The Rising Importance of Chinese Labour in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region

John Walsh

The Rising Importance of Chinese Labour Chinese riots are reported in several countries in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region and pre-modern history in the GMSR seems to have been, away from urban centres, fraught John Walsh with the potential for violence from various sources. However, these were not the only Migration is, fundamentally, a response to the Chinese to leave China and enter the GMSR. uneven distribution of resources around the Ethnic minority hill tribe people have long world or the variability of the environment, crossed back and forth. Seeking largely to avoid however broadly deﬁned. [1] People move from the attention of state apparatus and to establish one place to another place to take advantage of their own communities in the spaces between a better climate, possible access to better more powerful polities, the ethnic tribes have quality agricultural land, better-paying or more tended to remain unoﬃcial and often illegal numerous jobs, freedom from oppression or members of the country in which they live. The discrimination and so forth. The phenomenon Kuomintang faction present in Yunnan at the has dimensions such as degree of permanency conclusion of the Chinese Civil War was forced and degree of voluntarism. In reality, itacross the border, either to Burma or to comprises a large number of categories and northern Thailand. sub-categories and, as in the case of many of those Chinese people considered in this paper, people can pass through several categories as the result of changes in their own status and in that of the broader political context.

Chinese have been migrating to and from the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMSR), an area comprised of Thailand, Burma [Myanmar], Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Yunnan Province of China, for many centuries. Some have come as independent merchants and traders and contributed to the so-called bamboo network of the Chinese diaspora, which did so much to buttress indigenous economic development in the region. Others arrived as indentured coolies and, once they had established themselves, worked to bring family members or potential brides to join them in their new home. They may have had to contend with perilous ocean crossings, diﬃcult working conditions, discrimination and possible violence – anti-

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Estimates of global migration figures place the total at around 200 million in 2005. Of these, 35 million are part of the Chinese diaspora and that number is increasing at a considerable rate. The net migration rate is 0.3 migrants per 1,000 people overall. International migrants are 0.04% of total population. Among migrants travelling overseas, 49.1% of the total is now constituted Kuomintang troops in Burma, 1953 of women and total remittances reached US$22.5 billion, according to figures provided They have passed through many legal states in by the Institute of Migration. Chinese workers the meantime, notably when those members of have reached nearly every country of the world, rd the 93 Division were enlisted to help break the at first as part of the diasporic movement of Hmong rebellion by fighting alongside ThaiChinese people seeking better opportunities for government troops in return for being offeredthemselves and, subsequently, as part of citizenship. [2] Clearly, especially in the border Chinese corporations internationalizing areas, it would be simplistic to assume that overseas and as labour to create infrastructure there was one Chinese community, that they in those countries where the Chinese government has established enhanced recognized each other as equals or even as diplomatic relations as a means of securing friendly. The former KMT people, for example, access to scarce resources. The proportion of have little in common with the Chinese inside Chinese migrants may remain low in relation to China and, instead, have developed strong the overall population, although growing, yet guanxi, business and political links withthe Chinese government has started to exhibit colleagues in Taiwan, with whom they share some concern over possible brain drain cultural, linguistic and ideological beliefs and problems, especially given that those travelling values. [3] internationally tend to be higher skilled and

