By Susan Cunningham
Mizzima | November 2016
Many, perhaps most, Myanmar people working in Thailand won’t be able to send remittances with True Money—at least not directly. Probably fewer than one million workers have the official identification required to register at a True Money agent’s shop in Thailand. There may be one million, two million or even more undocumented Myanmar people living in Thailand.
But such “illegal migrants” can still accompany an acquaintance with legal status to a True Money shop, observe the remittance code sent in real-time and soon get a reply by SMS message from the relative back home that the code has been received. The age-old hundi network is about to assume new forms.
Along with other studies of Myanmar migrants in Thailand, a 2010 report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) found that the workers overwhelmingly favor “informal agents” or “informal systems” —that is, the hundi network—to send money home. Those surveyed by the ILO relied on informal agents for 85 percent of their remittance transactions. As of 2010, the total expense for sender and receiver remitting in this way typically was 300 Thai baht (10,640 kyat).
Susan J Cunningham 