Lao Migrant Youth Increasingly Looking for Work in China
Young people from the northern provinces of Laos are increasingly moving across the border to China in search of jobs and higher wages. Facing limited prospects at home, youth from Laos’ remote mountainous regions choose to become undocumented economic migrants in China’s neighboring Yunnan province, where they can often make much more for similar work they could get at home.
A Lao businessman who often travels to Yunnan told RFA’s Lao Service last week, “A lot of people from the northern ethnic groups prefer working in China over Laos or Thailand because they speak Chinese and can get much more money there.” The source added that restaurant workers in Yunnan can make between 80 and 100 yuan ($12-$15) each day, or about twice as much as in Laos and slightly more than in Thailand.
