‘Diagnosing’ Statelessness
shown in Flaim’s work, registration was still uneven and legal status among
members of the same family may differ. 52
While prejudice against highlanders, which has led to their statelessness has
been well documented and examined, much less is theorised or studied in relation
to statelessness among the children of labour migrants, notably the ethnic Shan,
from the Shan state of Myanmar, who constitute a large group in Chiang Mai.53
Prior to UNHCR’s #IBELONG campaign, it was more common to refer to the
Thai-born children of Shan migrants as ‘second generation immigrants’; their risk
of statelessness was not necessarily widely recognised. 54 Statelessness, among
what Jacqueline Bhabha calls ‘Arendt’s Children’, has so far received
comparatively little attention, partly due to their contentious status. Some NGOs
and officials I met during my PhD fieldwork expressed that they are ‘unauthentic
stateless’ — especially when some parents hold a labour migrant passport issued
by a country of origin. 55 It is not within the scope of this article to debate their
legal predicaments, but the daily experience of the children who are the
participants in my PhD research suggests that they possess ‘significant and stable
ties’ with Thailand. 56 For my research, and in this article, I regard them as de facto
stateless.
52F
52
53
54
55
56
Flaim (n 14).
Due to its proximity to the Shan state of Myanmar and the ‘porous’ nature of borders, there
had long been movements and settlement of ethnic Shan people in Chiang Mai and other
northern provinces. Early migrants who entered Thailand before labour regularisation started
in 1990s were not classified as migrants but as ‘highlanders’ (but not hill tribes). For more
information on the Shan diaspora in Northern Thailand, see Amporn Jirattikorn, ‘Brokers of
Nostalgia: Shan Migrant Public Spheres in Chiang Mai, Thailand’, in Caroline Plüss and Chan
Kwok-bun (eds), Living Intersections: Transnational Migrant Identifications in Asia
(Springer 2012).
Bupa Anasuchartkul, รู ปแบบและการจัดการศึกษาแก่สาํ หรับทายาทรุ่ นที่สองของผูย้ า้ ยถิ่นจาก ประเทศพม่า [Education
Models for the Second Generation Migrants from Myanmar] (Report, Thailand Research
Fund 2011) [tr author]; Kamonwan Petchot, ‘The Right to Education for Migrant Children in
Thailand: Liminal Legality and the Educational Experience of Migrant Children in Samut
Sakhon’ in Thanh-Dam Truong et al (eds), Migration, Gender and Social Justice:
Perspectives on Human Insecurity (Springer, 2014); Kwancheewan Buadaeng,
การปรับตัวทางสังคมและวัฒนธรรมของทายาทรุ่ นที่ 2 ของผูย้ า้ ยถิ่นจากประเทศพม่า [Social and Cultural Regormation of
Second Generation Migrants from Myanmar] (Report, Thailand Research Fund, 2011) [tr
author]; Nongyao Nawarat ‘Thailand Education Policy for Migrant Children from Burma’
(2012) 47 Procedia — Social and Behavioural Sciences 956; Nongyao Nawarat, ‘Negotiating
Curricula for Burma Migrant Schooling in Thailand’ (2014) 143 Procedia — Social and
Behavioural Sciences 872.
Jacqueline Bhabha, ‘Arendt’s Children: Do Today’s Migrant Children Have a Right to Have
Rights?’ (2009) 31(2) Human Rights Quarterly 410. Bhabha explains the defining
characteristics of a group she calls ‘Arendt’s children’ as that
they are minors; they are, or they risk being separated from their parents or customary
guardians; and they do not in fact (regardless of whether they do in law) have a country
to call their own because they are either noncitizens of children of noncitizens. Within
this term includes citizen or migrant children living in so-called ‘mixed status’ or
‘undocumented families’; unregistered or stateless children living in their country of
birth with their immigrant parents.
At 413. Kritaya Archavanitkul, ‘Towards Managing Stateless People in Thailand’s Context’
(2014) 118 Senri Ethnological Reports 185; Phunthip Kanchanachittra Saisoonthorn,
‘Development of Concepts of Nationality and Efforts to Reduce Statelessness in Thailand’
(2006) 25(3) Refugee Survey Quarterly 40, 52.
Cheva-Isarakul (n 10).
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