The right to work? For whom? Exploring international migration for tourism employment and its effects on local workers through phenomenology

Abstract

Labor migration and tourism development are two separate phenomena, both affecting local workers of tourism destinations. In the context of Phi Phi Island, Thailand, these two issues could not be separated during the study of the effects of labor migration on local workers, as this labor migration was in direct response to the expansion of the tourism industry and the labor gaps that followed. Phenomenology and an interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) were used to understand the benefits and impacts to local workers due to the expansion of the labor market for tourism development and the immigrants, both Asian and Western, who came to fill occupations in the industry. Economical models and quantitative studies are insufficient for understanding these phenomenam and the voices of local workers can increase our understanding of how these phenomena impact the right to work of destination residents.

Notes

1 For this study, the term local worker refers to all workers of Thai ethnicity who live and work on the island. The complex history of internal migration to the island renders an analysis of its effects on “indigenous workers” beyond the scope of this article. The term migration worker classifies any worker of non-Thai ethnicity; however, this study focused on two distinct groups: (1) Myanmar workers and (2) Western workers, who represented the two largest groups of migrant workers on the island.

2 Phi Phi Island refers to the largest of the Phi Phi Islands: Phi Phi Don. The Hat Nopparatara—Mu Koh Phi Phi National Park includes six islands, Phi Phi Don being the only inhabited island.

3 Koh is Thai for island.

4 These sentiments were expressed to me by participants during interviews conducted after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

5 I attended meetings of the Phi Phi Island Tourist Business Association (TBA), and information regarding occupational sectors was derived from those meetings.

6 Following mainstream trends, this literature review is heavily reliant on materials from economic studies. This is not to exclude voices from other disciplines but, rather, to speak to the relevant mainstream discourse concerning labor migration and tourism development.

7 The title “Theme” in this context is not synonymous with “Finding.” The themes presented here are categories of data—sometimes at opposing ends of a large spectrum—that related to each other and presented themselves at a rate that required their further exploration. For example, “Theme 1: Migrants Take Jobs” is not a declaration that migrant workers definitively take employment opportunities from local workers but, rather, the title of a group of similar data that are represented by that title.

8 Farang is a word referencing fairer-skinned Western nationals.

9 The onset of the “gig economy,” which was just beginning on the island at the time of data collection, is beyond the scope of this study; however, it may have effects on these occupations and warrants further study. Generally, Western tourists are more technologically skilled than many tourism operators on the island, and the benefits of tourism development to the island may leak from the local economy, as many unofficial Western tour guides began advertising their services via social media, undetected by tourism, immigration, and labor officials.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elizabeth J. Kolbe

Elizabeth Kolbe received her Bachelor’s of Arts in Anthropology and Ethnic Studies from Minnesota State University, Mankato (2008) before receiving her Master of Arts in Human Rights from Mahidol University, Thailand (2016). She received a Masters Research Grant from ShapeSEA (Strengthening Human Rights and Peace Education—Southeast Asia) to conduct her research on human rights issues in tourism employment, focusing on the effects of immigration on local workers. She currently owns a small business in the tourism industry of Thailand which allows her to privately fund her own social justice projects and independent research.