CROSSING THE RIVER Perceptions of 'human trafficking' among villagers in Bokeo Province, Northern Laos ASLAUG GOTEHUS

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NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF LIFE SCIENCESDEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT STUDIESMASTER THESIS 30 CREDITS 2006

CROSSING THE RIVER

Perceptions of 'human trafficking' among villagers in Bokeo Province, Northern Laos

ASLAUG GOTEHUS

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The Department of International Environment and Development Studies, Noragric, is the international gateway for the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB). Eight departments, associated research institutions and the Norwegian College of Veterinary Medicine in Oslo. Established in 1986, Noragric’s contribution to international development lies in the interface between research, education (Bachelor, Master and PhD programmes) and assignments.

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CROSSING THE RIVER

Perceptions of ‘human trafficking’ among villagers in Bokeo Province, Northern Laos

A Thesis submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirement for the Degree of Master of Science (Development studies)

By Aslaug Gotehus, May 2006

Norwegian University of Life Sciences

Department of International Environment and Development Studies

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Declaration

I do hereby declare the originality of my work. I acknowledge the use of all materials other than my own work. This work has not been submitted to any other university than University of Life Sciences (UMB) for any academic degree or publication.

Ås, 01.06.2006

Aslaug Gotehus

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Acknowledgements

First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor Kjersti Larsen for supporting me throughout the process of preparation, fieldwork and especially during the writing up phase. Your academic insight and constructive reflections, as well as your personal qualities, have been encouraging. I would also like to thank my local supervisor in Laos, Stephen Sparkes, for encouraging me during fieldwork, providing me with useful insight to the Lao culture and society and giving me comments on my final work.

I would also like to express my gratitude to Margrethe Volden and Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) in Laos for helping me with practical issues during my stay in Laos. Without your support this thesis would never have been possible. I am also thankful to the research team from NCA that I got to spend time with in the field. You introduced me to the culture and encouraged me through your friendships. My interpreter Baisy Koumphonphakdy deserves a wholeheartedly thank for staying with me in the field. Thanks for translating and helping me with all practical matters that came up during our stay in Bokeo.

I am grateful to Save the Children Norway for accepting my proposal and generously funding my fieldwork.

I would like to express my gratitude and respect to all the people I met during my stays in the various villages. You opened up your homes and shared your time and experiences with me. I learnt a lot from staying with you, and it gave me memories for life. I will never forget your generosity. Big thanks go also to the various organizations that shared of their valuable time and their knowledge concerning the issue of human trafficking.

I am indebted to my parents, brothers and sisters. You have taught me to believe in myself and never give up. Your encouragements have meant a lot to me. I would also like to thank all my friends that have supported and inspired me.

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List of abbreviations

CBO Community Based Organization

GDP Gross Domestic Product

ILO International Labour Organization IOM International Organization for Migration LPRP Lao People’s Revolutionary Party MLSW Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare

MoU Memorandum of Understanding

NCA Norwegian Church Aid

NGO Non-Governmental Organization

SCUK Save the Children, UK

UNDP United Nations Development Program

UNIAP United Nations Inter Agency Project on Trafficking in Women and Children in the Mekong Sub-region

UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund

Lao vocabulary

Falang Foreigner

Hong nai ban Assistant village headman

Lao lao Rice whisky

Nai ban Village headman

Phi Spirit

Som phau Ethnic group

Wat Buddhist temple

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Abstract

The phenomenon of human trafficking has been subject to an increasing international attention in recent years. The concept of ‘human trafficking’ is a blurred one, and to a large extent based on assumptions and perceptions made by professionals working within the field of development. The purpose of this study is to arrive at a local rooted understanding of

‘human trafficking’. This is done by conceptualizing how people from affected villages perceive and cope with the presence of human trafficking. The understanding is mainly based upon experiences of young people in several villages in the Bokeo Province in Northern Laos.

The scope of this thesis is limited to the supply side. The research methods have been qualitative, using an ethnographic perspective. Five villages in Bokeo Province close to the Thai border were selected. In the villages, three groups were focused on: youth that had been working in Thailand, youth that had never been outside of the village, and families of youth staying in Thailand. Data was gathered through participant observation and informal interviews. The thesis is based on the assumption that it is not possible to analyze the occurrence of human trafficking without seeing it in relation to migration, and also that the feminization of migration in Southeast Asia has introduced new aspects to the migration debate. One of the main reasons for the high number of Lao youth crossing the border to Thailand is found in the socio-economic disparities between the two countries. The living standards in the villages are basic, and many young people move to improve their family’s standard of living. Curiosity and desire to experience the ‘modern life’ is another important reason for the movements. Legal channels for migration are limited, and the process of getting legal documents is both expensive and time-consuming. Most villagers therefore cross the border illegally. Entering Thailand illegally is usually done without too many obstacles, but the illegal status of the immigrants increases their vulnerability to exploitation and trafficking.

htm .

Haque, M. S. (2006). Ambiguities and Confusions in Migration-Trafficking Nexus: A hey tell about negative experiences. This contributes to maintenance of a glorified picture of the possibilities available in Thailand. The decision to leave the village is generally made by the migrants without use of force or deception. Even though people move freely, there exist some norms that make the young people leave the villages to fulfil their duties towards their families. Forced prostitution represents a great share of the cases of human trafficking, but this study does also open up for a broader understanding of the concept of human trafficking.

