Overseas Remittances Become Lifeline for Myanmar Families Amid Regime Misrule

“I could finally breathe again — there was enough money even for meat,” Daw Cho recalls, describing the moment her two-year struggle for survival ended with her daughter’s first remittance payment.

Displaced by war in Karen State since 2023, she had lived hand-to-mouth on humanitarian aid and casual jobs in rice and rubber plantations earning a daily wage of 20,000 kyats—less than US$ 5. But when the aid dried up and work shrank to just five days per month, hunger became a daily reality.

“I had to think very hard before even buying a snack or a bottle of juice,” she recalled.

But the nightmare suddenly lifted early this year when her daughter took an office job in Thailand and began sending her 400,000 kyats ($90) every month.

“It is much easier now,” she said.

Daw Cho is among the millions in Myanmar who increasingly depend on overseas remittances following the 2021 military coup.

The military takeover sparked economic collapse driven by regime mismanagement, withdrawal of foreign investment, international sanctions, and civil war.

As unemployment soared, citizens fled abroad seeking jobs to feed families back home. The mass exodus accelerated in 2024 when the regime imposed mandatory military service, driving more youths to flee the country.