In the present day, hopes of a higher standard of living fuel migration patterns in Cambodia. Maltoni (2007) summarized Cambodian migration as a "strategy to face unexpected shocks and not as a long-medium term process aimed to increase the socio-economic status of the family." (n3) In country, migration from the countryside usually means finding jobs, especially in the garment industry, in the city. Marston (2007) reported that 80-90% of Cambodian garment workers are female, many of them migrating from the countryside. These women are vulnerable on many fronts: they are very young (usually 18-25 years old), overworked (often with compulsory overtime), and at risk of physical and sexual assault (especially when females travel to and from the factory at late hours).(7) Marston also reported that this category of women is preferred for hiring due to employers' assumptions that they will be less likely to protest poor working conditions and wages. (9) Chen Lee (2006) pointed out that these migration patterns intersect with many Cambodian cultural assumptions about women. Maltoni (2006) listed recommended actions for addressing the intersection between migration and gender issues.
Trans-border migration is similar, with migrants seeking employment in neighboring countries, especially Thailand. The Mekong Institute (2006) noted that Cambodian women often seek employment in domestic work, entertainment and sex work, all industries that potentially set migratory women at risk to violence.
Sexual trafficking is another type of migration that intersects with the cultural factors surrounding domestic violence. Marshall (2001) demonstrated that economic development in Southeast Asia, with the creation of labor-deficit economies, created conditions where unskilled, irregular migrants were increasingly drawn into the national economies. That much of this migration is illegal makes a vulnerable population even more at risk to human trafficking. One 2000 estimated placed trafficked labor (outside of the sex trade) from Cambodia at 88,000. (LICADHO 2004: 21) Once exported, trafficked people become reliant on their trafficker and can quickly get into debt bondage, a condition that makes women especially vulnerable to forced prostitution. (LICADHO 2006: 15)
Within Cambodia, one study by the Cambodian Women's Crisis Center concluded that 64.45% of sex workers were forced into the line of work; up to 50% of sex workers were of Vienamese descent. (LICADHO 2004: 19, 20) As noted above, gender roles and stereotypes play a role in permitting and/or encouraging the sexual exploitation of women. This, in turn, can create an atmosphere where women are undervalued and vulnerable to violence in the home. For this reason, LICADHO (2007) recommended conducting "a nation-wide educational and awareness campaign [that targets] police, lawyers, judges and in particular, the general public on domestic violence, rape and human trafficking" (28).
***Notes1) For a reflection from a Cambodian, see Ronnie Yimsut, "Cambodia: Nationalism, Patriotism, Racism, and Fanaticism." Available online at: http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/natlism.htm
2) In a combination of the two historical factors, "members of the ethnic Vietnamese minority faced a new wave of repression in November 1999, when authorities charged that some 600 ethnic Vietnamese residents of a floating village were illegal immigrants." See the Human Rights Watch World Report 2001, available online at: http://www.hrw.org/wr2k1/
3) "Those who decide to migrate from Cambodia are expelled from the sending communities by a combination of factors ranging from chronic poverty, to landlessness passing through lack of employment, lack of access to markets, materialism, debt and natural disasters such as droughts and floods. Consequently, they are forced to move from Cambodia by overwhelming predominance of push factors over pull factors. These migrants often find employment in 3D jobs (Dirty, Dangerous and Disliked) which only allow them to maintain the status quo rather than improving their standard of living." (Maltoni 2007: 3)