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List of Figures

FIGURE 1:LAOS AND ITS MAJOR CROSS BORDER TRAFFICKING ROUTES (UNICEF2004) ... 9

FIGURE 2:BOKEO PROVINCE... 9

FIGURE 3:FRIENDSHIP BRIDGE CONNECTING LAOS AND THAILAND... 24

FIGURE 4:RICE FIELDS IN A LAO THEUNG VILLAGE... 28

FIGURE 5:WORKING GROUP IN A LAO THEUNG VILLAGE DURING THE RICE HARVEST... 28

FIGURE 6:A YOUNG KHMU WOMAN CARRYING WATER FOR HOUSEHOLD USE IN A LAO THEUNG VILLAGE... 52

FIGURE 7:KHMU HOUSEHOLD... 88

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1 Introduction

The issue of human trafficking has received increased attention in media, as well as within international development debates lately. The dominant trafficking discourse has been based on certain assumptions and ideas that have been taken as the truth without really being questioned. The essential elements in this discourse have been to portray trafficking as a process where individuals lose control over their own life and end up working in the sex industry (Jana et al. 2002). This is also the picture that has been promoted by international media. I do not want to undermine the presence of sexual exploitation and forced entry into the commercial sex industry, as it is an important and grave dimension of human trafficking.

Even so, I find it important to widen the horizon and acknowledge that the exploitation can take other forms as well, i.e. forced labour in other sectors of the economy with the workers receiving limited or no wages. I will also argue that the individuals that end up getting trafficked often made a reasonable decision before leaving their homes, and portraying them as weak and risk averse does not necessarily fit the reality. In this thesis I therefore want to question some of the assumptions that have influenced the trafficking discourse lately.

As the subject of human trafficking has received widespread attention in recent years, so have patterns of trafficking been investigated and tried identified all over the world. In spite of the increased attention the problem has received, the actual extent of it is still not known.

Accurate numbers are hard to determine as a consequence of the illegal nature of the phenomenon. This is further complicated by the fact that the majority of the victims end up in informal or illegal sectors of the economy. Another factor that causes difficulties in determining the scope of the problem is that international attention has largely focused on girls and women trafficked into prostitution. By doing this, boys and men, as well as those trafficked into other forms of forced labour, have more or less been left out.

Research on human trafficking has predominantly been carried out by international NGOs with the overall intention of implementing anti-trafficking projects. This research has usually been characterized by a relatively rapid approach due to limited financial and human resources. The research that has been conducted has furthermore been influenced by the leading discourses within the field. I find it important to include the study of human trafficking in the academic work on development, by focusing on an understanding of human relationships and intercultural relations. Trafficking in humans should not only be an issue

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limited to the concern of agencies working on the elimination of the problem, but should also be addressed by everyone interested in development on a global scale.

When working within the field of development, one can often be struck by the absence of the view of local people. I assumed the concept of ‘trafficking’ to be a term constructed by professional international development workers, and I therefore aimed at avoiding, or at least limiting, the use of it. A great deal of the migration within the Asian region is undocumented.

‘Illegal’, ‘irregular’ or ‘undocumented’ migration is often closely associated with trafficking, and there are also often overlaps between them. I have therefore chosen to use migration as the point of departure. I have aimed at getting a picture of the situation the rural population of Laos experience when they leave their villages in search for luck and wealth in a new environment. I have also intended to leave behind my own pre-made understanding of the situation, and allowing the villagers I met to show me their perceptive.

The purpose of this study is to arrive at a local rooted understanding of the phenomenon that by development workers is labelled ‘human trafficking’. I will do this by conceptualizing how people from affected villages perceive and cope with the presence of human trafficking. I find this to be important, as it will enable us to get a broader understanding of the issue. It is also significant as it shows us how people cope with serious social and human matters by creating their own practices and coping mechanisms, as well as their own understanding and reality in order to go on with their lives.

The understanding is mainly based upon the experiences of the young people in the villages.

Even though the demand side is an important aspect of the issue of international migration and trafficking, I have chosen to limit the scope of this thesis to only cover the supply side. As my aim has been to attack the issue from a local perspective, I found this to be the most suitable angle. There are of course also practical matters that have guided this decision as well, like access to the informants and guidance by the Norwegian Church Aid in Laos.

1.1 Objectives and research questions

1. Examine the understandings of human trafficking in a development context

• What is the link between development and trafficking?

• How do the laws in the receiving countries affect those that are leaving Laos?

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• What are the factors governing the movement from the rural areas of Laos?

2. Explore the links between migration and trafficking

• How is the situation of migration in the rural areas?

• Why do the villagers decide to migrate?

• How do they migrate?

• What are the experiences that the young people have during their stay away from their village?

• What are the factors that make the young rural population vulnerable to trafficking?

3. Analyse the way the local villagers conceptualize ‘trafficking’ and how they explain its causes and outcomes

• What do the villagers understand by ‘trafficking’?

• How is the willingness to address the problem of trafficking?

1.2 Structure of the thesis

In chapter 2, the methodology applied during my field work in Laos will be dealt with in details. This will include selection of sites and informants, as well as the methods used for the data collection. This chapter will also explain the main ideas behind the way I have chosen to analyze my findings. At the end I have also included limitations I faced during my research and ethical issues that arouse as the work moved on.

Chapter 3 gives an introduction to current and historical trends in the societies of Laos. This information will cover a rather wide diversity of topics, ranging from geography and demography trough history and politics to the more human and cultural aspect of the society as ethnicity, religion and gender. This is rather general information, and is meant to enable the reader to position the problems connected with migration and trafficking within a Lao context.

