2.-MÉTODO Y MATERIALES 2.1 Objetivos

Identification of child and youth migrants is in this study done on the basis of social characteristics, rather than rigidly enforcing arbitrary and problematic age-based

constructs, as discussed in the previous chapter. This way, all migrants who had migrated prior to having established their own families or households are considered child and youth migrants, simply since the FGDs analysed in the previous chapter illustrated that having

one’s own household is a key criterion for adulthood. Subsequently, 11 out of the 67 records of migrants presented above were deleted, as these records belong to adult migrants, individuals who had migrated whilst already having established their own households. The remaining 56 records belong to mostly single, never married individuals and some young divorcees.

The next step comprised adding a total of 19 records, belonging to children and youth who were identified as young migrants through other methods than the household survey. This included cases of young migrants that were unreported in the household survey, but also children and youth who had migrated prior to the period covered by the survey (prior to September 2006) and who had subsequently returned, as well as migrations observed in the period following the household survey (October 2007-March 2009).

By adding these 19 records, the working definition of migration was further loosened. In spatial terms it now includes migrations involving a mere change of residence within Baan Naam (this refers to two cases of child fosterage, and one case of entering the Buddhist Sangha), and in terms of duration it now includes migrations of very short duration. The shortest spell refers to a girl who first got involved in migration at the age of 17 when taking up factory work in Vientiane, only to return two days later due to dissatisfaction with the working conditions and salary. Other short-term work-related trips away from the household such as staying overnight in the family fields or day labour on the Thai side of the border are not, however, considered migration here because these work related mobilities are by villagers regarded as part and parcel of residential village life.

Whilst most migrations undertaken by the added 19 young people took place over greater distances and lasted much longer than the two-days of urban factory work described above, these short spells of migration or migrations covering hardly any physical distance are nevertheless included in the analysis here since especially at a young age such events constitute important formative migratory experiences that affect subsequent migration decisions:

I don’t want to live in Vientiane because people there will look at me since they can see that I’m from baan nôôk (the countryside). They will also talk about me since I will make mistakes. This will make me feel shy. I know this is true because I stayed in Vientiane when I was 14. My relatives had asked my mother if I could come and stay with them. I went and worked in my aunt’s shop but I left after one week already because I felt I couldn’t stay there. (Notes from photo-based interview with Choi on 7-8/2/2008, she was 15 years old at the time of interview)

Adding the additional 19 records raises the total sample to 75 migrant children and youth, from here on termed ‘young migrants’, consisting of 34 boys and young men, and 41 girls

and young women. The vast majority of these 75 young migrants are so-called

‘independent’ migrants (Whitehead et al. 2007), meaning that they have migrated without parents or adult care-givers. To be precise, in six instances the young migrants migrated in the company of parents or caregivers. This concerns one case of temporary family

migration involving a 12 year old girl and her seven year old brother. In another case, two daughters joined their mother to work at a construction site in Bangkok at age 15 and 16 respectively. In yet another case, a daughter left at the age of 14 together with her mother for a factory in central Thailand and finally, a son who joined his father at the age of 14 logging wood in Vientiane Province.

By combining data obtained through several methods, the age of first migration could in be established with relative accuracy in 65 cases. This is presented in Figure 6.2.

Figure 6.2: Young migrants by sex and age of first migration (n=75)

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18

Below 9 9-11 12-14 15-17 18-20 21-23 Above 23 Age 1st

migr unclear Age groups in chronological age (by approximation)

Number of young migrants

Male Female

Comparing Figure 6.1 with Figure 6.2, two striking observations emerge. In terms of gender, the gender ratio in Figure 6.2 (34:41), compared with Figure 6.1 (35:32), is reversed with overall more female young migrants than male. Furthermore, basing the analysis on ‘first age of migration’ instead of ‘age at survey’, which was used in Figure 6.1, brings out more strongly that it is predominantly girls who migrate at a young age.

Second, using age at time of survey, which is also used in the Lao Migration Survey (MoLSW et al. 2003), it appears that hardly any children are involved in migration. When adjusting this for first age of migration this initial conclusion needs to be revisited.

A total of seven of these young migrants are observed to have left their natal household before the age of 12. This includes one boy who became a novice in Isaan in the village of his maternal grandmother, one boy who stayed together with his older sister and parents for a couple of weeks on a relatives’ farm in another district to help out with the harvest, and five cases of fostering (three within the village, two in another district). Whilst novices fill an important part of their day with all sorts of chores in and around the monastery (see e.g. Bilodeau et al. 1955), and fosterage of children is often as much about filling labour demands in the receiving household as it is about decreasing the number of mouths to feed, infertility, old-age security, and continuation of lineage (see e.g. Sparkes 2005), these purposes of migration are nevertheless mostly regarded as social and non-economic.

Hence, in the case of Baan Naam the few young children involved in migration were not found to be involved in migration for purposes of work solely.

