Negotiating Identities: A Transformation of Thai-Muslim in the Baan Somdej Mosque Community (Bangkok)

Title: Negotiating Identities: A Transformation of Thai-Muslim in the Baan Somdej Mosque Community (Bangkok)

Author: Miss Vinissa Kattiya-aree

Year: 2024

Keywords: Arabization, Urbanization, Islam in Thailand, Muslim Community

Theme: Human Development and Human Security

Advisor(s): Bhanubhatra Jittiang

The full thesis available here.

Abstract: Thailand is home to more than 6 million Muslims, making Thai-Muslim the largest religious minority group. Thai – Muslim communities have long been a part of Thai society, participating in all levels of society, from economics to politics. Despite much research written on the Thai Muslim population and communities, the Bangkok Muslim communities remain understudied. This research hopes to expand the existing research on Muslims in Thailand and offer an interdisciplinary explanation focusing on international development and anthropological aspects of the transformation of a Thai Muslim community. This thesis presents a case study of the Muslims of the Baan Somdej Mosque community, located in the Thonburi District of Bangkok. It aims to document the changes happening in the community, from clothing to traditions, in the hope of capturing the current stories of the community.Furthermore, this thesis also examined factors contributing to those socio-cultural changes happening within the community. The methodology for this research consists of key informant interviews, field observation, and documentary analysis. It concludes that the transformation of the Thai Muslims in the Baan Somdej Mosque Community is a result of the interplay between urbanization and Arabization, where urbanization drove the community to redefine themselves and Arabization, as a form of globalization, is out to set the standard for what it means to be “Muslim.” This interaction created new Muslim identities for the Muslims in Bangkok, Thailand

Legally literate but disempowered : Urban refugees and national screening mechanism in Thailand

Title: Legally literate but disempowered : Urban refugees and national screening mechanism in Thailand

Author: Mr.Andrew Wai Phyo Kyaw

Year: 2024

Keywords: Legal literacy, Legal empowerment, Urban refugees, National Screening Mechanism (NSM), Thailand

Theme: Human Development and Human Security

Advisor(s): Bhanubhatra Jittiang

The full thesis available here.

Abstract: This dissertation examines the relationship between legal literacy, empowerment, and protection outcomes among urban refugees and asylum seekers in Thailand, focusing on the 2019 National Screening Mechanism (NSM). Thailand, a non-signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and hosting about 5,500 refugees mainly in Bangkok, lacks formal refugee laws. Its recent NSM reflects limited progress in regional protection mechanisms, functioning within a framework that emphasizes state security over human security. The study posits that urban refugees understand the law, like the NSM, but remain powerless because Thailand's approach prioritizes security over protection.This study addresses three interconnected research questions that investigate the relationship between legal frameworks, knowledge acquisition, and the empowerment approach in Thailand. The first question examines how the National Screening Mechanism's legal and political dynamics address urban refugees and asylum seekers, with a focus on how concerns about state sovereignty affect protection efforts. The second question examines to what extent urban refugees and asylum seekers are aware of the NSM and how they acquire the necessary knowledge to access legal protection. The third question examines how strengthening the NSM's legal knowledge impacts protection outcomes for urban refugee communities, particularly the disparity between their theoretical rights and their actual implementation. The study employs an exploratory qualitative approach that combines different data collection methods to capture the complexity of refugee experiences in Thailand. The study gathered primary data through questionnaires given to 30 urban refugees and asylum seekers from various countries, in-depth interviews with 20 participants chosen for their diverse demographic backgrounds and experiences, and key informant interviews with eight experts from refugee relief agencies and academic institutions. The study also analyzed various documents, including NSM regulations, academic papers, policy documents, and media reports, to add depth to the analysis. More importantly, the study received ethical approval and followed international standards for research involving vulnerable populations. The study reveals that Thailand's NSM represents incremental progress in refugee protection; however, it also reinforces exclusionary policies that severely limit genuine empowerment. A review of documents shows that the NSM's regulatory framework puts immigration control above refugee protection, such as portraying displaced persons as "aliens" requiring management rather than as individuals needing humanitarian help. The mechanism's complicated bureaucratic procedures, including mandatory detention during screening and high bail requirements, intentionally create obstacles that deter applications while giving the appearance of meeting protection requirements. The study highlights a gap between legal knowledge and protection. Despite understanding laws like the NSM, refugees in Thailand still face arrest, detention, and deportation under the Immigration Act 1979. It contributes to refugee and development studies by challenging assumptions about knowledge and power, introducing the field of legal empowerment. The concept of "legally literate but disempowered" offers a crucial perspective for understanding how knowledge raises awareness of vulnerabilities without providing actual tools for protection. Building on Cecilia Menjivar's "liminal legality," the study shows how refugees are stuck in legal limbo, where their physical presence conflicts with their legal status, making their rights meaningless within a security-focused refugee system. This dissertation concludes that Thailand's refugee management reflects a regional trend: the creation of complex exclusion mechanisms disguised as protection. Although the NSM demonstrates institutional progress, it primarily enhances state control over displaced populations, rather than fostering genuine integration or empowerment. Urban refugees in Thailand demonstrate that legal knowledge alone cannot overcome structural barriers in restrictive environments. Ultimately, Thailand's new policy, like the NSM in Thailand, does not provide genuine protection that refugees need and instead focuses on managing asylum seekers due to national security concerns

