The Relationship between Factory Migrant Work and Schooling in Rural Cambodia: Mutually Enhancing Relationship and the Effect on Gender Education Gap

Abstract

In recent years, an increasing number of Cambodian rural laborers, especially young female laborers, migrate to work at factories such as garment factories. Those migrant factory workers remit money to their families, raising the income of rural households. Meanwhile, the educational level of Cambodian rural children is generally low mainly because of economic constraints to sending children to school. Using data collected in one village in Takeo province, this study examined the relationships between the factory migrant work and the schooling of children in rural Cambodia.

The major findings are as follows. First, schooling up to primary school level considerably increases the probability of migrating to work at a factory. Therefore, the expansion of job opportunities at factories raises the rate of return of primary education, which would increase the incentive of parents to have their children study at least until completing primary school. Second, the remittance from factory workers enhances the ability to finance schooling, and thereby reduces the probability of children's dropping out of school. The increased incentive for schooling and the expanded ability to finance schooling imply that the factory migrant work and educational level of children are promoting each other. Third, on the other hand, the expansion of employment opportunities in factories increases the opportunity cost of schooling, especially that for girls, because factories prefer female labor force. In fact, many girls in the surveyed village quitted school to work at factories. Consequently, the factory migrant work would maintain preexisting educational gap between girls and boys in rural Cambodia even though the rate of return to education of girls is increased much more than that of boys by the expansion of factory job opportunity.