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Childcare Arrangements of Burmese Migrant Workers in Thailand

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Geographies of Global Issues: Change and Threat

Part of the book series: Geographies of Children and Young People ((GCYP,volume 8))

Abstract

Burmese migrant workers in Thailand, particularly those with children, are placed in a precarious position by Thailand’s immigration laws and by the management of the industries they work for. This chapter illustrates how women factory workers from Myanmar juggle their factory work and childcare by complying, resisting, and negotiating (Staudt, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 26(4), 1251–1527, 2001) with the state(s). Following Voydanoff (Community Work and Family, 4(2), 133–156, 2001), the chapter analyzes how the interaction of different border control regimes (macrosystem) and community/family networks (microsystem) creates and shapes the options for Burmese migrant workers to cope with childcare responsibilities. The microsystem of childcare arrangements of individual Burmese women migrant workers is shaped and restricted by both the factories in the global value chain that seek various ways of obtaining “cheap” labor and the state that applies different immigration practices in different locations. This chapter analyzes how migrant workers struggle to meet their childcare responsibilities in particular locations at the same time as they are being exploited by factories exporting to global markets.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environment, Resources and. Development, Asian Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 4, 12120, Klong Luang, Pathumthani, Thailand

    Kyoko Kusakabe

  2. School of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT, Leeds, UK

    Ruth Pearson

Authors
  1. Kyoko Kusakabe
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  2. Ruth Pearson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kyoko Kusakabe .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. InstituteofEnvironment,Health&Societies, Brunel University , Uxbridge, United Kingdom

    Nicola Ansell

  2. SchoolofGeography&SustainableCommunities, University of Wollongong SchoolofGeography&SustainableCommunities, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia

    Natascha Klocker

  3. Department of Geography, National University of Singapore Department of Geography, Singapore, Singapore

    Tracey Skelton

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Kusakabe, K., Pearson, R. (2016). Childcare Arrangements of Burmese Migrant Workers in Thailand. In: Ansell, N., Klocker, N., Skelton, T. (eds) Geographies of Global Issues: Change and Threat. Geographies of Children and Young People, vol 8. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4585-54-5_16

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