6.2.2 Young migrants’ educational attainment and the relation between migration and education

Hashim’s (2007) work on independent child migration and education in the Ghanaian context shows that the linkages between the involvement in migration at a young age and pursuing an education are complex and can be both negative as well as positive. This section analyses some of these linkages in the context of Baan Naam.

The first question is whether young migrants have terminated their education prematurely in order to migrate, or were forced to do so? Considering young migrants’ educational attainment in comparison with observed patterns of educational attainment in Baan Naam sheds some light on this question. Figure 6.3 plots the educational attainment of the 75 young migrants by sex. It shows that the vast majority (86%) of young migrants have at least completed compulsory education (primary level). This data cannot be directly compared with other data sources on educational attainment like census data since these sources structure data on educational attainment differently by, for example, total population, age of compulsory education only, etc. Nonetheless, the pattern presented in Figure 6.3, largely mirrors enrolment patterns presented in the previous chapter. It seems thus safe to conclude that the pattern depicted in Figure 6.3 is not a-typical for

contemporary educational attainment at a village wide level.

Figure 6.3: Young migrants’ educational attainment by gender (n=75)

Educational attainm ent at tim e of survey (corrected)

Number of observations

Male Female

The ‘studying’ column illustrates that involvement in migration constitutes in the case of Baan Naam also a means to participate in education, often beyond what is locally

available. A total of 12 young migrants migrated for purposes of education, ten (five male;

five female) for post-secondary education, and two (males) for secondary education. With the exception of one young man who has meanwhile completed his teacher training (‘tertiary completed’) all others are still studying and, therefore, included in the ‘studying’

column. The remaining three records (2 male; 1 female) in the studying column refer to young migrants who study in Baan Naam but who had migrated during school holidays. In one case only, work was the main purpose of migration. In this case, a then 18 year old upper-secondary student worked for a couple of weeks on a construction site in Vientiane city over the long school holiday. Other than this, involvement in migrant work in

combination with studying in Baan Naam was not observed even though this is, theoretically, quite possible due to the long school holidays.

At this point it is worth noting that migration for purposes of work and migration for purposes of education may in the literature be treated as opposites, in practice they may well be intertwined. Padu, for example, is the first-born daughter of a secondary school teacher couple in Baan Naam. She first came to Vientiane at 19 years of age for purposes of study. Since she did not have any relatives in Vientiane who could accommodate her, she settled for accommodation in return for doing domestic work and helping out in a small restaurant owned by her host-family, a family she was not related to. Due to this arrangement most of her days were filled with work, and only a few hours a day she spent studying even though education was her prime motivation for migration. Still, Padu is one

of the fortunate few because her family is one of the few families in Baan Naam with the means to put children into post-secondary education. For most families, sending children to Vientiane for formal post-secondary formal education is not an option, or at best only possible for one of their children. In such cases migrant work constitutes in fact a more realistic way of learning a skill or a trade than participation in formal education. For this reason precisely Wang was sent to Vientiane at the age of 15 in order to work for her father’s younger sister. Wang is the fifth-born in family of six and she was the only daughter still present in the household prior to her migration. As Wang was no longer in school, her father argued that by working for his younger sister who made a living selling chicken dishes in the local market Wang would at least learn to cook and to trade; a valuable skill in his view as Wang might one day start her own business doing this kind of work. Similarly, Paan, the fifth-born in a family with nine children left Baan Naam at age 15 with a group of fellow villagers in order to work in a garment workshop in central Thailand. Like Wang, Paan was also already out of school. For Paan, working in a garment workshop was not just a means of earning a salary, but importantly, also an informal training in tailoring. By learning to tailor she hoped that she would one day be able to open her own tailoring shop. Finally, a last born daughter in one of the wealthier, landed

households quit school after having finished one year of lower secondary education at the age of 12. Although, a bright student she quit school and took-up an apprentice position in a beauty shop in Vientiane. As a result she was able to open her own beauty shop from her parents’ house in Baan Naam at the age of 13, something she would not have been able to achieve had she stayed in school (RD, 8/9/2008).

The latter example was the only case observed of a young villager quitting school in order to migrate. However, in several other cases migration of young villagers was observed as indirectly contributing to prematurely dropping out of school. For example, migration of one young household member often effectively increases the workload for the remaining young household members which may lead to quitting school. This dynamic is discussed in more detail in chapter seven. However, it is worth noting that quitting school in such cases is not necessarily a forced course of action, but may also constitute an act of agency on the part of the drop-out. The latter because education is in the Lao context increasingly

regarded as unquestionably benign, despite the boredom that characterises the everyday reality in most Lao classrooms and the various school-related disciplinary measures imposed on young people’s lives described in chapter five. Putting quitting school in the

framework of filial obligations is one of the few socially appropriate explanations young Lao villagers can give for terminating their education prematurely, apart from resorting to self-derogatory qualification as stupid and lazy. On the other hand, in some instances younger siblings are able to continue their education precisely because of older siblings’

involvement in migrant work, if, for example, remittances are in part used to pay for school fees and other educational expenses of siblings. The dynamics described above tend to be shaped by relations of gender and generation.