Transnational Inequality: A Case Study of Myanmar Migrant Workers in Samut Sakhon

Abstract

The economic depression in Myanmar leads workers to migrate overseas. More than 1.5 million people from Myanmar have to take risks in order to settle down and work in Thailand where the estimated number of 379,800 workers reside and work in Samut Sakhon. The unbalanced nature of development is the root of global inequalities where economic inequality is the salient cause of migration. Migration interrelates with transnationalism-the process where migrants maintain their ties and activities with their home country connecting with numerous parties. Transnationalism has shaped migrants’ lives and is linked with international politics. Transnational migrants are contingent on the nation-state and need to negotiate with the community. Migrants are required to adjust their personal life. The paper demonstrates impacts of migration on the increase and decrease of inequality at each scale: global, national, local, and individual scales. Also, the paper examines roles of capitals and how inequality is reproduced. The paper argues that actors operating within the four scales partake in the reproduction of inequality where characteristics of inequality are dynamic and resulting from home country situations, transnationalism and changes in the host society.