Bordering and the gray area in the binary classifications of migrants within migration regimes

Abstract

For several years, Thailand has been experiencing not only a rising trend in migration from within the Mekong region, but also of those coming from outside the region; mainly, unauthorized or irregular migration. The study of Filipinos in Thailand is particularly revealing because of the type of migration system established by migrants themselves, evolving over the last 60 years and has remained understudied. Unlike Singapore and Malaysia, no formal connections based on labour migration have ever been established between the two countries; thus, the difficulty in explaining its internal mechanisms. Results from the surveys in five major provinces in Thailand and at the three borders between Cambodia and Thailand, and in-depth interviews revealed that Thailand’s approach to international migration or cross-border migration is problematic as seen in the twofold approach in enforcing migration laws, the social climate created, and the ability of other migrants to ‘bend’ them. This paper, therefore, presents the socio-political-spatial dimensions of bordering, highlighting the various ways in which classes of migrants are redefined within more complex migration regimes in Thailand. The dynamics within networks and processes vis-à-vis the borders are also explained, and how these have changed the binary distinctions of migrants and thus, their security.

Keywords:

• Borders
• semi-regularity
• irregular migration
• transitions