Social Mobility among Muslim Cham in Cambodia

This study aims at exploring the social mobility of Muslim Cham in
Cambodia by taking Chong Kneas as a case study. By “social mobility,” I refer to the
movement of individuals or the whole family between different levels of economic
status and social standing. The findings show that household mobility into and out
of poverty of the Muslim Cham at Chong Kneas is determined by economic
opportunity and resources and access to technology, but also by social relationships
based on religion and ethnic group. They also show that mobility based on
livelihoods diversification depends on the availability of non-dependent labour in the
household group.

In Chong Kneas, Muslim Chams can be divided into three different groups
measured by wealth: poor, middle and wealthy. The wealthy benefit from their
involvements in fishing and the tourism sector. Individual Cham working in the
tourist industry can as a family earn US$ 50 to US$ 100 a day. The middle group
simply are those whose jobs are fishermen. They normally get involved in fishery
and have their own means of catching fish. Their daily incomes are various in
accordance with fishing season, but the average is US$ 10 to US$ 49. The poor are
those Cham who do possess minimal means of production, say in fishing. They use
their labor to earn money such as fishing laborers or porters.

Access to resources is another influentual factor. Situated in the lake, some
social resources including land ownership, educational institutions, healthcare center
or even financial aid, are far from their reach. Land ownership is what the Muslim
Cham perceived as their main means of social mobility. That is why more and more
Muslim Cham are still trying to get a piece of land outside the community.

As Amartya Sen defined poverty as lacking of access to resources, the poor
in Chong Kneas live in poverty defined by lack of access to material resources and
social opportunity and services while the higher group conversely have relative
wealth and greater access to resources and opportunity, including opportunity for
mobility.