Human Security of the Karen Community in Chiang Mai’s Forest Fires, Thailand

Title: Human Security of the Karen Community in Chiang Mai’s Forest Fires, Thailand

Author: Miss Yukari Otsuka

Year: 2022

Keywords: N.A

Theme: Human Development and Human Security

Advisor(s): Naruemon Thabchumpon

The full thesis available here.

Abstract: When studying the human security of marginalized people such as indigenous people, they are generally interpreted as a focus that needs to be particularly protected. However, it differs in the context of natural disasters in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Karen people, one of the largest ethnic populations in Chiang Mai, are subsistent farmers who use fires as a life tool and are often blamed as the cause of forest fires. As one kind of natural disaster, forest fires are a common occurrence in Northern Thailand every dry season. Chiang Mai is one of the significant provinces in Thailand with the eighth population and experiences devasting forest fires. To solve the issues of forest fires and associated air pollution, the government implemented a non-burning policy that impacts the farming procedures of the Karen community and their entire human security situation.This research applies a qualitative method and utilizes a case study of the devastating forest fires in Chiang Mai in 2020. Through semi-structured interviews with Karen villagers (n=15) in Chiang Mai with the aid of a research assistant, this research aims to assess the human security situation of the Karen community facing forest fires. This research explores forest fires’ impacts on the Karen community through a Human Security lens. This research also examines conditions and factors that affect human security situations and vulnerability and capability that impact the Karen community.This research finds that the policy executed without arranging and preparing a counterplan with Karen farmers who are “citizens” directly affected the entire Karen community in Chiang Mai. This research concludes that this political insecurity hugely affected the entire human security of the Karen community facing forest fires, especially food and health security. This research, therefore, argues that the capability of the Karen community to enhance their human security situation is limited by political insecurities and ethical discrimination.

Climate Imaginaries and Human Mobility: complicating climate mobility as adaptation in Thailand

Title: Climate Imaginaries and Human Mobility: complicating climate mobility as adaptation in Thailand

Author: Miss Clare Steiner

Year: 2022

Keywords: Climate Migration, Human Mobility, Climate Change, Thailand

Theme: Human Development and Human Security

Advisor(s): Carl Nigel Middleton

The full thesis available here.

Abstract: For centuries, agricultural households in Thailand have engaged in mobility to adapt to environmental change and climate shocks. However, current framings of “climate migration as adaptation” obscure how these adaptation pathways are constructed by existing power relations, leaving institutions liable to re-enforce inequality. This thesis uses the concept of “imaginaries” to de-construct how certain knowledge and values advance over others in the process of negotiating and acting towards a preferable future. It employs a dual methodological approach with a case study of Baan Non Daeng in Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand to analyze dominant imaginaries in Thailand and their function and limitations in assessing smallholder farmer mobility decision-making in the context of slow on-set environmental change. The thesis first performs a discourse analysis of institutional policy texts on climate change, migration, and development in Thailand to find that institutions value futures that encourage smallholder farmers to leverage their existing resources and act as entrepreneurial agents of development. It also finds that climate mobility imaginaries are founded on the idea of the well-resourced migrant who has access to longer distance mobilities that can transform rural livelihoods. The thesis then uses interviews conducted in Baan Non Daeng to complicate these imaginaries and engage with structural political economy factors driving relative (im)mobilities. It finds that relative positioning influences household perceptions of environmental risks and resources that contribute towards differing practices and scales of mobility. The thesis ends by arguing for processes like knowledge co-production and translocal visioning that better address root issues of marginalization in policy and practice

A study of sustainability in the energy sector in Myanmar between 2011 and 2020

Title: A study of sustainability in the energy sector in Myanmar between 2011 and 2020

Author: Miss Clara Mang Sui Tang

Year: 2021

Keywords: Energy security, Energy policy, Environmental policy, Energy Tariffs, Myanmar

Theme: Human Development and Human Security

Advisor(s): Balazs Szanto

The full thesis available here.

