“What Did They Do?”－Factors Influencing the Employment of Workers Returned to Thailand.

• Main Authors: Shih-Pang Huang, 黃士榜
• Other Authors: Ching-Lung Tsay
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/76662018483844882992

碩士 === 淡江大學 === 東南亞研究所碩士班 === 94 === The largest group of foreign workers in Taiwan is Thai. Previous studies mostly examined their working and living conditions. Only few discussed their foreign working experience and its relation to job search upon the return to their native villages. In this study, selected Thai workers interviewed in both Taiwan and Thailand. Based on the concept of the “Event History”, information on work experience in Thailand after returning from abroad were collected. Completing this study, I hope to observe what factors have been influence the Thai labors in looking for jobs. Thailand has achieved rapid economic growth since 1980s and has been recognized as a new NIE in Asia. But the fruit of economical growth is only enjoyed by the ruling elites, most of the peasants still fight for their social needs. While unemployment increased, Thai government worked to place newly redundant labor in more dynamic economies by “export” domestic unemployment overseas. The labor migration path in the early 1970s were almost exclusively to the Middle East. The volume then declined and was more than offset by the increased number of workers migrating to East and Southeast Asia. Compared to other developing countries, Thailand has traditionally maintaining a relatively liberal and open attitude towards FDI. The depending of FDI has evolved with the transformation of the Thai economic development. Under the government policy, the industries were more labor-intensive in favoring both the FDI and the domestic market. Not merely few decades the rapid economic growth and international competition makes the industrial transform to the medium- and high-technology manufacturing. These transitions not only give outflow of Thai workers to other countries, but also attract the massive inflow of labor force from neighboring countries to Thailand. This paper observed that the transition of economic development was little benefit for the mass of workers with little education. The high-technology manufacturing preferred highly-educated workers who have research and development ability or management experience to improve the industries competition. Thai labors with foreign experience were mostly low-skilled, and thus could not satisfy the industries needs. As a result, they tend to be declined for employment opportunities. Besides, the local labor-intensive manufacturing preferred female labors. Other influencing factors such as the lower wages of neighboring countries labors competing with the native labors. As the country exports a growing number of workers, it is receiving probably an even larger amount of workers from the neighboring less developed countries. These phenomenons seemed not uncommon in the Thai society nowadays. At the individual level, education is a fundamental problem. Because of low attainment, the returned Thai labors could not suite the medium- and highly-skilled manufacturing, the differential opportunity is restricted. The main benefit of Thai international labor migration was its potential for generating material wealth. Therefore the salary utilization affects the jobs selection. Some of the return labors use their salaries mainly in purchases the agriculture instruments; or buy a car to facilitate their life and improve their job selective. Finally, the foreign working experience did not vantage their job selection in the native country. One could attribute the differential opportunity to unskilled ability and employer tendency to refuse the foreign working experience as a working preference.