Khmer Expansion into Jarai and Tumpuon Communities in Borderland Cambodia

• In Event: Citizenship in the Peripheries: Identities in SE Asia (Mini-Conference 3/3)

Abstract

For the past two decades, the indigenous minorities in borderland Cambodia have witnessed significant in-migration from the Khmer ethnic majority, making for increased competition for various resources, including land. Yet rather than observing friction and violent clashes, as expected by sons-of-the-soil arguments, we see ethnic minorities living peacefully with the Khmer migrants, enjoying stable social relations while also maintaining their cultural distinctiveness. Why? I explore several predominant explanations of why competition does not lead to violent escalation, including elite co-optation and pay-offs, cultural assimilation policies, geographic isolation and ethnolinguistic differences, and small tribe sizes lacking the capacity to resist. I offer an alternative explanation. I find that governments can avoid the cost of conflict by relying on a free-market approach that redistributes some of the benefits to indigenous minorities. By giving the indigenous residents the first-rights to acquire unclaimed land, native populations profit from Khmer encroachment oftentimes by selling less desired land — like, for instance, roadside land that likely contains unexploded ordnance leftover from the Vietnam War. While Khmer migrants have brought access to more public services, including professional demining teams, the ethnic minorities have benefited from the increased amount of land clearance and public goods provision.

Author

• Erin Lin, Ohio State University