Abstract: In modern society, energy becomes a life supporting mechanism, as it is not only entangled with the environment pillar of sustainable development, but also inseparably related to the economic and social pillars of society. Taking advantage of a qualitative research method, this study critically examines the level of sustainability of Myanmar’s energy sector between 2011 and 2020, using 2011 as a baseline, by observing three critical components: energy security, environmental considerations in energy production and securing financial health for the sector.Energy security, possessing uninterrupted availability of energy sources at an affordable price, is studied from available macro secondary data in conjunction with an analysis of existing energy policies. The study concludes that, although the two successive Myanmar’s Union governments were able to generate and import energy to meet its soaring demand and maintain its energy security, it still fell short to improve energy security during the studied period.This thesis finds that environmental policy integration in the energy sector at the Union level is the most vibrant among the three components. Although there is still a long journey to undertake to meet international standards, the country was able to graduate from “traditional” environmental management and transitioned into a sound streamlined environmental safeguarding mechanism in the sector.Furthermore, the examination of Myanmar’s energy sector financial health in this study reflects the vital role energy tariffs play in the sustainability of a market economy. Although the two successive governments were able to raise electricity tariffs twice during the studied period, which new tariffs resulted in some improvement in the energy sector’s financial health, the sector still needs massive subsidies from the Union’s budget. This insecure financial health has impacted the sector’s productivity and functionality, but it also has a negative effect on the country’s wider socio-economic development, specifically affecting those who do not have access to modern electricity.Although this study does not find current satisfactory trends in any of the three studied components, it notes the improvements that the country was able to make especially considering the starting point of the journey - newly transitioning into a semi-democratic society from a military dictatorship. The study also provides pragmatic recommendations for the sector’s sustainability based on its research. By observing the energy sector from a bird’s eye view, this paper intends to initiate a deeper understanding of sustainability in Myanmar’s energy sector and potentially offer new premises and contentions for further debate on the subject

Youths' participation in agriculture for enhancing sustainable livelihoods: A case study of the Pa-O self-administered zone in southern Shan state, Myanmar

Title: Youths' participation in agriculture for enhancing sustainable livelihoods: A case study of the Pa-O self-administered zone in southern Shan state, Myanmar

Author: Miss Khine Zin Yu Aung

Year: 2020

Keywords: Agriculture, Youths, Sustainable Livelihoods, Rural Development

Theme: Human Development and Human Security

Advisor(s): Carl Middleton

The full thesis available here.

Abstract: Myanmar in which 70 percent of the population is rural people relies on agricultural sector for its economy. It contributes about 37.8 percent of the country’s GDP and employs about 50 percent of the labors (FAO, 2020). However, Myanmar’s agricultural sector is not well developed and does not stand as reliable livelihood for the people, especially for the youths, in rural areas. Hence, the people in rural areas have to seek more livelihood opportunities like leaving their farmlands and moving to other places for work. This situation has impact both on youths and on the agricultural sector which needs youths’ capacities for its development. Therefore, this study focuses on the challenges for the youths in rural areas in approaching their livelihoods, their contribution to agricultural development and how to support them in enhancing sustainable livelihoods in rural areas. This study is conducted through qualitative methods with the use of case study of Pa-O SAZ located in Southern Shan state of Myanmar. The findings result that youths have more challenges for access to natural capital and less challenges for access to physical, social and human capitals. Another significant finding is that both youths and the elders have challenges for access to knowledge or information on their livelihoods. The strengths of the youths for agricultural livelihoods are having more capabilities to adapt with new techniques, innovative ways as well as to connect with varieties of people. For their livelihoods, the youths make decision depending on the factors of having experiences and exposures, support from government and organizations, education, parents and families’ background and access to finance. This study also argues that sustainable livelihood is not only about getting more wages and profit but also about having job and social security. Though agriculture is not promising and reliable work in terms of wages or profit, it can still be regarded as a main livelihood in terms of sustainability in Pa-O SAZ. Hence, diversification becomes the most preferred livelihood strategy for all of the youths participated in this study. Therefore, the study suggests to promote the youths’ participation in agriculture through financial and technical supports from government, NGOs, CSOs, CBOs and the private sector in order to enhance more sustainable livelihoods in Pa-O SAZ.