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Chapter 4 gives an introduction and discussion of the terms related to migration and trafficking that will be applied in this thesis. The concept of trafficking is discussed and problematized, and the official responses in Laos are examined.

In chapter 5, the socio-economic situation in Laos, particularly in the villages where I stayed, is studied and linked to the migration flow from the villages on the Lao side of the border to neighbouring Thailand. These are all aspects that will be returned to in the following chapters, as the links between migration and trafficking are further analyzed.

Chapter 6 focus on migration and how it is embodied in peoples lives. Reasons given by the villagers to explain the movements from the villages are examined, and an attempt is made to make a profile of those who migrate as well as the way they are migrating. Examples of experiences made by the migrants in Thailand are included to see the link that might exist between migration and exploitation, and possibly trafficking. The lack of legal migration channels, and thereby widespread illegal migration, is seen in relation to migrants’

vulnerability to trafficking.

Chapter 7 looks at the issue of human trafficking from a gender perspective. Opportunities and responsibilities for the young people in the villages are to a relatively high degree divided according to gender. This chapter looks especially at women’s access to education and employment in the rural areas of Laos, and how this might affect the migration from the villages. Daughters’, and also to a certain degree sons’ responsibilities toward their parents are furthermore seen as resulting in increased movement form the villages. As trafficking is often seen to be synonymous with prostitution, a significant part of this chapter will deal with issues related to prostitution. To show the multitude of human trafficking, trafficking in men will be briefly dealt with at the end of this section.

In chapter 8, an attempt is made to wind up the discussion by drawing parallels from the previous chapters. Rather than giving a clear and absolute understanding of the issue, this is more likely to open up new questions and topics for discussion.

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2 Methodology

2.1 Approach

Most research about human trafficking in the Sub-Mekong Region has been conducted by international NGOs working on the elimination of trafficking in persons. The purpose of my study is to arrive at a local rooted understanding of the phenomenon of human trafficking. I will therefore approach the topic from the perspective of the people that are assumed to be affected by this phenomenon. I find trafficking to be a vague, and to some extent also a poorly, defined concept. Hence, I will question the relevance of the concept given the way it is now officially defined.

Since my aim is to attack the issue of human trafficking from the Lao villagers’ point of view, I have chosen to apply a qualitative approach, more precisely an ethnographic perspective.

Qualitative methods are used to explore the meanings of people’s world. Even though the qualitative methods go beyond numbers, these methods can include quantifications as well.

Qualitative research is funded on a constructionist position which implies that there is no objective truth, as ideas are outcomes of constant interaction between individuals in the society. The researcher is supposed to view events and the social world through the eyes of the people being studied. The focal point of the interpretation is the local people themselves (Bryman 2004).

Ethnographic description is characterized by its focus on interpretation. It interprets the flow of social discourses and tries to fix what is ‘said’ in the discourses into more general terms.

Another characteristic of the ethnographic description is that it is microscopic, i.e. they study

“grand realities” within the context of small matters. Anthropologists do not study villages, but they study in villages (Geertz 2000). Ethnography refers to both a method used to produce qualitative data and to the ethnographic text that arrives from these data. Ethnographic researchers aim at being actor-oriented in the sense that they attempt to express the reality from the subjects’ point of view (Brockington & Sullivan 2003). The core of ethnographic research is a close and relatively long-term interaction with people in their everyday life. A key assumption is that ethnographers by using this approach are better equipped to understand the beliefs, motivations and behaviours of the people they live among than what is possible by using any other approaches (Denzin & Lincoln 2003).

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2.2 Fieldwork

My fieldwork was carried out in Laos from October 2005 to December 2005. I have chosen to use the name Laos when I talk about the country. This is them most common used name, even though Lao PDR is the official name of the country. For the remaining of this thesis, Laos will consequently be applied. My fieldwork was divided into two main parts. The first four weeks was spent in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, whereas I stayed the last six weeks in different villages in the Bokeo Province. The Province is located in North-Western Laos, bordering Thailand and Myanmar. The first days in Vientiane gave me a useful introduction to the country and culture where I was to spend the next three months.

During the preparation stage in Norway before I left for the field, I focused for the most part on the stay in the villages. This was done through the selection of readings that prepared me and familiarized me with the process of conducting ethnographic research in an unfamiliar setting. The readings introduced me to the history and culture of the people whom I was to stay among, as well as it introduced me to methodological aspects relating ethnography. Due to circumstances I was not aware of until I came to Laos, my stay in Vientiane was extended beyond my schedule. I conducted my fieldwork in cooperation with Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), who were about to conduct a survey on the issue of human trafficking in the same area as I. By cooperating with NCA, I was easily accepted by the authorities, and the process of getting authorization from the authorities to conduct my research was for this reason simplified.

2.3 Phase I - Vientiane

Doing fieldwork in a foreign culture can add extra challenges to the research process. I had contacted Norwegian Church Aid prior to my trip to Laos and asked if they were willing to assist me in practical matters during my stay. I am very grateful to Margrethe Volden at NCA’s residential office in Vientiane who accepted my proposal on behalf of NCA, Laos.

The fact that I had a reputable organization supporting me eased my fieldwork in several ways. NCA’s approval of my stay gave me extra favour when I approached other NGOs as well as government officials. Conducting this fieldwork without NCA’s support would have complicated the research process. NCA’s office in Vientiane served as a base for my work while I stayed in the capital. The staff working on the issues of human trafficking, and also

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gender related issues, gave me access to the information they had, written material as well as knowledge gained through experiences from working in the field. Staying at the NCA office gave me access to secondary data sources as well as it gave me knowledge of how an international NGO is working in the Lao context with the issue of human trafficking specifically and development in general.

