Burmese refugees in Thailand - education

See also the Education section in Main Library
expand all
collapse all

Websites/Multiple Documents

Description: The blog dedicated to our educational aid project benefiting a children's home in Nu Po Camp, one of nine Burmese refugee camps in the border area of Thailand
Source/publisher: Books for Burmese Refugees
Date of entry/update: 2010-04-21
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English, Francais, French
more
Description: "Help without frontiers is a voluntary association. The objectives of the organization are to help the Burmese refugees. It was founded by some young and enthusiastic people who want to help, without geographic and also without mental frontiers. The primary objective of the organization is to alleviate the suffering of the Burmese refugees who have had to flee their homeland because of brutality and inhuman treatment carried out by the Burmese government. We are currently helping the refugees, mainly from the ethnic minority of the Karen, on the Thai-Burmese border near the city of Mae Sot which is located about 500km North West of Bangkok..."
Source/publisher: Help Without Frontiers
Date of entry/update: 2008-03-25
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English, Deutsch, German, Italian, Italiano
more
expand all
collapse all

Individual Documents

Description: "Successive Myanmar governments have attempted to consolidate power by gaining control over various states and people. Their efforts have resulted in entrenched, ongoing conflicts between the Burmese military and other ethnic armed organisations, such as the Karen National Union (KNU). Consequently, many ethnic armed group members and displaced people have fled to Thailand to seek refuge from armed conflict. More than forty refugee camps were set up along the Thai-Myanmar border in the late 1980s and 1990s (Kasetsisi 2001; Trichote 2004; Vaddhanaphuti and Sitthikriengkrai 2016). At first, Thai authorities provided some humanitarian support for refugees, and provided them with temporary asylum. But, as the Myanmar military periodically attacked these camps, in the late 1990s, Thai authorities consolidated the refugees into bigger camps to facilitate control over them. Now assistance is provided to refugees in only nine refugee camps in four border provinces: Tak, Mae Hong Son, Kanchanaburi, and Ratchaburi. Currently, there are more than ninety thousand refugees on the Thai-Myanmar border, most of whom are Karen. Many have now been refugees for more than three decades. Since 2011, global attention on these camps has faded, and the future of these refugees is uncertain. In order to provide safe, viable options for displaced people on the Thai-Myanmar border, humanitarian organisations must consider the voices and perspectives of refugees. This issue is close to my heart as I am a Karen who grew up near the Thai-Myanmar border. I have been working with refugees for almost three years with Partners Relief and Development Foundation based in Mae Sot, Tak. Refugees are very close to us here in Mae Sot and interaction with refugees is a part of daily life. Whenever I take the bus back to my hometown, I see Karen refugees often. I love to talk, so that is how I got to know many of them. One of my refugee friends worked for the same foundation as me. I became perplexed by how many refugees stayed in the camps, waiting for relocation or improved aid, rather than leaving the camps for repatriation to Myanmar or to pursue other livelihoods. This drove me to pursue my MA in ethnicity and development at Chiang Mai University. My first main goal for studying at the Center for Ethnic Studies and Development was not to push any policy changes for refugees, but to understand them in depth: their problems, their lives, their dreams. It took me several months to understand the structures and the larger forces driving displacement in the area. I realised that in order to create helpful outcomes, international organizations involved in defining durable solutions must listen to the voices of refugees. Refugees, who must live out the rest of their lives in resettlement sites, must at least be given some choice in the matter. Durable solutions? Refugee camps are intended to be temporary, but refugees themselves need long term options, especially as international funding fades. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has offered three “durable solutions” to refugees, including on the Thai-Myanmar, in the hopes of closing the camps: resettlement, local integration, and voluntary repatriation. The first option, resettlement, is raised when refugees are unable to return to their country of origin. Resettlement helps refugees find a more stable life in another country. In 2005, the US government agreed to receive refugees from the Thai-Myanmar border. However, this option was closed in January 2014. Today, there are still some refugees who registered with the US resettlement program who are still waiting for relocation. Some refugees continue waiting with the hope that one day the resettlement program will reopen. The second option, local integration, is where refugees receive help with their language and other skills needed to live a full life in their first country of refuge. However, since Thailand is not a member of the 1951 Refugee Convention, local integration is not realistically possible. Still, some refugees try to integrate individually. They build up relationships between refugees and the local community by sending their children to Thai schools or, in some cases, refugees get married to Thai citizen. The third option is the voluntary repatriation of refugees to their countries of origin. Officially, this is the only available alternative for refugees in Thailand right now. While