Thailand has a huge demand for native speakers,
and has a huge ready-made workforce in the form of travellers and
expatriates for whom the lifestyle in Thailand is very attractive.
As Thailand disallows foreigners from most non-skilled occupations
this means that the majority of foreign teachers are working, as
they can do nothing else to make a living there.
Officially, teachers require a degree to work as a teacher, and
in some areas to be eligible for a work permit, however in practise
many teachers find that a CELTA or other TEFL certificate suffices
on its own.
Fake degrees and TEFL certificates are openly available to buy
on the Khao San Road in Bangkok, which has led to schools in Thailand
employing a large number of fraudulent teachers, though in many
cases this is encouraged by the schools wishing to facilitate work
permits for its teachers. The quality of the fakes however, are
poor and easily spotted. Common mistakes are spelling errors, wrong
formatting ie the certificate in landscape not portrait, wrong fonts
etc.
Even those who do not want to follow this path often find themselves
working illegally, though again labour laws are rarely enforced
and many teachers can work illegally for years, by either working
on an easily available non-immigrant visa, and in many cases on
a 1-month tourist visa, which can be renewed simply by border-hopping
every month. Many schools do not themselves know how to process
an application for a Teachers Licence and Work Permit. There are
occasional crackdowns however, and those caught can find themselves
at best, looking for a new job and at worst, locked up in Thai jails
until they can come up with the money to be deported, although this
is very rare.
Schools generally do not pay for round-trip airfares or receive
many other benefits aside from the given salaries. Local teachers
wages are very low, at around 250 dollars per month, with native
speaker salaries averaging between USD 750–1000 per month.
While this can afford a fairly comfortable lifestyle in Thailand,
it is amongst the lowest TEFL salaries internationally, and many
long-term expatriates find they can no longer afford to return to
the West.
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