2 7 | 12 | 2 APJ | JF educated than those who have been left behind. strengthen social protection and social risk management in the region, while also This article investigates cross-border Chinese conducting research to determine the migration in the northern part of the GMSR and interaction between integration and labour its interactions with regional integration and migration. [5] local labour markets. It offers a brief overview of regional integration in the GMSR and labour Migrant labour contributes to the development markets there and then describes what is of the destination country in the following ways: known about Chinese migration and investment. Implications from the findings are drawn. a) Building infrastructure. Regional Integration and Labour Markets b) Managing and providing skilled The GMSR and Southeast Asia more generally labour to FDI projects. has labour migration as a central feature of economic development. Throughout Southeast c) Providing a substantial unskilled Asia, it is estimated that around 13 million labour pool to undertake 3D jobs people are migrant workers in one category or and to depress wages in a range of another and, of them, some five million remain sectors. within the region. Close approximations to the exact number are unlikely to be achieved given The Chinese migrants to Burma demonstrate all the large number of illegal or unofficial of these features. They are drawn by a number migrants. For example, it is estimated that there are around one million Burmese people in of factors: Chinese organizations have Thailand and perhaps one quarter of them are established large investment projects refugees living in camps along the border throughout the country, partly to meet domestic region. The remainder is spread throughout the demand (e.g. seafood) and partly in service to Kingdom. [4] its strategic vision of acquiring access to energy sources that may be piped to the country Most of the migrant labour in the GMSR is, overland and not via the Straits of Malacca. numerically, unskilled or, at least, required to Mandalay, the northern city which had undertake unskilled work. The workers compete previously been a royal capital, is a popular in terms of low wages and frequently receive centre for Chinese business and residence. inadequate protection. Remittances, where they Farms, factories and trading ventures of all are possible (which is very problematic for sorts have been opened by migrants and have Burmese workers in particular), represent attracted further migrants wishing to work on important sources of income at family and them. [6] Sino-Burmese co-operation has national level. Countries act both as a source intensified since 1988, when boycotts on Burma and a host for migrant labour. In Thailand, enforced (sporadically) by western countries workers in the unskilled category are largely significantly reduced the number of parties involved in the 3D category of jobs – dirty, wishing to invest in the country. Chinese dangerous and demanding (or ‘disgusting’) – organizations have exhibited little interest in the while Thai workers overseas have slightly higher numerous human rights abuses in the country levels of professionalism and skills. Workers are and the secrecy and absence of rule of law have playing an important part in regional economic been used to their own benefit. This period has integration and this is shaped, institutionally, also witnessed the flourishing of the Chinese most influentially by ASEAN’s Vientiane Action economy after moving to openness and market- Programme, which seeks to establish and based systems, and overseas investment has

3 7 | 12 | 2 APJ | JF boomed. Chinese migrants now mingle with embedded in GMSR societies have done so those who arrived generations ago and who through a process of assimilation and quiet consider themselves ethnically or culturally development of business networks and distinct from the new arrivals. Of course, they opportunities. have similar differences from non-ethnic Chinese in the region. Inevitably, some tensions Contemporary Chinese Migration and conflict have been rumoured and reported. [7] In any case, Chinese investment has meant Since the adoption of the Open Door Policy by a significant improvement in the infrastructure Deng Xiaoping and subsequent restructuring of of Mandalay and its environs, while the region the nature of the Chinese economy, several has been drawn much more strongly into cross- events have stimulated the number of Chinese border trading networks. The opening of new moving overseas. Firstly, the facilitation of firms has had a positive effect on the nearbyforeign travel for increasing numbers of Chinese economy through the technology transfer and has made it possible for some to migrate positive externalities. informally, perhaps by joining a package tour and then simply not returning at its end. [8] The Historical Context of ChineseSecond, the modification of the residential Migration registration system hukou( ) has enabled millions to move from rural to urban locations, Migrants have been travelling southwards from which previously was illegal and difficult. This China for centuries. Many have been ethnically movement, which exceeds the movement Chinese but many other ethnic groups have also overseas, has fuelled the low labour cost been involved, notably the Tai groups that now competitiveness of the manufacturing sector represent the principal population groups in which has done so much to propel China’s Laos, Thailand and the Shan States of Burma. recent rapid economic growth. The supply of Movement in the GMSR has traditionally been workers has helped to suppress wages and north-south in nature since the rugged,represents a disincentive to firms wishing to mountainous and forested terrain mean that improve or upgrade the value-adding aspects of travelling via river valleys is by far the most their production. Consequently, the closing or convenient means. The principal rivers of the reconfiguring of many Chinese state-owned GMSR (including the Mekong, Irrawaddy,enterprises (SOEs) and the breaking of the so- Salween, Chao Phraya and Hong) all rise in the called iron rice bowl which guaranteed workers Himalayan plateau of Tibet and flow southwards a job and pension for life, has led to a new class towards the sea. Migrants tended to move on a of unemployed people able to offer more than permanent basis or, in the case of nomad just manual labour and unwilling or unable to peoples, semi-permanent with the option of live on the wages offered in the new moving again in the future. Ethnic Chinese were manufacturing sector. Many of these people also encouraged to migrate by certain GMSR have joined the overseas migration movement states, notably the Thai state, which brought and are travelling as far as the UK. [9] them as artisans and, as such, they formed the basis of the Thai urban working class. Chinese Unfortunately, labour migration provides populations in Cambodia were largelynumerous opportunities for those facilitating the eliminated during the Khmer Rouge purge and process to exploit the workers involved. When those in Laos and Vietnam also suffered frombarriers exist to migration, criminal gangs (often discrimination and violent eviction during referred to as ‘snakehead’ gangs) will work periods of political conflict. In general, thoseillegally to bring about cross-border Chinese who have remained successfully movements. The workers then face the

