Rachel Wiley SoAn 128b Chiappari Final Essay - Mills Word Count: 1,148
During the industrial and technological boom in the 1960s and 70s, thansamay (modernity) was no longer out of reach for rural Thai citizens. A simple life, living in small homes and working in the fields with cash crops for the international market, wasn’t the only option for work. Migration to Bangkok, Thailand’s capital and industrial and cultural hub, became a desirable option that offered multiple advantages. Money, adventure, stability, and independence were all coupled with working in Bangkok. Young men and women had two obligations, one to their family’s needs, but also to themselves, and their desire to “participate in the thansamay excitement and adventure of urban modernity” was an added bonus to their migration. Moving to the city to work was not the smoothest and simplest transition. Although work in the city offered many advantages, there were also disadvantages that parents of working children had to cope with. Without a child in their village, “elders could no longer count on their ability to direct or even influence the actions of juniors” (Mills 89). The dynamic of the traditional parent and child relationship was permanently changed when Thai children move to Bangkok or other cities to work. Women struggle the most with the transition and tension between their choices and others’ opinions. Being a good daughter is a difficult thing in Thai culture, especially when daughters are no longer under the constant supervision of parents. Sending daughters to Bangkok or other cities raises worries about their safety that does not exist for Thai males. The first thing to look at, however, is why exactly youth are moving out of rural areas like Baan Naa Sakae to Bangkok and other cities. Phoyaay Daeng was quoted saying “Nowadays we must follow our children’s hearts,” an idea that applies to the migration of Thai youth from rural areas to work in cities. Children leave
the villages they were raised in for multiple reasons, mainly for their financial and personal interests. It is most common, however, that children are working to support their families back home. Bun khun is the Buddhist idea “of obligations based of ‘debts of merit.’ [...] Children owe their parents not only life-long gratitude and respect but also [...] their active assistance, including labor and income, in the material and spiritual support of the parental household” (Mills 76). Children owe their parents infinitely for bringing them into the world and raising them. So, when there is opportunity for work in the city, children are able to make money and send it back to their families. Money, therefore, is a big draw to working in an urban environment like Bangkok, and like Mae Kew, the first women to leave Baan Naa Sakae in the late 60s, others were enticed by the financial incentive of working in the city. She said, “I got 150 baht per month. That was a lot in those days and we needed the money” (Mills 74). Simply stated, money was needed to support family and so she went to work in order to fulfill her innate responsibility to her parents. It was beneficial to have a child working in the city and earning wages because working in Baan Naa Sakae was not reliable for financial stability. Often, because of the dry and sandy soils of the Isan region crops could wield poorly and money would be hard to come by. Having a child working a consistent job in the city was a definite financial advantage. For the children themselves, however, there was a different incentive for why they migrated to the cities to work. “Migration is also a chance for adventure, a means to acquire new experiences and to exercise a degree of personal independence that few would otherwise enjoy until much later in life,” and offers something that all youth long for: freedom (Mills 75). The two main incentives for the migration of rural work to the city is financial support and personal experience.
