Moken’s Tactics on the Thai-Myanmar Border Crossing

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse the cross-border connectivity of the Moken (also known as Sea Nomads or Sea Gypsies), who lived on the islands and coastlines of the Thai-Myanmar borderland. This paper argues on the way the Moken have been negotiating the ongoing presence of a common cross-border ethnic identity, by using these aspects of their existing ethnicity and their enduring cross-border movements within the ethnic circle. They have somehow convinced government officials that they are not breaking the law when crossing the border in this way, even though many of these same officials fail to recognise their right to citizenship, land or fisheries ownership, and other basic human rights.