some refugees in Thailand are concerned about their deteriorating livelihoods in Thailand and do genuinely wish to return to Myanmar, some are in fact forced to “voluntarily” return to Myanmar against their will. Because repatriation to UNHCR would mean going back to a government-controlled area, refugees may reject this option as their homes are in a KNU-controlled area. That makes repatriation to Myanmar very complicated issue and few refugees choose to repatriate with UNHCR. As I will explain, some refugees choose to return to KNU-controlled areas on their own, but this is a challenging path too. During my research I had the opportunity to travel to several villages in the border area and met many refugees who chose to return to KNU-controlled areas of Karen State. Most of them said the reason for their return was the reduction in aid delivered to them through the refugee camps. According to Thai policies, refugees are unable to officially leave the camp. They have to keep quiet, with no legal recourse to request more aid or freer movement. So, when the quality and quantity of funding decreases, it directly affects them. Some of my interviewees pointed out that as a result of funding reductions, they have been unable to receive the four necessities they require, which are clothing, food, housing, and medicine. How refugees themselves think about repatriation Karen refugee Naw Su Poe (a pseudonym) recently decided to return to Myanmar – but not to a government-controlled location. Instead, she chose to go to an area controlled by the KNU. She explained her experience leaving the camp after inviting me to have lunch with her and her family while I was collecting data for my thesis. Naw Su Poe’s bamboo house was very plain and her two daughters sat beside her husband as she talked. She told me that she was originally from the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) Brigade 6 area. Her family first crossed into Thailand because there was a military battle in their village. After spending fifteen years in the refugee camps, there was a marked reduction in food aid delivered through the camp. Naw Su Poe said, “We couldn’t even make a fire for cooking because we couldn’t find bamboo or wood. In our daily lives we were confronted by poverty. We had to hide and sneak out of the camp just to collect basic wood and bamboo. This is why I made the decision to return to Myanmar.” The much older Uncle Tee Wah (a pseudonym) provided further perspective on why repatriating to a KNU area is preferable for some refugees. I met him in Wa Hmee Aye Village (also a pseudonym) in a KNU-controlled village, close to the Thailand border. It was a cloudy day, and I kept watch on the grey, threatening skies as I rode my Dad’s old motorbike there. Along the road, farmers were planting corn seeds and I enjoyed the air rushing past my face, seeing the brown earth landscape uncovering itself like chocolate. When I arrived at Wa Hmee Aye village, I spoke to several people before Uncle Tee Wah. They had chosen to live here, in a KNU area, because they had experienced too much subjugation by the Tatmadaw, even until today. They remained skeptical of authorities and their perspective was: if you fight for your rights and are forced from your own home, would you believe the people who attacked you if they one day said you could return? Myanmar’s politics and circumstances may have appeared to have changed, but would you trust the “new” authorities? Uncle Tee Wah said bluntly: “Myanmar’s administration is attempting to showcase its willingness to receive refugees but we can’t put our faith in them.” He used the analogy of, “hanging the goat’s head, but selling the pork meat”. This refers to someone putting a goat head above their market stall, implying they are selling expensive goat meat, although they are actually selling cheap, half-price pork meat at a goat price to customers. Uncle Tee Wah also decided to move to Wa Hmee Aye Village out of a desire not to “waste” the remaining time in his life. He said that because he was getting older and did not have much time left, he refused to believe the people who had wounded him and caused his life so much misery. Engaging with the Myanmar authorities was a complete waste of time. “It’s also preferable to come to this area rather than in a refugee camp, which is not ideal. The situation is pretty terrible there since, in addition to the decreased aid, you can’t find work. I am getting older and when I get sick, I will be pushed to the bottom of the priority list for work,” Uncle Tee Wah said. The experiences of Uncle Tee Wah show how trauma and unforgettable memories can reinforce refugee ambivalence. If you look at the current situation in Myanmar after the 1 February military coup, there is still considerable fighting between ethnic armed groups such as the Karen National Liberation Army and the Tatmadaw. This begs the question: “Can these refugees really go home now?” The top-down durable solutions that the UNHCR and Thai authorities have promoted since the humanitarian crisis began on the Thailand-Myanmar border require revision. They will continue to directly affect refugee lives in the future. Before all the authorities make their decisions, they must include refugee voices and ideas in order to create real durable solutions for them. References Kasetsiri, C. (2001). Burma: History and Politics. The Foundation for the Promotion of Social Sciences and Humanities Textbooks Projects. Trichote, P. (2004). The Policy of Burma Repatriation from Thailand Research Project. Institute of Asian Studies. Chulalongkorn University. Vaddhanaphuti, C. & Sitthikriengkrai, M. (2016). The Alternative of Policy to Solving the problem of refugees in temporary shelters. National Human Rights Commission of Thailand..."
