“Just a Wife”: Five Scapes of Cross Border Life of Burmese Woman Rubber Plantation Workers in Chachoengsao Province.

Abstract

This article aims to present the lives of Burmese woman workers within the context of rubber plantations in Chachoengsao Province through the concept of Global Cultural flows in a cross-border world. These women lack legal status and employment status, but still maintain the status of “wives” of rubber plantation workers in Chachoengsao Province. The status of being a “wife” therefore provides an opportunity for Burmese female workers to follow their husbands to work in rubber plantations. Burmese women demand better living opportunities through better wages and a better quality of life in Thailand. They are able to present their Burmese identity, access to a monetary system, a life lived through technology, free access to information, the ability to consume, and the ability to care for their families waiting in Burma as a cultural way of repaying their parents.