Burmese migrant women workers in Thailand: Juggling production and reproduction

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the unpaid care work of Burmese migrant workers in garment factories in Thailand, to bring the analysis back to issues concerning women's unpaid domestic and care labour in poor households in developing countries. It tracks the complex strategies migrant women employ to fulfil their care responsibilities, both to their natal families in their countries of origin and their new families in their country of destination. It details the ways in which the state systems in both countries of origin and destination not only fail to contribute support to migrant women's welfare and caring responsibilities, but also often directly obstruct their ability to care for their families and themselves.