A Burmese woman and her child in a Burmese tea house in Mahachai, a fishing port in Samut Sakhon province.
There are more than two million Burmese migrant workers in Thailand. Many work in the fishing industry. A large number also work in the agricultural industy on farms near the Thai / Burma border. Others in construction trades in Bangkok, or electronics factories or as a domestic and hotel servants. Like many immigrants in the US, who end up living difficult lives in low paying jobs, many Burmese immigrants in Thailand work in low paying, sometimes dangerous (like in the fishing industry) jobs.
Many in the United States believe undocumented immigration is a uniquely American problem. It's not. It's a global phenomenon. It's changing the face of Europe, where immigrants from Africa and the Middle East come looking to better their lives.
But just as with Mexican and Latin American immigrants in Arizona, it is the Burmese migrant workers - more than 2 million, by some counts - that come to Thailand illegally who drive the Mae Sot economy.
They work in factories and fields. They are domestic workers in Thai homes and wash dishes in restaurants. They do jobs they claim the Thais won't do. But they live in the shadows, evading Thai immigration police and deportation.
Bouncing down a dirt road on the way to a hosiery factory, Nyein Aung (not his real name), a Burmese labor organizer, said there are about 100,000 Burmese migrant workers around Mae Sot. "Of these" he said, "fewer than 20,000 have work permits. But these workers make everything."
The factory itself is a cinderblock building with a corrugated tin roof. There is no sign in front. Inside, it has neither fans nor air-conditioning. The air is stifling. About 120 people work in the factory, which operates Monday through Friday 14 hours a day. On Saturdays and Sundays, the factory is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. so workers can spend the evenings with their families.
Kyaw Zaw, 31, is a worker in the factory. Speaking through a translator, he said he had been working in the factory for two years. "It's very difficult to live in Burma; here, we make enough for our family to live."
He said his salary was the equivalent of about $4.70 (U.S.) per day. Still, that's nearly five times what he made in Burma.
In Thailand, the factory owner provided his housing and rice and bribed immigration authorities to stay away from his factory. In Burma, Kyaw had to provide his family's housing and rice.
Thai employers, tired of paying higher wages that Thai workers command and tired of dealing with labor unions, break the law when they hire Burmese. And because the Burmese have no legal status in Thailand, they can't complain of mistreatment or abuse.
Thai police and soldiers search Burmese migrants for contraband along the banks of the Moei River or on the streets of Mae Sot, but they don't usually arrest or deport them. Illegal rafters cross the Moei River under the shadow of the Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge, the only legal crossing point on this part of the border, in the middle of the day in clear sight of Thai immigration authorities, who ignore them.
Illegal-crossing points dot the border, each under the control of a different Burmese political faction. The bridge is used only by people with legal papers.
It's not unusual to see Thai immigration police hauling truckloads of Burmese migrants back to the border, but it's difficult to figure out how one person gets picked up and another doesn't.
One afternoon, a Thai police truck packed with Burmese migrants made its way to a crossing north of town. The truck pulled into the crossing, and police unlocked the back of the truck. Women and children jumped out and walked down to the riverbank, where large boats were waiting to take them back to Burma.
On the Burmese side of the river, large boats were taking more Burmese across the river to Thailand. As the deported Burmese walked down to the river, they passed their countrymen coming to Thailand. An immigration agent said the outgoing people were being repatriated because they were caught without papers. The agent explained that the people crossing into Thailand were being ignored because they "hadn't been caught yet."
On a barren hillside about 20 miles south of Mae Sot, some Burmese laborers were planting corn. Speaking through a translator, one of the workers said, "We can't own land here. We only do the work the Thais won't do. We don't take their jobs. They don't want to do this anymore."
It was hot and humid, and the air was still. It was miserable, and the work, walking for hours bent at the waist dropping kernels of corn into a small ditch, was grueling.
Farther down the road, at another farm, Burmese women were packing roses for shipment to Bangkok. Their foreman, Zaw Shin, said the farm employed 150 people.
