Amidst a general rise in cross-border population movements around the world, Thailand has seen a major increase in workers arriving from neighboring countries. Despite being keen to remain in Thailand, migrant workers often do not send their children to government schools, which has implications for their Thai language proficiency. There is a need to educate migrant workers about schools and local government authorities in Thailand while at the same time providing appropriate support services.
 
This project, which draws on the work of similar multi-cultural education support programs in Japan, encourages the development of support services to enable school-age children of migrant workers in Thailand to attend local public schools on a regular basis. It is currently being piloted in selected locations. Given that similar challenges exist throughout ASEAN, Japan has an opportunity to utilize diplomatic engagement in the region to promote the benefits of this project in encouraging social integration by the children of migrant workers and enhancing overall social cohesion.

Masako Iwashina