Impact of the AEC on Migrant Workers: A Case Study of the Rohingya in Khon Kaen Thailand

Abstract

There are several researches in Myanmese nevertheless they never concern Rohingya migrant workers. Because the ASEAN is going to become AEC in 2015, they can migrate freely in the region and National Treatment. The aim of this research is to study how AEC affects to Rohingya workers in Khon Kaen Thailand by qualitative research approach, sample selection with Snowball sampling, and in-depth interview, the limitation is interview only 11 sample. This study demonstrate awareness of AEC effects and find the workers have very less knowledge about AEC, in addition every Rohingya workers express that there is no effect from ASEAN community because they do not have Myanmese identity card and never be Myanmar nationality. Every migrant would not like to go back to Myanmar because there is not confident that the Myanmese government recognizes Rohingya as the Myanmese. In contrast, they hope the government’s merciful operations to provide citizenship as right as the one of Myanmese.