Thailand took the right step earlier this week when the Cabinet of Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra approved new criteria to accelerate the process of granting Thai citizenship and legal status to nearly half a million people who are long-term residents in the kingdom. Beneficiaries include 19 ethnic minority groups, children born in Thailand who are registered as children of long-term residents.
The Paetongtarn government deserves to be commended for finally approving the bold initiative which would also significantly reduce the processing time from 270 days to 5 days, decentralize the approval process to the provinces as well as streamlining documentation requirements.
Virtually all these 480,000 or so people in Thailand have either been born in the kingdom or are people who lived here for many decades and there is no reason why they should be denied Thai citizenship. They will now have access to publicly-funded healthcare, education and other social services. They will no longer be treated as outsiders but as Thais, and part of Thai society, thus it’s expected that they will feel invested in this society.
Keeping them “alien” can only make them feel unwelcome, and not part of Thailand, and would risk pushing them into criminalities and a feeling of alienation.
The move comes as Thailand is becoming a greying society in need of more working-age population as the birth rate continues to decline.
What’s equally important, if not more important, is that the move, which is expected to be implemented within 30-60 days, is a just thing to do.
To continue to deny these people statehood by keeping them, particularly young people, not recognized as Thai is cruel and a violation of their fundamental right as a member of this society.
In the days since the Cabinet made this important decision, some xenophobes have accused the Paetongtarn government of selling Thailand out to foreigners and alleged that it would lead to increasing criminalities as some of these people with exploit their newly granted Thai citizenship to engage in illicit activities that would undermine national security.
While it’s possible that some of these nearly half a million new Thai citizens will turn into criminals, keeping them as outsiders with little or no basic rights accorded to them as Thai citizens will likely turn more of them into criminals.
In Japan, for example, it’s a known fact that many Yaguza gangsters were originally of Korean ethnicity and were unable to be fully accepted as equal. With less than equal legal job opportunities, by the straitjacket Japanese society, they ended up becoming part of the criminal underworld.
Also, the integration and inclusion of Chinese migrants over the centuries was a success and many Chinese-looking Thais who descended from these immigrants are now full-fledged Thais, patriotic, speak Thai as their mother tongue, and have contributed to all aspects of Thai society and not just in the business sector.
Most of these half a million new Thai citizens will likely not leave the kingdom, thus a policy of inclusion is actually the solution and will strengthen Thai society, and not the opposite.
The government deserves praise but it can also do more.
Thailand hosts millions of migrant workers, chiefly from Myanmar but also from Cambodia and Laos, and even if most will not be granted Thai citizenship soon or ever, it’s also to the benefit of Thai society to make them feel more welcomed as guest workers in Thailand. The same can be said about better-to-do Western, Japanese, Korean, Chinese and other expats in Thailand. Thailand can and should find ways to make them feel more at home.
