in Hpa-An, most villages in Karen State lack any 
medical care at all, and those with anything have only a 
midwife or a traditional birth attendant (TBA) who has no 
formal training.  Some villages also have a traditional 
medic, whose position is based more on social standing in the 
community than any real medical knowledge.  As a result, 
ignorance about disease perpetuates itself among the 
villages, lamented Yin.  Few people use any form of family 
planning, because they are afraid that it will harm the 
mother.  Parents do not bring their children for follow-up 
vaccines, because they believe that one dose should suffice. 
Villagers seek medical assistance for severe cases of 
influenza, dengue, and malaria only when it is too late to 
help the patient, because they cannot afford the hospital 
charges. 
 
The Thai Pull on the Karen 
-------------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) The possibility of better work and pay in Thailand 
lures many young Karen, particularly women, away from their 
native towns.  They work across the border as nannies, 
housemaids, and factory workers, often earning 3,000 to 5,000 
baht per month (USD 95 to 158), far more than the average 
salary in Karen State, where a person might only earn USD 158 
in a year.  Generally, the Karen who travel to Thailand stay 
for four to five years, save up enough money to build a house 
and support their families for a few years, and then return 
to their native villages.  Once they return, they usually get 
married and start families of their own.  The benefits of 
going to Thailand tempt most young people at some point in 
their lives.  Of the seven young women we met, half planned 
to leave immediately following the Thingyan Water Festival 
this month, and only two did not have plans to go at all. 
 
 
RANGOON 00000265  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶6. (SBU) Unfortunately, explained 17 year old Khine Thazin 
Thin, the whole story is not nearly so simple as earning 
money and returning to a better life.  Many of the girls who 
go to Thailand fall into traps with crooked brokers, who 
torture them and deny their promised salaries.  The broker 
fees alone can cost 600,000 kyat (USD 540) if they include 
full documentation for the worker.  Cheaper and easier 
options exist if the young women are willing to travel by bus 
or truck across the border.  Even then, bribes to cross the 
border into Thailand cost about 10,000 baht (USD 316), in 
addition to whatever broker fees the immigrant has incurred. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Aye Aye Myint, another young woman, lamented that 
the migration pattern also creates widespread social problems 
among the Karen.  After an initial trip to Thailand, people 
usually only stay in their native villages until the new 
money runs out, before returning to earn more.  If one spouse 
stays behind with the children, very often that person finds 
a new partner, because of the long absence and lack of 
communication with their migrant spouse.  In Thailand as 
well, the migrant spouse often finds new partners.  Usually, 
she explained, stepparents do not want to take on the 
responsibility of looking after the children, so their 
parents leave them in the care of grandparents.  By the time 
a person reaches the age of forty, they can begin to rely on 
their own children to go to Thailand to earn money to support 
them, she explained. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Yin also pointed to the migration as a major cause 
of the soaring HIV/AIDS rate in Karen State.  People engage 
in high-risk behavior when they go to Thailand, and then they 
return to spread the disease around villages, she said.  She 
had no exact data on what the infection rate is, but she 
noticed higher rates of infection when people came to her 
clinic for blood tests to diagnose other diseases.  She has 
worked to spread HIV/AIDS awareness, but feels that her 
impact is minimal. 
 
¶9. (SBU) All of the women with whom we spoke would rather 
stay in Karen State if only they could earn modest incomes to 
support themselves.  Aye Aye Myint said that with a little 
more training and some initial capital, she would like to 
open a drug store in her home village.  Others echoed her 
desire to stay, most wanting to work in the medical field, as 
pharmacists or midwives.  A few wanted to work as teachers. 
A modest income of 50,000 to 60,000 kyat per month (USD 45 to 
54) would keep them in Karen State, they agreed. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Comment: As the economic and political situations 
in Karen State continue to worsen, people leave in greater 
numbers, leading to the further breakdown of the social 
structures in the villages.  A lack of cohesiveness in 
communities will make it more difficult to educate the 
population to seek democratic and economic reform in their 
own country, rather than risky money on the other side of the 
border.  End Comment. 
VILLAROSA