Abstract:
The purposes of this research were to study entering for job of Karen construction
workers to Keepmoo community, Klong Sarmwa, Bangkok. The samples were 10 Karen
construction workers. This research was qualitative. The research instrument was semi-structured
interview forms.
The results of the research were as follows: 1) The push factors from country of
origin were economic factors consisting of hard to land a job, low wages, and unstable income.
Social factors consisted of hard life and basic infrastructure was not developed for convenient
living. Political factors consisted of the government of Myanmar not allowing possession of land,
no freedom, and conflicts between the government of Myanmar against the Karen minority. 2)
Pull factors from the destination country were economic factors consisting of wide choice of jobs,
easy to find work, higher income, availability of welfare, and stable income. Social factors
consisted of convenient living in Thailand, good habits of Thai people, and having Karen friends.
Political factors consisted of public sector management of Thailand about immigrant workers is
not complete and unstable. 3) Support factors consisted of persuasion from family or relatives or
friends who informed that the quality of life could be better, convenient transportation, land
border crossings, low cost of transportation, understanding the language for communication, and
a chance to change nationality to Thai.
In addition, the results of the research found more factors about interest in the
philosophy of sufficiency economy which were support factors that could attract Karen
construction workers to enter Thailand in order to learn about the philosophy of sufficiency
economy. This was also a support factor to push Karen construction workers back to their original country, because they would like to take the philosophy of sufficiency economy to use in their
daily lives.