4 7 | 12 | 2 APJ | JF additional problem that being in another resource supplies for future domestic country illegally renders them vulnerable to development. [12] Reports suggest that large persecution by the officials in that country and numbers of these workers prefer to remain they are unwilling to seek medical attention overseas after their contracts have been when required or access other public services. fulfilled and to settle there, opening their own Their lot can be grim. Many anecdotes relate to businesses. In some cases, native Lao people the Burmese migrants in Thailand who, in the have been moved out of their homes and into wake of the tsunami of 2004, refused to go to shanty towns to accommodate newly-arrived hospitals or clinics despite serious injuries for Chinese and their businesses. While those who fear of being reported to the police and ill- were previously SOE employees are likely to be treated or deported. older and better-educated than the average, those entering the entertainment industry are Labour migrants can cross borders voluntarily or more likely to be young women. Those following involuntarily. In the latter case, there are Chinese investment overseas are more likely to numerous instances of human trafficking,be younger men, willing to sell what is particularly of young women, in the GMSR. Han essentially manual or unskilled labour overseas, Chinese and ethnic tribeswomen from Yunnan although some skilled workers, supervisors and are among those who have suffered from thismanagers will also be required. process. However, although there are many migrant workers who travel in order to work in Demographic Features of Chinese the sex industry or find themselves doing soMigrants after they arrive, it would be simplistic to assert that those trafficked are always travellingA review of Chinese government statistics noted entirely involuntarily or that they were entirely that although men predominate in internal powerless to affect their fate. A substantiallabour migration, women too are involved in literature demonstrates that a number of sex unprecedented numbers. [13] Young unmarried workers consider it better than alternatives women are most favoured for factory work, available. [10] Of course, there is another body especially in the Pearl River Delta region. of literature which shows that many such people Migrants tend to be more highly educated than are forced to endure dreadful conditions. There non-migrants and this tendency is increasing, seems to be little doubt that the Chinese perhaps because remittances provide better entering the GMSR to work in this industry will education opportunities, which are passed on to find themselves in a similar range of situations. subsequent generations of migrants. Male Even in Singapore, where many mainland migrants tend to be better educated than Chinese are now moving for work, the generally women. Illiteracy has become rare and the efficient police authorities occasionally uncover majority of migrants have completed at least instances of abuse of workers. [11] junior secondary (high) school level of education. A smaller proportion has completed Another category of migrant worker concerns secondary level education (13%). The majority those imported by Chinese investment in one of of migrants followed people known to them into the GMSR countries. Laos and Burma, in similar activities in the destination or else particular, now host a number of infrastructure responded to market demand reported by a and construction development projects which relative or neighbour. Commonalities exist in are largely manned by imported Chinese labour. terms of nature of work, which tended towards The same is true in many African countries, too, the manufacturing sector and retail and where the investment projects support the services. Few women obtained white collar or Chinese government’s strategic intent to secure technical positions.

