Leaving Home, Displacement, and Changing Identities: The Case Study of Irregular Yunnanese Migrants from Myanmar to Thailand

• Main Authors: WU, DE-WEI, 吳得瑋
• Other Authors: LEE, MEI-HSIEN
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/2kx747

碩士 === 國立暨南國際大學 === 東南亞學系 === 106 === 　For most Taiwanese, the issue of Yunnanese migrants on the Thai-Burmese border usually brings to mind scenes from the 1990 movie “A Home Too Far”, where the fierce-ly brave but displaced Kuomintang (KMT) guerillas in the movie has long affected the outside understanding and imagination regarding the Thai-Burmese border. However, review of modern history on population migration at the Thai-Burmese border shows that it cannot be viewed purely as the migration history of KMT stragglers in the 1960s. Up to around the year 2000, due to economic, safety and other considerations, migrants and refugees from Myanmar continued to use channels outside the legal system to enter Thailand, and of which, the Yunnanese migrants who are also cleverly concealed within the descendants of KMT stragglers, have drawn scant attention. 　This research begins by examining the background on the rise of international human rights discourse, in order to understand how the Thailand government have, after facing international opinions and pressure, steadily increase provision of legal protection in terms of rights to education, health and work for irregular migrants within its border. Secondly, through the life experiences of irregular migrants, analyze how they use iden-tity transformation strategies in order to obtain more advantageous spaces for their sur-vival, and attempt to implement affirmation of their identity. 　During the research process, in addition to combing through migration related laws and policies, and clarifying the rights enjoyed by the research subjects and the limita-tions they face, the author also carried out in-depth interviews with 11 irregular Yun-nanese migrants in Thailand during 2015 and 2017, in an attempt to profile the inter-viewees’ life images. The research believes that the postnational theory proposed by Soysal (1994/ 2012) where individuals who has their rights guaranteed – under globali-zation – has moved from what previously belong to only citizens, and developed into a trend where non-citizens can also enjoy the same rights. However, traditional form of citizenship has not lost its glamour and has not been completely replaced by postnational citizenship. In addition, a full citizenship still remains what most of the interviewees are in pursuit of.