NCA had planned to do a survey on the risk and vulnerability to human trafficking for the youth living along the Mekong in the northern area of Bokeo Province. This survey was to lay the foundation for following prevention projects on human trafficking in that region. I was supposed to more or less follow the schedule of the NCA team. For practical and administrative reasons, their survey did not start until the 1^st of November. My stay in Vientiane was therefore prolonged. Even though this was a source of frustrations in the beginning, it ended up being important as it gave me the time needed to meet with international NGOs and learn more about how they view the issue of human trafficking.

2.3.1 Interviews

According to Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare (2005, pers.comm.), there are about 15 organizations currently working on the issue of human trafficking in Laos. These organizations have their head offices in Vientiane. One of my objectives was to “examine the understandings of human trafficking in a development context”. To meet this objective, I had to get an overview of how the anti-trafficking agencies working in Laos perceive human trafficking and also what kind of strategies they use in order to combat the problem.

For the purpose of my study, I did not find it relevant to talk to all the NGOs working within this field. The intention behind talking to these organizations was only to get an overview of the situation, and not an attempt to analyze the organizations individually. I started by approaching NCA, which thereafter gave me the names and telephone numbers of the other anti-trafficking agencies working in Laos. In addition to NCA, I chose to interview representatives from United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (UNIAP), UNICEF, International Labour Organization (ILO- IPEC) and Save the Children UK (SCUK). These are the largest actors in the field, and organizations that are internationally recognized. In addition to these organizations, I did also

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talk to a representative from Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, which represents the official view of the Government of Laos.

My interviews of the representatives from these agencies were semi-structured. In a semi- structured interview, the researcher has a list of questions or topics that are to be covered; this is often referred to as an interview guide. Despite the fact that the researcher has this list, the interviewee has a great deal of freedom when it comes to how to reply. Questions do not need to be asked exactly in the way outlined in the guide, and questions that are not included may be asked as the interview proceeds and new issues are picked up by the interviewer (Bryman 2004). I prepared an interview guide for the appointments I had with the various anti- trafficking agencies (see appendices I and II). The questions on this list corresponded to the topics I wanted to cover during the interviews. Although I had this list, my aim was to allow the respondents to talk freely. By doing this, I expected that they would focus on aspects they found important and interesting. During the interviews, they all shared some of the knowledge they have in the field, and they gave me an overview of their anti-trafficking projects and how they look at the situation of human trafficking in Laos today.

2.4 Phase II – Bokeo Province

The second phase of my stay in Laos, November and December 2005, was spent in the Bokeo Province. I arrived at Huay Xai, the provincial capital of Bokeo, together with a team from NCA. Before we started our research in the villages, we spent a few days in Huay Xai in meetings with the provincial and district authorities to get permission to do research in the area. As well as granting us this permission, the authorities were also involved in the selection of villages.

2.4.1 Selection of site

The fact that Laos share a long and relatively porous border with Thailand, combined with disparity in the socio-economic development between the two countries, are seen as contributing factors to the movements of Lao people across the border to Thailand (Beesey 2004). Although one of the four major cross border trafficking routes from Laos to Thailand is in the Bokeo Province (see figure 1), the extent and specifics of human trafficking in the societies along the Mekong River in the North Western part of the country are still unknown.

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Youth living along the Mekong River are assumed to be at risk for ending up as victims of human trafficking because their villages are located close to these crossing points (NCA 2005, pers.comm.)

Figure 1: Laos and its major cross border trafficking routes (UNICEF 2004)

Figure 2: Bokeo Province

(Source: http://laos.luangprabang.free.fr/plans/plan_bokeo.jpg)

The authorities do to a certain extent have a rough overview of the magnitude of the migration that takes place from the villages and district. Since human trafficking is assumed to be one

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possible outcome of migration, I selected villages that were known to have a relatively high number of migrants. Five villages in two different districts next to the Thai border were selected for the research. I visited three villages in Huay Xai district and two villages in Tonpheung district. Two of the villages were located next to the Mekong River and the three others were located along the main road, Route 3, which runs through the Province. Route 3 runs down south to Vientiane, up north to China and to Vietnam in the east. Even so, the villages along the main road were by no means located far from the Mekong River. For the sake of anonymity, I will not give any further details about the location of the villages.

2.4.2 Selection of informants

In the process of selecting informants, I used non-probability sampling. My sampling method was overwhelmingly purposeful sampling. In purposeful sampling, it is the researcher that makes the judgement about whom should be included in the sample. This requires prior information about the target population (Overton & Diermen 2003). When I came to the villages, I first went to see the village headmen. The district authorities had provided me with a letter to show their approval of my stay and that they had given me permission to conduct the research. The village headman is the leader of the village and also the link between the authorities and the villagers. I told the village headmen about my objectives and why I had come to their village. Since the village headmen have a good overview of the village, I asked them to give me an introduction to the situation in the village. I got some figures of the numbers of migrants, returnees and known cases of trafficking in the village, and also the names of these people. I started by talking to the persons mentioned by the headman. In some cases the respondents I was talking to gave me the names of other people that had been to Thailand and that might have some experiences to tell me about. Through snowball sampling I got to meet various people that could tell about negative experiences abroad. Snowball sampling involves finding one person and then asking if she or he knows any others that suits your criteria (Overton & Diermen 2003).