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A study of migration by women from Yunnan to of urban earnings in some county Thailand, principally from southern parts of the seats and townships in middling former to northern parts of the latter, locates regions is their use by returnees to the pattern of movement to earlier marriage create businesses.” [16] migration networks and suggests that arranged marriage and patrilocal traditions were influential and persistent. However, modernThe number of officially recognized Chinese migration for such women, especially the ethnic migrants in the GMSR is significantly lower than minority women, involved moving into the the actual number of people involved. Not only massage/entertainment/sex industries. Some are borders porous, but incentives exist to women are trafficked and some appear to move dissuade people from becoming involved with voluntarily or, at least, are unwilling to return to the relatively expensive and onerous tasks of their home villages. [14] However, it appears registering individuals with the appropriate that most migrants perceive their period away government agencies, acquiring work permits from home as temporary rather thanand following other procedures. In Thailand, for permanent. Consequently, their remittances example, the total number of Chinese citizens home are intended not just to assist family registered in the Kingdom was 13,906 as of July members but also to maintain a personal stake 2008. Their activities are displayed in the table in the rural community. [15] The authorbelow. concludes that: Categories of Alien Quantity (People) Section 9 Categories of General Temporary 9,653 Section 12 Categories of Investment Promotion 2,478 Section 13 Categories of Minority 1,775 “In China as elsewhere in the TOTAL 13,906 world, when money is received Officially Recognised Chinese Nationals in from migrant workers, it is used Thailand. Source: Ministry of Labour mostly for consumptive investment in house-building, the purchase of Of these, the majority (7,374) are registered in consumer goods and health and Bangkok and the remainder are spread education expenditure. Such throughout the country, although there are consumptive investment is significant numbers in provinces adjacent to the important because it improves the Eastern Seaboard industrial area. For example, material livelihoods of rural people, in 2008 there were 723 Chinese workers and also enhances their feelings of registered in Chonburi and 508 in Rayong. self-respect as well as their Fieldwork in different parts of the Kingdom capacity to participate in the social indicates first that these figures are much lower life of their communities, including than the true numbers involved and, second, marrying. While productive that it would be extremely difficult to obtain a investment is not a major area of good approximation of what the actual numbers remittance usage, in some would be. A similar situation exists with respect circumstances migrant earnings to the other GMSR nations. nevertheless play a role in partially off-setting the effects of labour lost Migrants, Markets and Corporations from agriculture and in providing an insurance buffer in the risky The pattern of contemporary Chinese migration agricultural sector, particularly in is similar to the historical pattern in that there regions prone to ecological are several categories or classes of Chinese disaster. A further productive use involved. Where previously there were capitalist

