The politics of mobility, structuration, and infrastructure: a case study of Myanmar migrant workers under the migrant worker management regime in Thailand

Abstract

The migrant worker management regime in Thailand has been operated to deal with the flow of migrant workers between Thailand and the neighbouring countries for almost 30 years. Several studies portray the production of the regime through various mechanisms such as non-citizen control system, documents regime, the employment process, policies and regulations, and classification of migrant workers. Under these studies, migrant workers have been presented in two distinct narratives; one is short-term labours, who are controlled and exploited by the regime, another is economic migrants, who migrate from home country to destination country in pursuance of incremental benefits. This thesis seeks to depict an alternative perspective for the study of international labour migration in Thailand by taking a critical look into the mobility of migrant workers.

Based on qualitative data collected from Myanmar migrant workers in various locations of Thailand, the thesis employs three concepts; structuration, infrastructure, and politics of mobility, to illustrate how the structuration in the labour market of migrant workers has been shaped through the interactions between mobility practices of migrant workers and multiple infrastructures. The thesis examines the politics of mobility expressed through the interactions between migrant workers and mobility infrastructure. It argues that the migrant worker management regime demonstrates assemblages of various infrastructures. The regime functions as mobility infrastructure, especially in mobilising the flow of migrant workers across geographical space and creating various mobility channels moving migrant workers into different levels of legality. Migrant workers, therefore, frequently move along with the configuration of the regime to adjust their legal status. The thesis also argues that the regime tends to create indirect courses and limits the mobility of migrant workers. As a result, migrant workers often rely on other resources and actors to enhance their mobility. In addition, migrant workers also employ mobility to negotiate with the labour market, especially in terms of income, working conditions, and involuntary job mobility. However, the limitations of mobility eventually lead to reduction of the negotiation power of migrant workers with the labour market.

The research highlights the structuration in the labour market through consideration of capability in mobility as a resource which is not only unequally accessed but also contested by varied agencies. It finally leads to the production and reproduction of unequal power relations among actors in the labour market.