Compromised margin: Migration and Agrarian Transformation in the northeastern Thai-Lao Borderlands

Abstract

Agrarian transformation, a process associated with changes in the relations of production, occurs when capitalism penetrates or is adopted into modes of agricultural production and labour. It has been classically approached through the prism of class and rural differentiation in peasant communities. Previous studies have tended to primarily focus on core agricultural areas rather than other geographical settings. This thesis investigates how the socio-cultural and geographic contexts of the northeastern Thai-Lao borderlands, specifically the flexibility of border crossing and language and cultural similarities, shape the current agrarian transformation in particular patterns of migration. It argues that the pathway of agrarian transformation in the northeastern Thai-Lao borderlands is not a linear deagrarianisation process. Although villagers are generally involved in a wide range of economic activities, many are engaged in farming at the same time. Labour shortages in the Thai borderlands have been resolved by transborder rural-to-rural migration. Ethnographic fieldwork and surveys have been conducted in three communities. The first two are cross-border communities located along the Mekong River, one in Mukdahan Province in northeastern Thailand, and the others in Savannakhet Province, Lao PDR. The third community is in the hinterland of Laos, approximately 50 km from the border, and is also in Savannakhet Province. The findings of this thesis are presented in three parts. The first part identifies the spatial contexts of northeastern Thai-Lao borderlands that allow the scope of compromise in state-village relations in the borderlands. The second part exposes migration patterns of villagers in the northeastern Thai-Lao borderlands and their long-distance migration to Bangkok and its vicinities. The third part reveals that a certain type of agriculture persisted in the northeastern Thai- Lao borderlands and a hinterland village of Laos in contrast to the linear theory of v de-agrarianisation. It argues that the ability of the Thai farmers to absorb cheap Lao workers supported ongoing agriculture and led to new agrarian relations between the Thai farmers and the Lao workers. In Laos, migration and remittance support agricultural households to invest in small businesses, build new houses, or buy new lands, all of which provide upward mobility for the Lao villagers. Those findings contribute to theoretical debates about the state power, statevillage relations in the borderlands, the non-linear and overlapping nature of rural-to-rural and rural-to-urban migration, and agrarian transformation in Southeast Asia. Taken together, the thesis provides a better understanding on the process of agrarian transformation, and suggests that, because this transformation often follow a non-linear path, it casts doubt on simple notions of de-agrarianisation.