Apart from talking and discussing with the village headmen, I focused on talking to three different groups of people; youth from the village that had never been outside of the village for a longer period of time, youth returned from Thailand and families with young family members staying in Thailand. I chose to focus primarily on the youth that had been to Thailand and on the families of youth staying in Thailand. Since it was the headmen that gave

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me the names of the youth with a connection to Thailand, they somehow determined who I talked to. I also randomly talked to young people staying in the village, to get a more general overview of the villages. These young people were selected simply by approaching youth I met during my walks around the villages.

2.5 Data gathering

2.5.1 Participant observation

Participant observation refers to an approach where the researcher stays in a social setting for a period of time (Bryman 2004). According to Malinowski (1922), being in touch with the locals is the preliminary condition needed in order to be able to succeed in your fieldwork. To become a part of the daily life in the village is a time consuming project. In order to get the full out of the stay, the researcher should master the language spoken in the village. In order to be able to achieve all this, considerable amount of time need to be spent in the community, at least months or preferably years (Pelto & Pelto 1978). The purpose of this strategy is to listen to people and watch them in their everyday environment (Spradley 1979). Participation is a matter of degree, ranging from just living in the community where the research is being conducted to emulating the natives as much as possible (Ellen 1984).

For me, using participant observation as a method, involved that I stayed in the selected villages for a period of time. I did this to get accustomed to the village life and also for the villagers to get used to having me there. It is only through establishing a relationship based on thrust that one can begin to ask personal questions and expect to get thoughtful and serious answers (Bourgois 2002). Even though the optimal for my fieldwork would have been to conduct thorough participant observation, this was not possible as a consequence of the limited time available for my fieldwork. The level of participation and observation I managed was limited, and can not fully be labelled participant observation according to anthropological traditions. Mastering the local language is an important aspect of ethnographic research. The fact that I did not master the language in the villages did thus constrain my participation.

These constraints are however something I will return to later on in this chapter.

When I visited the villages, I stayed in the house of the village headman (nai ban) together with my female interpreter. The village headman is the leader of the village. He is responsible

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for contacts with the district authorities and formal relations with other villages. The headman is elected every third year by the members of the village. However, this is a limited form of election, as the villagers are only allowed to vote for candidates listed and approved by the district authorities (Sparkes 1997c). The village headman needs approval from both the authorities and the rest of the villagers, and it is therefore reasonable to assume that he also holds the respect of the other villagers.

The time spent in the various villages varied from 3 to 8 days. Even though these stays were very short seen from an anthropological perspective, they allowed me to develop an idea of the village life and also to establish a better rapport with the villagers. The fact that I was taking my daily bath in the river with other villagers and preparing food on the wood-burning stove, were commented upon by some of the villagers as something positive as it showed them that I was not so different from them after all. As my research topic turned out to be a sensitive one, the importance of gaining the villagers respect and confidence became even more vital. Trust is not something gained in a few days, and the optimum conditions would have been to spend considerably more time in the villages. Due to the fact that the time available for fieldwork was highly limited, this was the best I could do. Even though I was still a stranger in the eyes of the villager after a week’s stay together with them, the fact that I stayed there did somehow make it easier for them to communicate with me. Especially some of the young women started to trust me, and they invited me to join them in ‘girls’ talk’ and to watch Thai TV with them.

By taking daily walks through the villages, I got to see how people arranged their daily life, i.e. family life, cooking, preparation for the working day and so on. Informal get-togethers around the bonfire or during breaks in the rice field were typical situations where I got to interact with the villagers in a more relaxed everyday setting. As a researcher, you are a source of inference and the situation appears less natural than it would have done without your presence (Bryman 2004). Nonetheless, this is something we have to deal with as researchers and keep in mind as we do our analysis.

The random gathering of information through participant observation made the base for the other research methods used. The data gathered from the participant observation is important as it provides the researcher with insights that are essential when developing interview questions. The end product of a field project will usually combine the result from the

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participant observation with the other methods used (Pelto & Pelto 1978). The other method used in my fieldwork was mainly unstructured interviews of individuals.

2.5.2 Interviews

Data was mainly gathered through individual interviews. The interviews were usually conducted in the informants’ homes. I included some easygoing talk here and there throughout the interview to make the situation less formal. Individual interviews were however difficult to carry out. Regardless of who I interviewed, the respondents were usually surrounded by other family members, friends or neighbours that to a smaller or larger degree joined in the conversation. This can be linked to the fact that it was seen as abnormal to be alone and people seemed to avoid operating at an individual level. Even though this made it difficult to get to talk to people individually, it was interesting as it showed how perceptions of the reality are a product of interactions between groups of people. As I experienced the societies I visited in Northern Laos to be rather collectivistic, insisting on doing individual interviews might have made the villagers more hesitant on answering my questions, as it might have been a new setting for them. Despite this, I got the feeling that the presence of other villagers and family members made some of the respondents more mindful about what they told me. This was something I noticed especially when I talked to some of the young female respondents.

During the first interviews, I brought with me pen and a notebook when I went to see the people whom I was to interview. I observed that the note-taking made some of my respondents a bit uncomfortable, even though I had asked for permission for taking notes.

After some time in the field, I therefore left the note-taking till after the interviews were finished. Instead of taking notes, I concentrated on memorizing what the respondents told me.