Source/publisher: Tea Circle (Myanmar)
2021-09-08
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description: "If we had stayed in the village, we knew that our children could never attend school and I wanted my children to go to school to be educated people. We also didn?t have any house to stay in. We could only stay in the forest and we had to flee away when the SPDC came or patrolled around our area, so we decided it was better to go to the refugee camp...”
Source/publisher: The Struggle for Education
2015-03-12
Date of entry/update: 2018-02-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description: "This paper outlines some of the current issues affecting teacher training in seven refugee camps - Mae La, Nu Po, Umpiem-mai, Mae La Oon, Mae Ra Ma Luang, Ban Don Yang and Tham Hin - along the Thai-Burmese border. It describes the current teacher training system and highlights the positive outcomes and challenges involved in implementing a teacher training system in difficult geographical, political and administrative circumstances..."
Creator/author: Janet Steadman; Series editor: Su-Ann Oh
Source/publisher: ZOA Refugee Care Thailand (Issue Paper No. 3)
2008-12-00
Date of entry/update: 2011-11-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 237.85 KB
more
Description: ABSTRACT: "The Karen, an ethnic minority group in Burma, have experienced a prolonged state of exile in refugee camps in neighboring Thailand due to ethnic conflict in their home country. Nursery schools in the three largest Karen refugee camps aim to promote psychosocial development of young children by providing a child-centered, creative, learning-friendly environment. Psychosocial development and potentially concerning behaviors of two- to five-year old children in nursery schools were examined using a psychosocial checklist. The results showed that psychosocial development of the children increased with age, with a majority of five year olds being proficient in playing cooperatively with other children. A third of the children showed sadness or emotional outbursts. Difficulty separating from parents was also observed. The results also showed that children who attended the nursery schools for more than a year were better at playing cooperatively with other children and were more aware of their own and others? feelings. On the other hand, children who were newer to the nursery schools were more polite and better at following rules and controlling their feelings when frustrated. The results indicate that nursery schools can be a promising practice to promote healthy psychosocial development of children in protracted refugee situations."
Creator/author: Akiko Tanaka
2011-11-00
Date of entry/update: 2011-11-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 357.44 KB
more
Description: Abstract: "This literature-based study explores three main paradoxes underlying Higher Education in Protracted Refugee Situations both theoretically as well as in relation to the case of Burmese refugees in Thailand. Firstly, the study will explore the paradox of basic relief for refugees on the one hand and developmental efforts for higher education on the other. Secondly, the issue of higher education and the nation-state will be addressed in relation to refugees? perceived liminality in the national world order. The last paradox to resolve revolves around ways refugees are commonly perceived as victims of war and conflict who are unable to cope with the challenges of higher education. Following a rights-based approach and adopting post-structural theories, this dissertation demonstrates how dominant educational discourse emphasises externalities and thereby neglects the individual?s right to higher education from permeating into practice while powerful narratives of refugees as dependent victims have shaped reality in justifying mechanisms for international protection and incapacitating refugees. The study concludes that higher education could be both a means and an end to refugee empowerment."
Creator/author: Barbara Zeus
Source/publisher: Institute of Education University of London
2009-09-01
Date of entry/update: 2011-07-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more
Description: "The ZOA Education Survey 2010 is the fourth of a series of surveys on the education in refugee camps along the Thai-Burmese border. The purpose of the education survey is to • document the provision of education in the camps • provide background information on a sample of residents • make systematic comparisons across time, and • generate discussions and recommendations for future education provision strategies. The Education Survey in 2009 was conducted using set questionnaires with 3,910 respondents1. This was supplemented by focus group interviews with particular groups of camp residents. The survey was conducted between June and November 2009 in seven refugee camps along the Thai-Burmese border: Mae La, Umphiem-Mai, Nu Po, Mae La Oon, Mae Ra Ma Luang, Ban Don Yang and Tham Hin. Refugees from Burma in Thailand The profile of the respondents showed that there have been changes since 2005. With regards to education, the levels of attainment in 2009 are about the same as the 2005 cohort. However, there is a significant difference in that the percentage of people with Standard 10 qualifications is much higher than it was in 2005. The levels of literacy of the respondents in 2009 were much lower than that of their counterparts in 2005, but women who used Skaw Karen as the home language had higher levels of literacy than those in the sample in 2005. The percentage of respondents in different income categories has become more spread out than in 2005, meaning that there are many more respondents earning incomes across the spectrum rather than clustering in the lower levels..."
