It’s no surprise that many Cambodians in the country’s north east illegally migrate to Thailand for work. Simply put: There’s more work in Thailand than in Cambodia. Illegal migration, of course, has some serious consequences, especially for the worker:

But informal work in Thailand remains risky. While Cambodians are lured by relatively high wages, they represent a way for Thai managers to cut costs by paying them less. Because employees have no papers and representation, they must work at the whim of the boss.

At best, this translates to sub-standard living conditions and low pay. Often, too, it has resulted in unsafe or abusive working conditions, indentured servitude, or outright theft. At the extreme end, the situation has allowed for enslavement and trafficking, with Cambodians who arrive intending to work on construction sites or farms being sold as virtual slaves on Thai fishing trawlers.

In 2015, the Association of South East Asian Nations will form an economic community. This is a free trade zone across the ten member nations. With the legal mobility of people across the ASEAN region as a result of the economic integration, will such brutality of migrant workers be reduced? I suspect the the “whim of the boss” will simply morph into new forms of worker oppression. After all, that’s the history of capital vs the worker.