Precarity and Political Immobilisation: Migrants from Burma in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Abstract

An estimated 1.5 million citizens of Burma reside as refugees or migrants in Thailand, where harsh treatment, harassment and social stigmas contribute to a climate of precarity. Although one possible course of action for any community under strain is political mobilisation, for migrants from Burma in the northern city of Chiang Mai, high degrees of exploitation and insecurity have generated an overwhelming disinterest in political issues. The article examines this relationship in five main sections. The first presents the two key concepts that structure the analysis: precarity and political mobilisation. The second examines the context of migration from Burma to Thailand, focusing both on the climate of unrest found in much of Burma and on Thailand's treatment of migrant workers, its non-participation in core international legislation and its sub-standard migrant registration system. The third explains how this study of Burmese migrants in Chiang Mai was undertaken and reviews the ethical considerations required in a study of vulnerable groups. The fourth documents the study's findings and presents migrants' testimony. The fifth seeks to explain the link between precarity and political passivity in this case, and considers the wider implications. The concluding section restates the core finding.

Key Words:

• Burma
• Chiang Mai
• migration
• mobilisation
• Myanmar
• precarity
• Thailand

Acknowledgements

The authors are very grateful to Yoomone One for excellent research assistance as interviewer, interpreter and translator. They thank Kevin Hewison and two anonymous readers appointed by the journal for constructive and helpful advice. They acknowledge research support from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. HKU 744407H).

Notes

¹ Burma is now officially known as Myanmar. The change was decreed in June 1989 by the military junta that seized power from a collapsing version of its own self in September 1988. As part of a broad exercise, many states, divisions, towns, streets, mountains and rivers were also given new English names. Rangoon, for instance, became Yangon.

²Numbers are very hard to gauge and may be much higher than this figure. This 2006 estimate from the MAP Foundation (2006: 36) is commonly cited.

³At the time, provincial regulations prevented migrants from obtaining drivers' licences.