Creator/author: Su-Ann Oh With Supee Rattanasamakkee (Say Naw), Phanu Sukhikhachornphrai (Chai), Somchat Ochalumthan, Simon Purnell
Source/publisher: ZOA Refugee Care Thailand
2010-05-00
Date of entry/update: 2011-03-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 742.01 KB
more
Description: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: "This annual report of ZOA Thailand provides the information related to the overall aspects of the organization and the implementation of its programme and projects in 2009. The report starts with the financial overview – sources of income, donor information, funding by sources, funding per project and expenditures per project. Additionally, the graphs of expenditures per project show the comparative overview of yearly spending during 3 years: 2007, 2008 and 2009. In the second chapter information regarding Burmese refugees, migrants in Thailand, internally displaced Burmese as well as the general information on the refugee camps and populations is provided. The third chapter describes the project update presenting an outline of the work and the size of the projects as carried out in each of three area offices and at the country office in Mae Sot. In the country office section, general information on the work done and work results in 2009 is provided according to the following structure • the Basic Education Project, • the Education Materials Development Project, • the Vocational Training Project, • the Non-formal Project, • the Higher Education Project, • the Competence Development and Capacity Building Project and • the Livelihoods Project The strategic planning for ZOA Thailand set in 2009 is shown in chapter four. The main information providing five core strategies of the organisation as well as the programmatic results, which shows the overview of the strategic planning per sub-sector is also provided. The fifth chapter provides the readers with the information on management, human resources and partnering. The information on staffing, functions of each office, organisational structure and development of human resources policy and procedures are included to give an overall picture of internal organisation. The final chapter looks at challenges and sustainability in relation to the ZOA Thailand programme. The main issue here is the challenge of resettlement and the impact that this has on the programme. The sustainability section looks at this challenge against various other factors. These are conflict and sustainability, environmental factors and sustainability, social factors and sustainability, financial and economic factors and sustainability as well as institutional factors and the topic of sustainability."
Source/publisher: ZOA Refugee Care Thailand
2009-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2011-03-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 2.3 MB
more
Description: The provision of education in the refugee camps along the Thai-Burmese border has evolved over 20 years, adapting its purpose, expanding its reach and improving its quality and relevance.
Creator/author: Marc van der Stouwe, Su-Ann Oh
Source/publisher: "Forced Migration Review" No. 30
2008-04-22
Date of entry/update: 2008-11-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: Burmese, English
more
Description: Executive Summary: "This assessment set out to 1 map the learning landscape in the seven refugee camps served by ZOA, showing points of learning, and if and how they are connected and/or integrated; 2 identify learning needs and interests of the camp communities, including but not exclusively literacy, foreign language learning and resettlement needs; 3 understand the barriers that learners face in gaining access to learning.... Fieldwork was conducted in the seven camps served by ZOA. The sample of respondents was selected using both random and snowball sampling. The provision of adult learning activities: The bulk of learning activities available are languages (English and Thai), technical skills training (agriculture automechanics, sewing), professional development and community issues. There is some provision for literacy, numeracy, and basic and continuing education for adults but that is patchy... Learning needs and interests: Refugees in the camps need literacy, numeracy, workplace skills and general education to upgrade their basic skills and to enable them to grasp and master technical and craft skills, English for resettlement and Thai for possible integration. The majority of respondents were interested in learning English, Thai, computing, agriculture and sewing... Barriers to learning: The most common barriers to learning were misconceptions about the content, form and relevance of learning programmes, the scheduling of the programmes and the lack of widely available course information... Recommendations: It is recommended that ZOA: A uses current provision more efficiently and effectively; B adds literacy, numeracy and workplace skills to current provision; C expands basic and general education provision for adults and young people.
