‘DIAGNOSING’ STATELESSNESS AND EVERYDAY
STATE ILLEGIBILITY IN NORTHERN THAILAND
JANEPICHA CHEVA-ISARAKUL *
Statelessness in Thailand is primarily framed first and foremost as an issue of legibility to the state,
with an assumption that once a stateless person is ‘properly seen’, due recognition will follow.
This article builds on a growing body of literature that examines the limits of evidentiary approach
and the burden of proving citizenship as experienced by many stateless persons around the world.
I use the anthropological framework of ‘state illegibility’ to encapsulate the systemic violence and
burden placed on stateless persons by the state’s opaqueness and inscrutable, contradictory and
unpredictable bureaucratic practices. Through three ethnographic accounts in Thailand, I
interrogate various forms of state illegibility and their implications. I argue that by not recognising
state illegibility, statelessness risks being reduced to an individualised legal status issue, rather
than being acknowledged as a symptom of systemic discrimination.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction........................................................................................................... 214
Notes on Methodology and Positionality .............................................................. 217
Background on Statelessness in Thailand ............................................................. 218
Legibility Tools and Technology of Governing ................................................... 222
Expanding Rights of Stateless Persons and Continual Grey Areas ...................... 224
Ethnographic Account One ................................................................................... 225
Ethnographic Account Two .................................................................................. 228
Ethnographic Account Three: Reconciling Identities, January 2018.................... 230
Discussion ............................................................................................................. 233
A Stereotyping and the Limits of an Individual Identity .............................. 233
B State Illegibility through Documentary Practices ..................................... 235
State Illegibililty and the Framework of Exception .............................................. 236
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 237
INTRODUCTION
There are people who have been living in Thailand for a long time but are not Thai.
That is, they are not considered authentic Thai. Although they were born and bred
in Thailand, they do not get the benefits of being Thai. This [treatment] has to be
standardised because if there are people living in Thailand who feel left out and
uncared for, this will diminish the national security.
— King Bhumibol at Klai Kangwon Palace in 2001. 1
*
1
Janepicha Cheva-Isarakul is a lecturer at the School of Social and Cultural Studies, Victoria
University of Wellington, New Zealand. The author would like to acknowledge her
participants and the stateless communities whose life stories appear in this article. Her sincere
gratitude is also extended to the members of the Thailand’s National Human Rights Council
Sub-Committee on Indigenous and Minority Rights for allowing her to accompany them on
their visit to the communities. She also is grateful for the constructive comments by the
reviewers and for the helpful contribution of Ms Bongkot Napaumporn.
Ministry of Interior, Practicing Diagnosing and Addressing Issues of Legal status and
Citizenship
(Report,
12
May
2016)
<www.bora.dopa.go.th/nationclinic/images/document/Citizenshipdiagnostics.pdf>.