Indigenous People or Illegal Migrant Laborers? : Recent Debates over the Hill Tribes and Nationhood in Thailand

This paper attempts to consider recent transformations in regard to the relationship between the state and hill tribes in Thailand. The initial government policy toward hill tribes had been formulated in the context of the Cold War and lost its grounds in the post-Cold War period. Therefore since 2002 the government itself has gradually withdrawn its hill tribe policy. After 2002, the hill tribes as an administrative category were transformed to "ethnic group (klum chatiphan)," which also includes other ethnic minorities. Meanwhile,a movement to claim the hill tribes as indigenous peoples emerged in the 1990s. Such movements are, however, plagued by theoretical and practical problems. It is widely known that the hill tribes of Thailand include recent immigrants from neighboring countries, which further blurs the distinction between indigenous peoples and migrant workers. The existence of the hill tribes as both indigenous peoples and as migrant workers reflects a dilemma in Thailand's policy and discourse on nationhood and citizenship.