Creator/author: Su-Ann Oh with Toe Toe Parkdeekhunthum
Source/publisher: ZOA Refugee Care
2007-11-00
Date of entry/update: 2008-03-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 557.8 KB
more
Description: "In the Karen refugee camps along the Thai-Burmese border, some 34,000 Karen students are in school every day. About 1,100 Teachers and Trainers join hands together daily in order to educate the Karen youth. The Karen are the second largest ethnic group in Burma. For decades they have been involved in an armed struggle for a degree of autonomy and self-determination inside Burma. As a result, today almost 110,000 of the Karen people live in 7 refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border, located in four provinces. Education is highly valued by the Karen people. It is a key factor in the day to day survival in the refugee camps. The education in the camps, is predominantly the result of the efforts of the Karen refugees themselves. This Education Survey is following two surveys that were conducted respectively in 1995/1996 by the CCSDPT, and in 2000 by ZOA Refugee Care. The main objective of the survey is to describe existing education services provided to the camps. Furthermore the survey intends to identify existing gaps in the education services. Where relevant, the outcomes of this survey will be compared to the results of the previous education survey. In this survey, special attention is given to the perspective of students. Their ideas and opinions are of importance in the effort to form a picture of the current education that is offered in the camps. The interviews for this survey were held between March and August 2002 in all 7 Karen refugee camps along the Thai-Burmese border. The Karen people make up more than 80% of the total refugee population living in the camps along the Thai Burma border..."
Creator/author: Jan Lamberink
Source/publisher: ZOA Refugee Care, Thailand
2002-12-00
Date of entry/update: 2007-07-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 2.2 MB
more
Description: A ZOA Position Paper..."In the context of its Karen Education Project (KEP), ZOA has begun the process of developing specific strategies to address the issue of ‘inclusive education? (or inclusion in education). During a staff workshop held in June 2006, we began this process by discussing the concepts of exclusion and inclusion, and the situation in the education sector in the refugee camps. The staff also openly discussed ZOA?s role in encouraging (and sometimes discouraging) an inclusive approach to education. The main theme that cut across this workshop was that inclusion goes beyond the principle of non-discrimination in service delivery. It is about ‘actively helping the disadvantaged to become less disadvantaged, the excluded to be included, and the voiceless to have a voice?. Another important issue was that inclusion should not be seen as a separate project: it cuts across all our activities and needs to be mainstreamed in these activities. The ZOA inclusion initiative is also very much about ‘awareness?. We asked ourselves to what extent we are aware of our attitudes and behaviour, and the (positive or negative) impacts these might have on the participation of particular groups of people in the activities that we organize. Being aware of the impact of our own attitudes and actions is seen as a crucial starting point in promoting the inclusion of marginalized groups in the camp communities. ZOA is committed to move this process forward, and we have begun by: • carrying out a participatory assessment of the current situation with regards to inclusion in the education sector, i.e., analyzing existing practices and gaps • defining specific strategies to promote inclusive education on the basis of the assessment • translating the strategies into activities to be included in ZOA Activity Plans for 2007 and 2008..."
Creator/author: Liberty Thawda, Marc van der Stouwe, Say Naw, Su-Ann Oh
Source/publisher: ZOA Refugee Care, Thailand
2007-05-00
Date of entry/update: 2007-07-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 472.37 KB
more
Description: "...This Education Survey 2005 is the third update on the educational situation in the Karen camps. As in the previous surveys, it provides a general picture of the camp education sector, including demographic indicators, data on enrolment, dropout, and parental involvement, as well as a range of other topics. However, in this survey we wanted to go beyond the execution of just ?another survey?. First of all, we decided to include a broader range of topics in the survey in order to obtain a more complete picture of the camp education system. Secondly, in relation to the strategic direction that ZOA has decided to go in the context of KEP, we wanted a stronger focus on including data in relation to the quality of education. Finally, as far as the process is concerned, we focused on ensuring maximum community involvement in the data collection and analysis process, and making the survey a learning experience for ZOA staff as well as community members. In that sense, the education survey does not only provide a basis for determining capacity-building activities in the future; it has also been a capacity-building intervention in its own right. We believe the survey has contributed to the acquisition of research and analysis skills among local staff as well as camp communities..."
Creator/author: Su-Ann Oh, with, Somchat Ochalumthan, Saw Pla Law La, Johnny Htoo
Source/publisher: ZOA Refugee Care, Thailand
2006-01-00
Date of entry/update: 2006-08-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 863.21 KB
more
Description: Karen kids seek good education in refugee camp schools... "Students in developing countries often look to distant lands to fulfill their dreams of a good education and a brighter future. A growing number of young people in Burma?s Karen State, however, find that schools operating in refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border offer them the best chance of achieving these goals. Noh Poe refugee camp in Thailand?s Tak province is one of them..."
Creator/author: Shah Paung
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 13, No. 5
2005-05-00
Date of entry/update: 2006-04-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more