What Difference Does a Status Make? Navigating (Il)Legality on the Thailand-Myanmar Border

• In Event: Contentious Legal Boundaries: East and Southeast Asian Sovereignty

Abstract

The Thailand-Myanmar border is highly permeable with high levels of forced and economic migration from Myanmar into Thailand. In crossing the border, people move between sovereign spaces as well as various legal statuses of citizen, migrant worker, and refugee. This paper explores the ways that people navigate spaces between distinct legal orders using qualitative data collected in the borderlands of Thailand and Myanmar. Situating lived experience in the context of transnational politics and migration law reveals a tension between policy and practice that is regularly negotiated by those inhabiting the border. Migrants strategically move between various legal statuses and spaces with different legal orders including cities and towns on the border as well as refugee camps. This paper problematizes our understanding of citizenship and sovereignty by arguing that existing policies inadequately reflect the realities of those who navigate life on the border.

Author

• Mollie Pepper, Northeastern University