The international labor mig ration in Mon State has been po pular over two decades and both co uples are migrating to the neighboring countries for work. The children and elderly people are left behind in the local area. The purpose of the study was to describe how migration impact on the education, the use of remittances and responsibilities on tee nagers left behind in the local area and how gender differences impact differently to boys and girls left behind due to the cause of parental absence . With analyzing of both secondary and primary data , the qualitative research method was used in the resea rch. In order to explain the problems and difficulties facing by the left behind teenagers the ethnographic approach was applied for understanding the lives of the left behind teenagers . Contrary to some existing literature the result showed that the left behind teenagers had no habit of addiction. The problems and difficulties faced by the left behind teenagers were different from each other based on their social status and gender. As it had been shown in many literatures, t he left behind eldest daughter beca me the surrogate motherhood of the younger siblings due to the parental absent. Their education was negatively affected because they have to quit the school after parents{u2019} migration. The remittances were given to the children as the reward to them and also as the bribe to the children. In order to gain the rewards from the parents the left behind teenagers are trying to make their role stronger which makes inequality between boys and girls. The study found out that the migration impact negatively on th e girls l eft behind teenagers{u2019} education and responsibilities whereas boys had positive impact on education based on their social status and traditional notion of masculinity the {u2018}achiever{u2019}. The notion of work on the women was reproducing generation to gen eration . The care givers were the assistants on the reproducing of the work because they regenerate and control the social norms of the area which created gender inequality . H owever the girls are empowered to some extent because they become the de facto he ad of the household . The traditional notion of low value reproductive work is given some value because parents give the reward as the work that the girls bared .

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Gender and Development Studies, School of Environment, Resources and Development

Thesis (M. Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2011