After I had conducted an interview, I went back to the house of the headman where I was staying and wrote down what the interviewee had told me. As I left the note-taking, it was easier for both me and my respondents to focus on the conversation, as our attention was not drawn to my notebook. This strategy eased the interaction and made the interview processes more like a conversation between me, my interpreter and the respondents. This was relatively time-consuming, but an important step towards making the interview setting as little formal as possible.

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I prepared an interview guide before I left for the field that served as a guide for which topics that should be covered in the research process (see appendices III-VI). As I aimed at making the meetings with the interviewees as informal as possible, the interview guide did only serve as a mental guide. Preparing the interview guides was a good way for me to prepare myself for the interviews. This process made me more mentally prepared for the interviews, as well as it forced me to think through my own perceptions about human trafficking.

As already mentioned, my research topic turned out to be a rather sensitive one, and I experienced that several of the respondents and villagers in general were reluctant to answer some of my questions. Instead of looking at this solely as a constraint, I find this to be important findings and something I will bring with me in the analysis of my data. The quietness around the topic might be a demonstration of the graveness of the problem as well as the morally attached punishments associated with the matter. I chose to focus on migration in my questions to avoid bringing in an unfamiliar concept that ‘trafficking’ might have represented. Another reason for focusing on migration was that I did not want to ask leading questions, but rather see how the villagers themselves talked about exploitations associated with migration.

2.6 Data analysis

No researcher starts the fieldwork without any preconceived ideas about what she/he expects to discover during the time spent in the field (Ellen 1984). I thus entered the field with some topics I expected and wanted to cover during my stay. These topics are covered in the interview guides I made prior to my research (see appendices III-VI). Without strictly following these guides, they guided my search for information while in the field. After my fieldwork, transcripts of the interviews were categorized according to these topics. New ideas had emerged during the interview process, some were dropped and others had remained the same throughout the process of data gathering and interpretation. The findings that have been categorized have been so in order to make a more general picture of people’s perceptions and the situation in the villages in general.

Several of the people I met in the villages were willing to share their stories and experiences with me. Seeing these stories in the light of the concealment I felt that the issue of migration and especially trafficking was surrounded by, it is likely that the stories have been somewhat

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modified in terms of what happened in the first place. This does however not make the stories less interesting or valuable, since it is how the people themselves conceptualize and create their own reality that is one of my objectives for this work. The end product of ethnographic research is a verbal description of the studied scenes. The ethnographic description uses some native terms with their meanings as well as the ethnographers own terms. This is a consequence of the fact that any ethnographic description is not only a description, but also a translation (Spradley 1979). I have decided to include some of the stories I was told by the villagers in my final work. These stories are not presented as life histories, even though that is a usual way of presenting material in ethnographic work. I have rather chosen to quote my respondents as the various topics touched upon arise.

Even though I am not always using the same wording as the respondents did, I aim at capture what they intended to say. I apologize if any of the stories and quotes are taken out of their contexts or have been misinterpreted. Their stories will not only give a picture of what actually has happened, but as well also illustrate how they structure and make sense of incidents. Narrative analysis focus the attention on how people make sense of what has happened (Bryman 2004). Instead of focusing on what happened, one should rather try to focus on the perspective of those being studied. Narrative analysis is “an approach to the analysis of qualitative data that emphasises the stories that people employ to account for events” (Bryman 2004, p. 413). As I find a lot of the literature written about human trafficking to be seen from the practitioners’ point of view, I will do as many ethnographers claim to do, namely to take ‘the natives point of view’.

An ethnographer observes behaviour, but goes beyond merely observing it and tries to enquire about the meaning of that particular behaviour (Spradley 1979). In addition to material gathered through interviews and informal conversations, observations done during my stay will also influence on my analysis. This will be done deliberately as I try to understand why things are being done the way they are. As some of the activities that took place in the villages became part of my everyday life after a while, some observations are not thought about in strictly ‘academic’ terms any longer. Even so, these observations and experiences are also part of my understanding of the villages and the life there.

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2.7 Limitations

Malinowski is famous for his statements about the importance of participant observation to conduct a successful fieldwork. Participation is a matter of degree, but an anthropological fieldworker should be a part of the lives of the people whom one is to study among. This can only be achieved through months of residence in the community. This will ensure that the locals end up being indifferent to the presence of the researcher. At the same time, the researcher gets to observe the daily life and activities performed by the people (Pelto & Pelto 1978).

My research in Laos lasted for about 10 weeks. Of these weeks, approximately six were spent in the Bokeo Province. The time spent in the villages was not sufficient to allow the villagers to get used to my presence. Even though I felt that my presence was less noticed after some days, I was all the time aware of the fact that I represented something unfamiliar and also to some extent something that was not always welcomed. The optimal would have been to have had more time for the research, especially in view of the fact that the topic I was looking at was sensitive and therefore even more important that the villagers were comfortable with my presence.

When I visited the villages, it was in the middle of the harvest period. During daytime, the villages were often rather deserted with mostly children and elderly staying in the village. As the villagers left early in the morning and returned late in the afternoon, the time left for conversations ended up being restricted. I sometimes also felt a bit uncomfortable interrupting them in their family life after the sunset. However, I never got any reaction from the villagers implying that I was disturbing them, and I whish to thank them for their generosity towards me.