"This is a good job for Burmese people. We work from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week. Our boss treats us well, provides our housing."
He said that men were paid a little more than $2 per day but that women, "who aren't as strong," are paid only about $1.70 a day.
Zaw said he came to Thailand to make a better life for his family. "We'd like to go back, but we probably won't. Things are not getting better there." He said he didn't have papers, which meant staying out of sight.
Children of Burmese migrants can't go to Thai schools unless they can show proof of legal residency. So, he had to send his children to special schools set up for Burmese migrants.
About 75 children attend the Blue Sky School in Mae Sot. Three- to 5-year-olds are in the school's day care. Five- to 12-year-olds attend elementary school. Their education stops when they turn 12; that's when they join their parents at work.
Child labor in Asia, especially in migrant communities, is the rule rather than the exception.
Wai Yan Kyaw looks younger than 14. He works alongside his father and older sister on a tomato farm south of town. His mother cares for his infant brother.
"We came here two months ago from Burma," he said. "My father was a farmer there, but life was hard. This is a good job for us." He said he made about $1.50, his sister made about $1.70 and his father made $1.90 a day. The family survived on $5.10 per day.
Pulling up old tomato stakes, Wai said he missed his life in Burma. "It's better here. But my friends are there. My school is there. I was good in school. I can read and write, but here I have to work."
Looking around, he said, "I want to go back. But my parents weren't happy there. And we were always hungry. We need the money."
He smiled, turned away, walked down the row and started pulling up stakes - like thousands of Burmese do every day to live and work in Thailand.
Burmese migrants walk through a housing complex in Mahachai. Most of the residents of the complex are Burmese immigrants.
Burmese women watch TV in a tenement in Mahachai.
Burmese women in a hallway in the tenement in Mahachai.
A Burmese worker lets himself into his tenement.
A man and his son in front of their apartment.
A Burmese woman in a tea house in Mahachai.
Photos of Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and her father, Burmese independence hero Gen. Aung San.
Men in a Burmese tea house. Like immigrants everywhere, the Burmese immigrants in Thailand brought many features of their culture with them.
A Burmese teenager who works in a fish processing plant buy betel, the slightly narcotic stimulant, from a betel vendor in Mahachai.
A woman waits to get betel from a vendor in Mahachai.
Burmese workers in a shrimp processing plant wait to go into the plant before work.
A Burmese worker finishes her breakfast at a street food stall in Mahachai.
Burmese workers come home after a shift in a fish processing plant in Mahachai.
A Burmese man sits next to Burmese pharmacy displaying a photo of "The Lady," Aung San Suu Kyi.
A woman does her laundry on the roof of her tenement building.
A tenement building occupied by Burmese in Mahachai.
Thai language classes in an informal school on the roof of a tenement building housing Burmese migrants.
Thai language classes in an informal school on the roof of a tenement building housing Burmese migrants.
A Burmese baby in his parents' apartment in Mahachai.
A Burmese man on the balcony of his apartment.
A Burmese man walks down the hallway of his tenement building.
A Burmese man who works in the fishing industry repairs his boots.
Burmese crewmen on a Thai fishing trawler coming back into port.
Burmese crewmen on a Thai fishing trawler coming back into port.
A Burmese crewman on a fishing trawler unloads the catch.
A Burmese crewman on a fishing trawler unloads the catch.
A Burmese crewman walks away from the trawler he worked on after coming back into Mahachai port.
A Burmese woman repairs fishing nets in Mahachai.
A Burmese woman tries to comfort her crying child in the Mae Tao clinic in Mae Sot, Thailand.
Burmese women work in a Thai clothing factory in Mae Sot.
Burmese migrants in a Thai immigration police van after being arrested at their workplace. They were being returned to Myanmar.
A Burmese farmworker plants corn on a hillside in western Thailand.
A teacher in a private school for Burmese migrants in western Thailand.
A man reads a Burmese exile newspaper in his hut near the Thai / Myanmar border.
A Burmese man walks through Mahachai.
