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About hilltribes/ethnic minority groups in Thailand

(http://factsanddetails.com/southeast-asia/Thailand/sub5_8b/entry-3226.html)

(http://www.tayara.com/club/hilltribe.htm)

More than ten ethnic minority groups reside scattered throughout Thailand. Many groups are referred to as highland people or hill tribes because their villages are built on the mountains and hills. These ethnic minority groups include the Karen, Hmong, Lahu, Ahka, Mien and Lisu tribes. It is hard to gather official statistics about these tribal populations because the people are constantly migrating between villages and cities across the country, but  a close estimate of the tribal population is 1,000,000.

About 75% of the total ethnic minority population resides on the mountains and hills in Northern Thailand along the Thai-Burma border. These tribal people originally came from China through Burma, and then settled in Laos, Vietnam, and Burma. These tribal people are all unique; each group has their own traditions, culture and language. The majority of these tribes have historically earned their living by means of agriculture and livestock, but secondary sources of income can include household-based handicraft production and wage employment. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, these ethnic minority groups cultivated opium as a cash crop and grew rice, corn and beans for consumption. In the late 19th century, the United Nations required that Thailand and other Asian countries ban opium production. This forced the hill tribe people to find new sources of income.

The hill tribes are among the most disadvantaged groups in Thai society. Since most of them live in remote areas where there is no social infrastructure or regular transportation, they cannot access basic social services such as public health care, education, and employment opportunities.

Racism and discrimination are other problems facing hill tribe communities. The tribal people are often taken advantage of as a way for the government or other organizations to get more funding. The media often presents ethnic minority groups in a negative light in roles such as drug barons, communists, and forest destructors. This has constructed a very strong negative social view of these minorities and has led to racism and discrimination.

Migrant workers

(https://www.google.co.th/?gws_rd=cr&ei=ZTTKV_mDMMvwvgSctrygBQ#q=illegal+immigrants+in+thail)

It is estimated that there are around 2 million migrant workers living in Thailand, although only around 700,000 are registered with labor authorities. Many workers migrated from Cambodia and Myanmar (Burma). They form an important part of Thailand’s workforce, but the difficulties that they commonly face, such as language barriers and fear of arrest and deportation, can prevent them from accessing information about healthcare and other social services. For example, knowledge about HIV/AIDS among this group is extremely poor. Their migratory lifestyle can put them into contact with a higher number of sexual networks, increasing both the risk that they will become infected and that they will spread infection to other areas of the country.

At least 40% of tribal people don’t have Thai citizenship and are often victims of racism and discrimination. Because they are not citizens, most tribal populations do not have access to resources provided by the government, and they do not know how to access resources provided by other development organizations. The four main problems of the tribal population in Thailand are 1) poverty, 2) limitation of education and illiteracy, 3) legal rights or social status, and 4) restriction of cultivation.

1) Poverty problem

(http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/thailand/overview)(http://www.th.undp.org/content/thailand/en/home/countryinfo.html)

The majority of tribal people are poor. The average family’s annual income is around USD $600 – 1,200. This falls under the poverty line as defined by both the Thai government and the UN. Most families do not have the time or resources to support their children’s education, and many school children drop out and get involved in drug dealing and prostitution. A large number of youth from rural communities are lured to big cities to seek better employment and development opportunities. It is estimated that around 60,000 to 80,000 tribal people from Northern Thailand have gone to the cities to seek employment. Because of their minimal education and work experience, they can only get jobs that involve hard labor. The Japanese label jobs like this as “3K,” which is derived from hard, dirty, high risk and low paid work, or in English they label these jobs as the 3Ds—difficult, dirty, and dangerous work. This kind of work includes gas fillers, construction workers, massagers, dish cleaners, sex workers and waitresses/waiters.

Many young girls get involved in prostitution, either voluntarily or by being forced into it by human traffickers. Even worse, many of them are being sold and treated as animals. Thailand is a source, transit, and destination country for human trafficking. Each year, 10,000 – 15,000 tribal women and children are sold into slavery in Thailand from neighborhood countries such as Burma, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Republic of China, Russia, and Uzbekistan by human traffickers. Ethnic minorities such as hill tribe people are at high risk for trafficking internally and abroad.(Department of State Report Release 2000)

http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_trafficking_in_Thailand

2) Limitation of education and illiteracy

About 70% of the total tribal population is illiterate. Only a portion of the younger generation has had access to formal education while the middle and older generations remain uneducated. Because they can’t speak Thai, the middle aged and elderly have had problems accessing social services. The Tribal Research Institute found that only 0.08% of all tribal students studied at the university level, 0.6% studied at the college level, 9.94% studied at a high school level, and 89.31% was only at kindergarten and primary school level. (Tribal Research Institute, The Ministry of Labor and Social Security, Tribal Student Education Report, 1995). Low education levels increase the likelihood of involvement in social problems such as drug addiction, drug dealing, youth gangs, sex trafficking, and diseases such as AIDS. According to the UNESCO global education ranking survey, Thailand ranked 60th in the world for percent of educated citizens. (UNESCO. The Leap To Equality Summary Report, 14 Nov. 2004 http://www.efareport.Unesco.org) ADB also reported that school dropout rates in South East Asia are high; only 50% of enrolled students completed primary school within the prescribed time, and less than 50% completed secondary schooling. A large number of tribal students encounter various problems that cause them to drop out of school, including child abandonment, migration, lack of parents’ motivation, poverty, and parents’ separation. This information demonstrates that Thailand’s education standard and tribal education standards are lagging behind (ADB. Combating Primary School Dropout in South East Asia. Manila Philippines: 1998).

3) Legal rights or social status

The tribal population in Thailand is also facing problems with their legal rights and social status. It is estimated that 40% of the tribal population still do not have Thai citizenship, thus they have difficulty acquiring homes and land, receiving social services, and traveling or working around Thailand. Authorities often force villagers to leave their communities in the hills because the villagers lack citizenship and legal documentation. Without citizenship, tribal people are often discriminated against. University graduates cannot apply for a job without having citizenship. In many tribal communities, especially along the border, tribal people are being extorted by officials for Thai citizenship. Many tribal people who have applied for citizenship have been extorted by local authorities for 10 – 20 years.

4) Restriction of cultivation

Most tribal people earn their living from agriculture and livestock, yet less than 30% of the population has legal rights to their land. The forest conservation and national parks policies of the Thai government restrict land use in many areas occupied by hill tribes as villages or farmland. The villagers are forced to leave their own communities and farmland, or face being put in jail.