Thai workers send billions home

[reader]

From The Thaiger

Thailand’s workforce abroad is pumping an astonishing 400 billion baht into the economy each year—much of it from illegal workers, according to Labour Minister Pipat Ratchakitprakarn. Despite government crackdowns, the number of undocumented Thai workers overseas remains high, with 382,699 working illegally last year alone.

While Thailand sent 92,392 legal workers abroad in 2024, a drop of 11% from 2023 due to conflicts in Israel, remittances surged by 9%, reaching 267.8 billion baht, up from 245.7 billion baht in 2023.The rise is credited to the strong global demand for skilled Thai labour, particularly in construction, manufacturing, and agriculture.

The top 10 destinations for Thai workers include Israel, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Laos, the United States, Singapore, New Zealand, and Switzerland.

https://thethaiger.com/news/national/illegal-thai-workers-send-billions-home-despite-crackdowns

[10tazione]

Laos comes somewhat surprising, as it is poorer than Thailand, no?

This "duty of sending money to family" - thing also happens within Thailand, from Bangkok to Isaan etc. I think this wasn't mentioned in that other topic about debt of the Thai middle class.
I think it is really hard to accumulate any wealth for a guy who has a middle class job in Bangkok and a rather poor family in Isaan, even if he is not shopping or gambling addicted. Alls those bills, hospital bill for grandfather, school fees for 3 brothers and sisters, funerals, repair roof etc are neverending and add up to quite a significant amount.

[bkkmfj2648]

57 minutes ago, reader said:

Thailand’s workforce abroad is pumping an astonishing 400 billion baht into the economy each year—much of it from illegal workers, according to Labour Minister Pipat Ratchakitprakarn. Despite government crackdowns, the number of undocumented Thai workers overseas remains high, with 382,699 working illegally last year alone.

Does this imply that these 382,699 Thais who live overseas are working illegally because:

- they are illegals in their host country?

- or, they don't have the right to send money from their host country back to Thailand?

The problem that I sometimes have with articles written by The Thaiger, is that they tend to be superficial and don't properly explain the facts at hand.

Lastly, this current Thai government is desperate to fill up their revenue coffers, so why would they not embrace this inflow of 400 billion baht into the Thai economy?

[bkkmfj2648]

34 minutes ago, 10tazione said:

This "duty of sending money to family" - thing also happens within Thailand, from Bangkok to Isaan etc. I think this wasn't mentioned in that other topic about debt of the Thai middle class.
I think it is really hard to accumulate any wealth for a guy who has a middle class job in Bangkok and a rather poor family in Isaan, even if he is not shopping or gambling addicted. Alls those bills, hospital bill for grandfather, school fees for 3 brothers and sisters, funerals, repair roof etc are neverending and add up to quite a significant amount.

Very very very true what you wrote above.

My Thai boyfriend had to recently urgently return to Sukhothai / Phitsanulok for a for a family emergency, and he asked me to accompany him.  Consequently, this was my first introduction to his family. We had talked about eventually going there for him to introduce me to them - but this family emergency expedited this eventual meeting.

I saw first hand how all of the younger members of the family were expected to cough up money for the hospital bills, post care, rehabilitation, need to buy a hospital bed and wheel chair for the eventual home care that a designated family member will host and take care of the elderly grandmother who had this medical emergency.

These younger members urgently came from Bangkok, and my guy from Pattaya, where the expectation is that the younger members of the family will pull together to get through this tough period.

So, I agree with your assessment that this type of collectivism does not allow any one family member to move up the social ladder - because the minute that the poor family back home up north will be asked to make the financial sacrifice to assist. Hence, it is extremely difficult for any one family member to find financial freedom.

 

[reader]

35 minutes ago, bkkmfj2648 said:

Does this imply that these 382,699 Thais who live overseas are working illegally because:

- they are illegals in their host country?

- or, they don't have the right to send money from their host country back to Thailand?

Lastly, this current Thai government is desperate to fill up their revenue coffers, so why would they not embrace this inflow of 400 billion baht into the Thai economy?

I suspect the numbers are generated by inbound bank transfers and the legality of their status subjective at best.

Since the Thai government has no cause to look gift horse in the face, they chose to concern themselves with other pressing matters like whether they should short circuit its tourism recovery by reverting to 30-day visa on arrival. This is, after all, still Thailand.

 

[reader]

37 minutes ago, bkkmfj2648 said:

So, I agree with your assessment that this type of collectivism does not allow any one family member to move up the social ladder - because the minute that the poor family back home up north will be asked to make the financial sacrifice to assist. Hence, it is extremely difficult for any one family member to find financial freedom.

And don’t for a moment think this isn’t exactly what the minority hi-so population wishes to see sustained in order to secure its grip on political and economic power.

[bkkmfj2648]

15 minutes ago, reader said:

Since the Thai government has no cause to look gift horse in the face, they chose to concern themselves with other pressing matters like....

Add to the list:

Tax us who want to live and spend our end-of-life finances in Thailand. When most of us expat retirees moved here, Thailand was operating under the tax friendly = Territorial Tax Regime.  Now they are slowly moving towards a Global Tax Regime --> thus another example of 

[bkkmfj2648]

20 minutes ago, reader said:

... like whether they should short circuit its tourism recovery by reverting to 30-day visa on arrival. 

I think that this was a creative way for them to fleece more money out of those who want to spend more than 30 days in Thailand by getting them to apply to the more expensive DTV (Destination Thailand Visa) ??

[PeterRS]

Thailand may be looking at The Philppiines. It is estimated that 11% of Filipinos are working abroad. In 2019 these workers remitted back home a staggering US32.2 billion (source wikipedia). Virtually all are legally overseas, though.

[reader]

1 hour ago, PeterRS said:

Thailand may be looking at The Philppiines. It is estimated that 11% of Filipinos are working abroad. In 2019 these workers remitted back home a staggering US32.2 billion (source wikipedia). Virtually all are legally overseas, though.

+1. Since English is widely spoken among Filipinos, many find work in health care and other professions.