6 7 | 12 | 2 APJ | JF traders and bonded labour, today there are apparent willingness of Cambodian Prime representatives of internationalizing Chinese Minister Hun Sen to stand up to Thai corporations and contracted labour brought in provocations concerning the Preah Vihear to complete infrastructure construction projects. temple, owing to the support he received from In response, new markets emerge around the Chinese interests. Additional speculation newcomers, partly created by Chineseconcerns the role of the American government, entrepreneurs and partly by local people, with which has been comparatively quiet in the latter tending to provide the labour in condemning the 2006 military coup and the service industries organized by the former. For current crackdown on freedom of speech. This example, Chinatown areas are emerging in speculation links the quietness with the Vientiane [17] and Phnom Penh, mostly built perception of closeness between China and Thai and financed by Chinese interests and drawing Rak Thai, which formed the Thai government labour from local people who havefrom 2001-6 under Thaksin Shinawatra and enthusiastically embraced learning Chinese which was ended by the coup. Irrespective of among other Asian languages with a view to the truth or otherwise of these forms of taking jobs in the newly emergent areas. [18] speculation, they are indicative of the fact that The growth of new markets and new sectors has it has become widely perceived that Chinese had further effects on the urban landscape as it investments have changed the nature of inter- has contributed to the forcible removal of urban state relations in the GMSR, although the poor from the city and their relocation in remote contours of that change have yet be accurately areas, which in Cambodia includes the area mapped. around Boeung Kak Lake as well as forced evictions from Phnom Penh. [19] However, The large-scale urban changes visible in Phnom these changes are secondary effects resulting Penh are also to be found in the Laotian capital from the Chinese state’s desire to obtain of Vientiane, where Chinese money built the access, preferably exclusive access, to the oil large island-bound five star hotel complex that and gas recently discovered in Cambodian has become totemic for the new landscape of waters in the Gulf of Thailand. To do so, it has the city. [21] The same is true of Yangon, where been necessary for China to demonstrate Chinese corporations are developing the port goodwill sufficient to overcome the antagonism and other infrastructure. These large-scale between the states arising during the Khmer changes are very visible but smaller-scale Rouge period. This has been attempted through changes to markets are also influential. It has the large-scale construction of infrastructure become well-established that the signing of the such as roads and bridges by ChineseThai-Chinese Free Trade Agreement and the corporations. Simultaneously, Chinesecompletion of the highway linking Kunming with investment has been notable in manufacturing Bangkok was rapidly followed by the spread of and resource extraction (logging primarily). temperate-climate Chinese fruit and vegetables These investment projects have, typically, been throughout Thailand’s now modern retail treated with a lack of transparency even by system. Inevitably, this led to job losses in Cambodian standards and there are rumours northern Thailand, where onions and garlic had and anecdotes of the suppression of worker previously been grown for Thai markets. Equally rights in Chinese-owned factories. [20]pervasive is the spread of low-cost Chinese However, there seems little doubt that Chinese manufactured goods. The newly-opened interests have become close to government- supermarket department store in the southern linked contacts in Cambodia and that both now Vietnamese oil town and holiday resort of Vung will benefit from the ongoing investmentTau, for example, boasts a wide array of program. Speculation in Thailand concerned the Chinese goods, from plastic toy soldiers to

7 7 | 12 | 2 APJ | JF kitchen and household goods. The profusion of value added to industrial production. When it is Chinese goods throughout the GMSR’s markets possible to make money by simply suppressing has yet to be matched by cultural products. wages, there is much less incentive to plan or Currently, it is Korean cultural products,invest for future competitiveness in more including pop music, hairstyles and soap sophisticated ways. Extending the power of the operas, which hold the consumers of the region state to investigate these issues might require in thrall, at least in those areas whereresources that could be reclaimed from international cultural products are able to enhanced revenue opportunities. More likely, flourish. though, is that those businesses which do not follow regulations will melt away under official There is, of course, a reverse form of trade investigation and reconstitute themselves involved with these changes, which witnesses elsewhere. For all countries in the GMSR, the GMSR goods exported to China in part exchange inability to create a meaningful labour market for the investments described here. Most forms policy is a serious constraint in planning for of international trade require goods or service effective future economic growth. providers to improve their offerings to meet demand and this is happening in the current In Burma and Laos, in particular, the areas in case. In part this results from the regularization which Chinese migrants have come to dominate and formalization of such trade. Whereas economic activities have tended to exclude non- previously goods might have crossed borders Chinese, unofficially and not by regulation, as from Thailand into China informally and without well as being antithetical to state laws. State inspection, now the new checkpoints at the institutions have already yielded to those areas Mekong border points, which offer access to the a degree of autonomy and more will be taken as improved transportation links, enforce alocal groups and networks continue to flourish. measure of quality control over the goods being These areas may be more economically moved, even if complaints remain about a advanced than neighbouring areas in which bottleneck in trade owing to the lack of trained indigenous people live and this has the potential customs personnel. to provoke further antipathy and personal conflict. As noted previously, the region has a Implications of Chinese Labour Migration history of sporadic violence against Chinese migrants extending through centuries. Good policy-making cannot occur in the absence of reliable data and the rule of law. All More positively, the border regions in which GMSR governments face the constraints of these activities are taking place may lead the limited capacity in relation to their ability to region – which is still in transition from gather and redact labour market statistics in an battleground to market place – into more accurate and timely manner. Consequently, enhanced economic and social integration. states find it difficult to create meaningfulPsychic distance is reduced when similar people labour market policies. Those policies that are are found on either side of a border, even when brought about may be undermined by the they may not be the majority. There should also presence of undocumented workers and other be positive effects with respect to transaction individuals working outside the formal economy. costs. This will be brought about partly because For example, minimum wages are undercut for guanxi network connections contribute to workers unable to obtain legal rights or even improving trust and hence reducing monitoring safe workplace conditions. This situation also costs and partly because of a commonality of mitigates against efforts from both private and modes of procedure. The reduction of public sectors to increase the proportion of transaction costs should lead to an increase in