The fact that I did not speak Lao, the official language, complicated the research process as it made me dependent on using an interpreter. Not being able to talk directly with the locals complicated the communication process, and a lot of information might have been lost during the process of interpretation. The fact that English was not the mother tongue for any of us, might have led to some misunderstandings. Due to language constraints, I was not able to get the exactly wording that the respondents used. To get the phrasing used by the villagers would have been a very interesting additional contribution to my analysis. Having to use an

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interpreter made the interaction with the locals come out less ‘natural’, as everything communicated with words had to go through a third person. Several of the villagers expressed that they would have liked to communicate with me more extensively, but that they felt they could not communicate freely with me because of the language barrier.

Lao is the official language taught in the schools, and it is assumed that people know Lao in addition to their own ethnic language. However, Laos is a multi-ethnic country with numerous of languages spoken, and some of my respondents had difficulties expressing themselves in Lao and also understanding my interpreter when she asked them questions. This was however a minor problem, as most of the villagers spoke Lao relatively fluently.

My interpreter was a young female undergraduate student. She had a different background from mine, and was unfamiliar with some of the concepts as well as some of the methods applied. I was sometimes not sure whether my question had the same meaning after being translated. At times it also felt quite awkward to ask such personal questions through another person. Despite this, I would like to stress that my interpreter did a good job, and using a relatively young female interpreter was probably a positive contribution to my field work. As I stayed in a society that was unknown to me, having a young Lao woman assisting me eased some of the practical issues I met.

Being a white foreign woman in a developing country is unfortunately often associated with wealth and power. Some therefore insinuated that a contribution from me was expected. I feel however that it is important to stress that this was the exception rather than the rule. I was also quite closely associated with NCA. They had a good reputation, and I did not experience any negative reactions because of my cooperation with them. The issue was rather that people expected that projects would be implemented as a result of my research. To avoid these misconceptions, I made it clear all the way from my arrival to the villages and through conversations with village headmen and villagers, that I was only a student from Norway, and therefore not able to assist them economically. I also stressed that I did not have any contacts in Norway either that could do so. I expected that my stay in Laos was for academic purposes, but I hoped that I one day in the future would be able to work within this field.

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2.8 Ethical considerations

Ethical issues arise regularly in the field when researchers are guests in other people’s private world. Researchers doing qualitative research, and ethnographers in particular, are usually to some extent incorporated into the community one is doing the research in, even though the degree of involvement and intensity may vary. The rights to privacy, confidentiality and anonymity should be recognized and respected. The people studied should also be informed about the aim of the study, as well as the methods that will be applied (Ellen 1984).

Anonymity in a research context refers to the researcher’s responsibility to keep the identity of the participants private. It should not be possible to identify any of them in the outputs of the research (Scheyvens, Nowak & Scheyvens 2003). This is something I found to be very important in my research and therefore something I stressed over and over again. I found it to be highly relevant, as some of my respondents told stories that contained details that would be unfavourable for them if other people got to know it. Most of the people I talked to had migrated illegally to Thailand or they had family members that had migrated illegally, and some were therefore a little anxious about telling me about it, as they feared that it might have negative implications. As a consequence of the need to keep my respondents anonymous, I will not use the names of the respondents, nor the villages I did research in.

Many people shared their time with me, and it was not possible to pay them what their time was worth. In one village, the headman desisted from going to the field for some days in order to be able to assist me when needed. As I stayed in the houses of the village headmen, I compensated them in terms of money for sharing their food and accommodating me. Even so, this could not make up for their hospitality and kindness towards me. All the other villagers that shared of their valuable time with me were not compensated in monetary terms.

However, I hope that the villagers will gain from my research in the long run, as the research is aimed at enlarge the existing knowledgebase about human trafficking. No matter how the informants are compensated, the needs of some gain from the project should not be ignored (Spradley 1979).

During my stay in the villages, there was no way I could conceal the fact that I was

‘different’. Not only was I relatively young to be a master student, but I was also female. I am aware of the fact that I because of this might have been considered as relatively

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successful. The father of one of the female migrants told me that “if my daughter could have worked as you do, I would have been proud of her”, and he would not have worried about her stay outside of the village. Instead of reinforcing any feelings of powerlessness that might occur because of this, I tried to encourage the youth to continue their education if possible.

Being white, blond and female are attributes I can not change. On the other hand, I tried to adjust the physical aspects that I did have a chance to control, like the way I dressed and behaved in general. My intention was not to be like the locals, but to dress and behave in a way that was perceived as respectable by them.

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3 Lao People’s Democratic Republic

To be able to understand why people act the way they do, and also to understand their way of thinking, it is necessary to have an understanding of the culture and historical setting they operate within. Due to the limited time I spent in the field, I was not able to collect any significant data on the socio-economical, political, religious or historical situation in Laos in general, or specifically in the Bokeo Province my self. For this reason, I have to rely on relatively general information taken from a limited collection of written sources. I have decided to avoid using Lao statistics provided by governmental ministries, and rather tried to look up information provided by more autonomous authors that covers the social aspects of the society rather than pure numbers. Although it is not ideal to have to rely on other authors, this information will still give an overview of the Lao society and provide background information that throw light on the issues in question. The purpose of this chapter is thus to introduce the Lao society in order to contextualize the issue of human trafficking.

