Migrant schools in the Thailand-Burma borderland: from the informal to the formal

Abstract

This article examines migrant schools in the Thailand-Burma borderland. Substantial existence of migrant schools enables migrant children to have their own education even in the absence of proper legal status. The growth of migrant schools marked the building up of a migrant education institution in cooperation with international partners, showing progress in the constitution of migrant lives. Since the mid-2000s, the Thai government has engaged in migrant schools in an attempt to regularize them as learning centres under its guidance. This article argues that it should not necessarily be interpreted as a victory of the state over the migrants and migrant schools. Rather, it shows the impressive growth of the migrant education institution, bringing the state into play and has achieved recognition from the state as a legitimate formal institution.

Keywords::

• migrant education
• migrant schools
• informal education
• Thailand-Burma borderland

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Sogang University Research Grant of 2010 and the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government (NRF-2008-362-B00018).

Notes

^1. Demographic information comes from a civil officer in the Mae Sot District office and various interviews with migrant leaders.

^2. The ESAO 1 covers the eastern part of Tak Province which has no migrant schools. A high mountain range divides the western areas from the eastern ones in the Province, leading to large differences in culture and society between the people of the two areas. While the westerns areas are full of undocumented migrants, few have settled in the eastern areas.

^3. This Dutch word means “Southeast Asia”.

^4. The ranges of NGO activities are heavily influenced by donors' interest as well as the regulations of the Thai authorities.

^5. Interview with a migrant education team leader of the WE/C (26 April 2005).

^6. For details, see the website of Children's Dream (http://www.childrensdream.org).

^7. In fact, the movement of Education for All is a global movement initiated and coordinated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). For further details, refer to the website (http://www.unesco.org/education/efa/ed_for_all/, accessed on 24 October 2011).

^8. Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn's approaches to the education for migrant people can be found in the Bangkok Post (4 October 2002).