8 7 | 12 | 2 APJ | JF imports and exports and, hence, the power of GMSR. Despite the positive aspects of the comparative and competitive advantages vis-à- completion of the North-South Asian highway, vis market distortions is reduced. linking Kunming with Bangkok and extending further in both directions, many commentators There is also a series of social issues to focus on the negative aspects. This is perhaps consider. It is well-established that the presence intensified by the undeniable problems caused of a significant community of male migrantby the modifications to the River Mekong in workers will lead to an increase in risk-taking Chinese territory, including the building of behaviour, such as gambling, using intoxicants dams, blasting of rapids and the dangers of and prostitution. However well policed such a using the river for transporting oil and other community may be, it is clearly possible that potential pollutants. [24] social issues will be provoked. This has special resonance in the case of Chinese migrants Conclusion because of the so-called ‘bare branches’ generation. As a result of the one child per In a geographic region in which the rule of law is family policy and the ability of doctors to limited, transparency of official activities is low determine the gender of a fetus before birth, and the technical capacity of state agencies many millions of female fetuses have been restricted, the rapid growth of economic aborted to assure birth of a son. Oneactivities conducted by private sector firms and consequence of this has been an acute shortage individuals can lead to the creation of a kind of of marriageable women in China. Estimates of shadow or para-state. The ability of the Chinese the number of males unable to find a bride for involved to organize cross-border activities and this reason average some 30 million. Exporting exchange of resources exceeds in most cases at least some of these men overseas with a the ability of state-based organizations to do view to acquiring foreign wives, especially in the same. Consequently, the areas concerned GMSR countries where cultural differences are will become increasingly part of a comparatively not too acute, could reducing the potentially efficient area that is distinct from its destabilizing effect of the bare branches surroundingsin (some of which may in due course China, albeit at the expense of contributing to be integrated into this area) and from the unease in the countries in which they take up people in those areas. Given the nature of residence. incentives available, it is likely that indigenous people will seek to become part of the new The expansion of contacts between Yunnan and economic grouping and not the state in which Laos, in particular, as well as north-eastern they live. The growth of rubber tree Thailand, has encouraged agriculturalsmallholdings in northern Laos would seem to transformation in the form of growth of rubber suggest this is what is happening at least in plantations. Across Lao provinces such as Luang some cases. A comparable situation exists with Namtha, farmers are recognizing theregard to the semi-legal casino complexes opportunities offered by cross-border tradingwhich exist on the Burmese-Thai border, the activities with Yunnanese operators. [22] There Thai-Cambodian border at Poipet and other are, of course, risks too. A Chinese military parts of the GMSR. These complexes draw in inspired hybrid rice program to substitute for high-roller tourists from the region, which opium in the Shan state of Burma resulted in attracts workers from nearby areas without four years of crop failure and food insecurity. necessarily contributing much to the region. [23] This is one aspect of a failed physical Dual track development, therefore, takes place environmental change associated with the and the problems and benefits of this kind of presence of Chinese industry in the northern situation are quite well established.

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John Walsh is Assistant Professor, Marketing and [8] J. Cochrane, A. Piore, P. Janssen, M. Vitug, B. Communication, Shinawatra InternationalCalvert and K. Kola, “Barbarians from the University MBA Program, Bangkok, and a North,” Newsweek International (October 28th, specialist in East Asian business and industry. 2002), p.63.