3.1 Geography and infrastructure

Laos is located in the centre of the Southeast Asian peninsula, surrounded by five neighbouring countries. It borders China in the north, Vietnam in the east, Cambodia in the south, Thailand to the south and west and Myanmar in the northwest (Evans 2003). Laos has no access to the sea, but the Mekong River runs through the country. The river has traditionally represented the main transportation system in Laos. There has been invested in infrastructure in Laos the last years, but there is still a lot of transportation that takes place on the Mekong River. In addition to be important for travel and transportation, the Mekong River does also form a major portion of the border between Thailand and Laos. Even though the river divides Thailand from Laos, it does also serve as a ‘highway’ for the people who whish to cross the border over to Thailand. For the villagers I talked to, the Mekong River represented an opportunity to cross over to Thailand rather than a hindrance to the movement.

Laos can be divided into three regions; Northern-, Central- and Southern-Laos, and consists of sixteen provinces. Bokeo Province is located in the north-eastern part of the country on the border to Thailand and Myanmar. The population of Bokeo Province was roughly 64.000 in 1994, but with the high population growth in Laos it is likely that this number is higher now (Jerndal & Rigg 1999). There are relatively large regional differences within the country

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when it comes to economic development. The central provinces are the most developed and dynamic ones as they are being located close to the capital of Vientiane. The economic gaps between Vientiane and the rest of the country has widened the last decade, with Southern Laos being the poorest part of the country. Communication and transport infrastructure is also considerably better developed in the central parts of the country (Bourdet 1996).

There are however road projects going on in several areas of the country at the moment. In the Bokeo Province where I stayed, foreign investors were supporting the building of Route 3.

This will improve the connection between the northern areas of Laos with the rest of the country as well as with neighbouring countries like China and Vietnam. In turn this will influence the villages in several ways. Improved infrastructure makes these areas more lucrative for investors, which might lead to an improvement in the economical situation in the villages. At the same time, increased involvement in the capitalist economies is likely to make these societies to a certain degree more vulnerable in terms of migration and probably also trafficking, since the gap between the living standard in the villages and the more abundant areas becomes more visible.

Some of the villages that I stayed in were located next to this road. As the roads were not yet finished, the villages were consequently rather dusty. The road did nonetheless make these villages easily accessible. Trankell (1993) has been looking at how road construction is affecting the rural communities in Laos. She found that the villagers usually were in favour of these projects because of the expectation of access to more consumer goods at a lower price as well as social services.

The access to these services is poor in many rural areas of Laos today. The government has relocated people from the remote areas to more central locations in terms of infrastructure.

This was noticeable in the villages as I got to meet members from several households that told me that they had moved to the village recently. They told me that government authorities had told them to move closer to Route 3. The movement had changed the lives of these households in several ways. “I see some good and some bad outcomes of the moving. We do not have enough land now to produce food for the family. We have to rely on work on other farms, but it is only work for us there sometimes. The good things about moving are that we are now located close to the road and hospital” (family that was relocated 8 years ago).

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3.2 Demographic situation

The population of Laos is increasing rapidly, and by the year 2002 the population had reached 5.5 millions. The population of Laos is a young one with 42% under the age of 15. Rural migration to Vientiane is growing and the supply of unskilled labour there is plentiful. The rural uneducated population therefore often crosses the border to Thailand instead in search for work. The unemployment rate is on average high in Laos and reflects the decline in the Southeast Asian economy after the Asian financial crisis in 1997. One of the goals of the Lao government is consequently to limit the unemployment (The Economist Intelligence Unit 2005a).

A high portion of young citizens implies a high dependency rate, and there will also be a high number of new young job seekers in the years to come. The villagers I talked to said that unemployment was one of the reasons why young people had to leave the village in search for work other places. There were few opportunities for work in the villages, except from in the agricultural sector. The youth had also a relatively low level of education which deprived them job opportunities in other sectors of the economy. All in all there are few opportunities for paid work in Laos and many of the young people from rural areas sees Thailand to be the answer to their search for jobs. As Thailand has experienced a more successful development process than its neighbour Laos, low paid jobs are available for those with low level of formal skills as long as they are willing to accept a lower wage than that offered the more educated Thais.

3.3 History and politics

People's Democratic Republic covers at present only a small portion of the territory possessed by the former Kingdom of Lan Xang that was established in the thirteenth century. Internal power struggles resulted in the splitting up of Lan Xang after 1690 and the people of Laos were almost absorbed by the powerful neighbouring rivals Vietnam and Siam. Laos was incorporated into the French Indochina in 1893, and for half a century Laos was ruled as part of the French Indochina. During the Second World War the Japanese ruled the country for a short period. However, the most important influence came from the Vietnamese communist- led Vietminh that influenced more radical elements in the Lao nationalist movement. After years of turbulence within the country accompanied by American bombing during the war in

CROSSING THE RIVER Perceptions of 'human trafficking' among villagers in Bokeo Province, Northern Laos ASLAUG GOTEHUS

CROSSING THE RIVER

Perceptions of 'human trafficking' among villagers in Bokeo Province, Northern Laos

ASLAUG GOTEHUS

CROSSING THE RIVER

Perceptions of ‘human trafficking’ among villagers in Bokeo Province, Northern Laos

By Aslaug Gotehus, May 2006

Declaration

Acknowledgements

List of abbreviations

Lao vocabulary

Abstract

Table of contents

List of Figures

1 Introduction

1.1 Objectives and research questions

1.2 Structure of the thesis

2 Methodology

2.1 Approach

2.2 Fieldwork

2.3 Phase I - Vientiane

2.4 Phase II – Bokeo Province

2.5 Data gathering

2.6 Data analysis

2.7 Limitations

2.8 Ethical considerations

3 Lao People’s Democratic Republic

3.1 Geography and infrastructure

3.2 Demographic situation

3.3 History and politics