Cross-border migration of people from
Myanmar to Thailand has a long history spanning
many decades. In the past, ethnic groups who
lived along the Thai-Myanmar borders, especially
the Karen, the Mon and the Shan, spontaneously
crossed the borders to visit friends, buy goods or
seek healthcare services in the area regularly.
During the military regime administration in the
1980s, the borders were quiet with no official
crossings although the ethnic people commuted
unofficially. On the other hand, a significant
number of asylum-seekers who were ethnic
minorities fighting against the Myanmar
government started to enter Thailand to take
refuge in that decade. The Thai government
agreed to host a big number of approximately
140,000 political asylum-seekers in nine
temporary shelters in four provinces at border
areas. Another wave of migrants arrived in the

1
Professor Emeritus at Faculty of Political Science
and Director of Asian Research Center for Migration,
Institute of Asian Studies at Chulalongkorn
University.
This policy paper is a part of the research project on
“Myanmar Economy in the Context of ASEAN
Economic Integration and Regional Change”
conducted by IDE-JETRO.
1990s for economic reasons. They were both
ethnic and Burmese people. Since 1992, Thailand
has started to officially recognize the arrival and
the entrance of migrants from Myanmar into
Thailand’s labour market. The first registration of
migrants as unskilled workers began that year.