The government is pushing for a new national agenda: trying to convince and incentivize more Thais to procreate. In the words of Health Department Director General Atchara Nitiapinyasakul warns on Saturday Thais need to have more babies or there will be a shortage of workers and taxpayers six decades from now.
She said in 2022, for the first time, more Thais died than were born: 500,000 versus 480,000. And if the trend continues, the Thai population will decrease from 65 to 63 million six decades from now, with 18 million being elderly people versus 14 million working-age population.
Giving a talk in Phetchabun province, she went on to tell the audience to imagine having no Thai pilots, flight attendants at the airport or doctors at hospital. Thailand, she adds, can either follow the Singaporean way by importing more migrant workers, she said, as many Singaporeans no longer want to have babies and their government has failed to convince them otherwise, or go the Swedish way which has been successful in encouraging more procreation among Swedes over the past decade through various incentives.
She is not alone. Public Health Minister Cholnan Srikaew and the government are fully behind the new policy. While details have yet to be announced as to what are the measures and incentives to be given in an attempt to reverse the population decrease, the government would do well to ask themselves why many Thais now no longer want to have children, or more children, and seriously question the need to continue to have population growth given the world’s dwindling natural resources.
The obvious answer as to why more Thai couples are apprehensive is that it is prohibitive to have a child and ensure that the boy or girl gets a good quality of life and education. One of my acquaintances is a well-known academic at Chulalongkorn University. His wife also teaches at a top university. The father wants to make sure his daughter gets the best education in Thailand and thus sends her to a leading international school. Its tuition fees are almost that of what a middle-class Thai earns in a year, and he has to do extra work in order to make sure his daughter can continue her education there.
The truth is, if you are a working class, or even a middle class, daily existence is hard enough, why bother having children if you are not confident you can guarantee them a decent childhood, quality education and a reasonable prospect for a bright future?
Even for those better off, we hear countless stories of failed child rearing, spoiled kids, and worse. The government, if it truly thinks a bigger and younger population is needed, might want to reconsider its immigration policy and make it more accommodating for young foreigners, both blue and white collar, to come to Thailand, work here and have a reasonable chance for becoming naturalized Thai if they choose to.
Learn from Singapore where some veterinarians are from Spain or France, condo receptionists from the Philippines and more. Sure, the income level is miserably lower here in Thailand than that of Singapore’s, but we can definitely learn from them and from other countries which have successfully taken in and integrated migrant workers and expats.
Instead, the estimated one to two million migrant workers in Bangkok are made invisible, treated as if they do not exist instead of leaving the doors open for a permanent assimilation and make them feel at home.
In the final analysis, does Thailand need perpetual population growth? Is it really a good thing for Thailand, the environment and the world? How about extending the retirement age to 65 or even 70 for many professions (and make it optional) so some people can pay taxes a little longer.
As it is, Thailand, particularly Bangkok, is crowded enough. Perhaps a smaller population is in fact more desirable and better in terms of quality of life and the environment. Most of Thailand is nowhere near being like a small town in Quebec where they desperately have to take in migrant workers from faraway land to make sure the town does not cease to function.
