Abstract:
The main purpose of this article is to study a perception of Thailand’s government towards migrant workers from Myanmar, the largest numbers of migrant workers in Thailand. The perception towards Burmese migrant workers, as observed, is quite distinct from perception towards migrants from any other neighboring countries. This happens because of the fact that the government perceives those migrant workers with fear and suspicion which doesn’t only rooted from its large amount of numbers in a country but also from other factors that shape the perception toward Burmese migrant workers into what we call “threat perception”. The study finds that those significant factors contributing Thai government to perceive Burmese migrant workers as “threat” include with 1) Present situation 2) Historical experience 3) Cultural difference 4) Behavior of migrant workers and 5) Leaders’ anxiety