Migrant labor takes a holiday. Reworking modernity and marginality in contemporary Thailand.
This paper examines the practice of working-class group excursions in Thailand, organized by and for rural labor migrants in Bangkok. These trips involve traditional forms of Buddhist ceremonial as well as more self-consciously "modern" sightseeing activities in distant regions of the country. More than just a welcome respite from the drudgery and discipline of factory jobs, these excursions allow labor migrants to make important claims about their experiences as members of the Thai nation-state. As tourist-consumers, migrant workers appropriate powerful signs and symbols of modern Thai identity and status, in doing so they contest (and at least partly rework) their material and ideological marginalization within contemporary Thai society.
D001208:Asia; D001210:Asia, Southeastern; D001519:Behavior; D003710:Demography; D003906:Developing Countries; D004467:Economics; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D004651:Employment; D006280:Health Workforce; D011153:Population; D011157:Population Dynamics; D013785:Thailand; D014171:Transients and Migrants
Asia; Behavior; Demographic Factors; Developing Countries; Economic Factors; Human Resources; Labor Force; Labor Migration; Literature Review; Migration; Population; Population Dynamics; Southeastern Asia; Thailand; Travel And Tourism