Myanmar: Young Burmese confront dashed dreams in exile

In 2019, Pann Pann started her first job – maintaining medical records – at a government-run hospital in Myanmar’s southern Bago city. She aspired to be the hospital’s chief records officer.

But four years on, the 25-year-old is waiting tables in Bangkok, her dreams pushed to the back burner as a brutal military regime continues to rule her country.

“If not for the coup, I would never have left,” she says. “I wanted to build my life in Myanmar. But there is no safe place in my country anymore.”

When Pann Pann finished college, Myanmar was still enjoying a rare bout of political freedom, the first in 50 years. The economy, racked by decades of instability, started to recover as tourists arrived and foreign investment poured in.

Then came February 2021. The army arrested Aung San…