2019 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 1(2) discrimination against the non-Thai ‘Other’, particularly the Chinese reflects the aggressive assimilation policies implemented by the Thai state during the midtwentieth century. 38 This model of racialised citizenship has successfully turned ethnic heterogeneous society into a homogenous modern nation-state, while curating ‘distinctive characteristics separating Thais and the non-Thai’. 39 While the non-Thai others such as the Chinese also suffered early exclusion from Thai citizenship, they eventually became assimilated through an aggressive assimilation policy.40 On the other hand, the highlanders living in the periphery had long been constructed by the Bangkok elites as strange and uncivilisable, thus an anti-thesis to civilised ‘Thainess’. 41 Even the official label ‘chao khao’ (ชาวเขา) is indicative; the translation can be double-entendre as ‘peoples of the hills’ and ‘the Other’ (khao is also a third-person pronoun — ‘other’). 42 To the Thai state, highlanders are therefore ‘the Other Within’. 43 Exclusion from the Thai identity meant highlanders were not included in early state cadastral surveys and were not registered until 1960s. 44 During the Cold War, negative narratives surrounding highlanders linked them with illicit activities such as deforestation, communism and drug trafficking. 45 These derogatory stereotypes were used to both justify their exclusion from citizenship and make them objects of ‘development’. 46 In the past, not being seen and counted by the state may have had little impact on the everyday life of the highlanders who lived at the margins of the state such as the highlanders in northern Thailand but by the 1990s, not being documented and not having Thai citizenship became a serious problem. 47 Diminished livelihoods in the highlands coupled with restrictions placed on the movement and occupations of non-citizens turned statelessness into a critical issue among the highlanders. 48 Intimidation by representatives of the state is common. 49 As is discrimination, such as not having access to education or not being granted a certificate of completion for those who were able to attend school. 50 Mobilisation during 1999 and 2000 by pan-highland movements led to mass registration of highlanders, many of whom successfully obtained Thai citizenship. 51 However, as 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 See generally William G Skinner, Chinese Society in Thailand: An Analytical History (Cornell University Press 1957); Laungaramsri, ‘Ethnicity’ (n 33). Laungaramsri, ‘Ethnicity’ (n 33) 160; David Streckfuss, ‘The Mixed Colonial Legacy in Siam: Origins of Thai Racialist Thought, 1890–1910’ in Laurie Sears (ed), Autonomous Histories, Particular Truths: Essays in the Honor of John R W Smail (Centre for Southeast Asian Studies) 123, 123–153. See also David Streckfuss, ‘An “Ethnic” Reading of “Thai” History in the Twilight of the Century-Old Official “Thai” National Model’ (2012) 20(3) South East Asia Research 305. Laungaramsri, ‘Ethnicity’ (n 33) 161; Duncan McCargo, ‘Informal Citizens: Graduated Citizenship in Southern Thailand’ (2011) 34(5) Ethnic and Racial Studies 833, 837. Winichakul, ‘The Others Within’ (n 33) 45–48. Laungaramsri, ‘Ethnicity’ (n 33) 163. Winichakul, ‘The Others Within’ (n 33). Flaim (n 14) 149–50. Laungaramsri, ‘Ethnicity’ (n 33) 165–67. Flaim (n 14) 150. A Right To Belong (n 14). Flaim (n 14) 150–51. Cheva-Isarakul (n 10). ibid. Flaim (n 14) 150–51, citing Kathryn McKinnon ‘(Im)Mobilization and Hegemony: “Hill Tribe” Subjects and the “Thai” State’ (2005) 6(1) Social and Cultural Geography 31; Morlaeku (n 14). 220