Thai People's View on the inflow of Foreign Immigrants into the Country
Abstract
How is immigration shaping politics in Thailand? This article utilizes an analytical framework constructed from an intensive review of literature regarding factors that influence public views of immigration. The main purpose made in this article is to understand and explain how the Thai citizens perceive immigration. Relying on the quantitative method of examination, this article employs a survey data conducted between August and October 2014 in Thailand by the Asian Barometer Survey (ABS) as its main source of analysis. This article finds that majority of Thai respondents like other four Southeast Asian countries (i.e., Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Singapore) are anti-migration. Their views of immigration are shaped by a complex array of factors-economic perceptions, background characteristics, and political attitudes. Based on these findings, this article suggests in the concluding part that Thai citizens follow global trends elsewhere in their attitudes toward immigration, whereas there are uniquely Thai relationships.
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