Precarity and social mobilization among migrant workers from Myanmar in Thailand

Abstract

Abstract of thesis entitled “Precarity and Social Mobilization among Migrant Workers from Myanmar in Thailand”of thesis entitled “Precarity and Social Mobilization among Migrant Workers from Myanmar in Thailand” Submitted by Meghan L. Eberle for the degree of Masters of Philosophy in Politics & Public Administration at the University of Hong Kong in February 2010. Fleeing state-sponsored violence and economic decline in their home country, hundreds of thousands of Myanmar emigres have in recent years crossed the border into Thailand in search of a better life. For the estimated 2 million Myanmar migrants now living there, however, life in Thailand presents its own challenges. With insufficient legal provisions to handle the influx of migrants, the Thai government has largely turned a blind eye to abuse and exploitation suffered by migrant workers. Yet despite poor working conditions and exploitation, there does not appear to be much of a call to improve conditions through mobilization among the Myanmar migrant community. The marked absence of mobilization on any level thus begs the question: why is the migrant population in Thailand so passive in the face of severe strain and exploitation? This thesis explores the issue of non-mobilization among migrant groups, using as a framework two core concepts: social mobilization and precarity. The long-standing discourse on social mobilization focuses on social and political action in response to societal strain, taking into account other factors such as access to resources and institutional opportunities. Precarity, a newer concept and compliment to the established social mobilization debates, has been used to describe a lifestyle characterized by critical social, economic, and political insecurity. Based on an in-depth survey of 134 Myanmar migrant workers in Chiang Mai, Thailand, the findings of this study indicate that while the migrant experience shows all the signs of a high degree of precarity, migrants have reacted to precarious conditions with extreme passivity and heightened alienation from both politics and social life. I thus argue that precarity as a precondition may have some inhibitory effects on social mobilization outcomes. While resource mobilization theory, political opportunity structures, and social influence theory among others provide at least a partial explanation for non-mobilization, in order to more fully explain instances of non-mobilization in complex modern contexts, the social mobilization discourse must look to a new theory. Precarity thus has the potential to be a useful and dynamic tool by which to understand social mobilization in modern contexts.