Sending Money Back Home:Banking Digitalization,Myanmar Migrant Workers,and the Thailand-Myanmar Border Trade
Thailand's Ministry of Labour reported that in 2021,approximately 2.4 million migrant workers were approved to work in Thailand with two-thirds from Myanmar.For decades,they have benefited the Thailand-Myanmar border trade,both di-rectly and indirectly,together with the remittances they sent back home.This paper studies how the economic activities revolving around border trade developed,describes how informal remittances from Myanmar migrant workers became one of the key ele-ments of the massive illicit border trade and investigates the possibility of digital technology replacing traditional informal remit-tance methods.The data presented here was collected via semi-structured interviews with 32 Burmese migrant workers living and working in Samutsakorn Province,9 Thai border traders in Mae Sot,several officials,and a Thai financial technology company operating in Myanmar.The interviews reveal that new remittance methods brought by new technologies have the potential to re-place informal methods,but migrant workers still prefer traditional methods with social benefits.The digitalization of banking and financial services strengthens the informal banking system and improves the processes of money distribution.
Myanmar migrant workers in ThailandThailand-Myanmar border tradeinformal remittancebanking digitaliza-tion
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
