COVID-19 migrant returnees, access to land, and subsistence under uncertain times in Karen State, Myanmar

In addition to its impacts in terms of illness and death, the COVID-19 pandemic caused significant socioeconomic hardship in Myanmar as it did around the world. How land was implicated in how people coped with this hardship remains poorly understood. Other pre-pandemic studies in the region have found that rural communities and land provide a safety net for migrants engaged in precarious work, to which they can return in times of crises; it is partly for this reason that people do not sell land despite it becoming less important for livelihoods. Research conducted between June and October 2020 in ten rural villages severely impacted by the loss of remittances accompanying the pandemic, and in which many returned migrants were now living, found that land did indeed provide a significant safety net but in unexpected and specific ways. Land replaced remittances as the main source of livelihood and security. It allowed returned migrants to survive as they waited to go back to Thailand, reinforcing the co-dependency between farmers and their migrant relatives. Yet many returned migrants only reluctantly turned to farming when they had no other options, and some households had land that was only partially used while others remained landless. Ultimately, land’s role as a safety net was limited due to the unviability of smallholder farming and the unequal distribution of land. • With the COVID-19 pandemic, many Myanmar migrants ended up back from Thailand in their home villages. • Farming replaced migrant labor as the main source of livelihood and security in migrant-sending villages. • Land acted as a safety net but differently from what has been written about in other contexts. • Many households remained landless while large amounts of land remained unused. • The ability of land to provide a safety net was limited by inequality in land ownership.