This article, written for The Asia-Pacific Journal, [9] H-H. Pai, Chinese Whispers: The True Story was published on March 16, 2009. behind Britain’s Hidden Army of Labour (London: Penguin Books, 2008). Recommended citation: John Walsh, “The Rising Importance of Chinese Labour in the Greater [10] e.g. K. Kempadoo and J. Doezema, eds., Mekong Sub-Region,” The Asia-Pacific Journal, Global Sex Workers: Rights, Resistance, and Vol. 12-2-09, March 16, 2009. Redefinition (Routledge, 1998).

Notes [11] e.g. Human Rights Watch, Maid to Order: Ending Abuses against Migrant Domestic [1] An earlier version of this paper wasWorkers in Singapore (2005). presented at the Conference “The Future of Economic Integration in Asia,” Thammasat [12]. W. Foot, “China’s Game Plan for Burma,” University-Japan Bank of International Co- Asia Times Online (January 3rd, 2008). operation Conference on The Future of Economic Integration in Asia (Bangkok,[13] A. Gaetano and T. Jacka, “Introduction,” in November, 2008). Arianne M. Gaetano and Tamara Jacka, eds., On the Move: Women in Rural-to-Urban Migration in [2] W-C. Chang, “From War Refugees to Contemporary China (New York: Columbia Immigrants: The Case of the KMT Yunnanese in University Press, 2004), pp.1-38. Northern Thailand,” International Migration Review, Vol.35, No.4 (Winter, 2001),[14] A. Beesey, “Return and Reintegration: pp.1086-1105. Female Migrants from Yunnan to Thailand,” in Supang Chantavanich, Christina Wille, Kannika [3] J. Walsh and P. Techavimol, “Chinese Angsuthanasombat, Maruja MB Asis, Allan Tourism in Thailand: Experiences andBeesey and Sukamdi, Female Labour Migration Satisfaction,” ASEAN Journal on Hospitality and in South-East Asia: Change and Continuity Tourism, Vol.6, No.2 (July, 2007), pp.105-13. (Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University, 2001), pp.135-70. [4] Amnesty International, Thailand: The Plight of Burmese Migrant Workers (June, 2005). [15] R. Murphy, “Domestic Migrant Remittances in China: Distribution, Channels and Livelihood,” [5] ASEAN Secretariat,Vientiane Action IOM Migration Research Series No.24 (Geneva: Programme (VAP) 2004-2010 Jakarta: The International Organization for Migration, 2006). ASEAN Secretariat, 2005). [16] ibid. [6] D. Fullbrook, “China Paves Way to Myanmar Riches,” Asian Times Online (November 1st, [17] B. McCartan (2008), “New-Age Chinatown 2006). Has Laotians on Edge,” Asia Times Online (July 26th, 2008). [7] P. Shenon, “Mandalay Journal: Burmese Cry Intrusion (They Lack Great Wall),”New York [18] M. Sokchea (2008), “East Asian Languages Times (March 29th, 1994). Gaining in Popularity,” Phnom Penh Post, June

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12th. [22] V. Maniwong and R.A. Cramb, “Economics of Smallholder Rubber Expansion in northern [19] MacIsaac (2008), “In Cambodia Urban Laos,” Agroforestry Systems, Vol.74 (2008), Renewal Takes a Nasty Twist,”Asia Sentinel pp.113-25. (April 16th,). [23] C. McCoy, “Seedlings in Evil Growing in [20] Radio Free Asia (2008), “China’s Growing Myanmar,” Asia Times Online (August 23rd, Presence in Cambodia,” May 28th. 2007).

[21] M. Askew, W. Logan and C. Long, Vientiane: [24] G. Gunn and B. McCartan, “Chinese Dams Transformations of a Lao Landscape (London and the Great Mekong Floods of 2008,”Japan and New York: Routledge, 2007). Focus (August 31st, 2008).