Thailand will grant citizenship to nearly 500,000 long-term residents, most of them members of ethnic minorities, with the aim of improving national security and the economy, officials said.
While immigration is a hot-button political issue in many countries, in Thailand, where its remote border lands have for centuries been populated by a patchwork of “hill tribe” communities, the plan has stirred little, if any, serious opposition.
Under a streamlined process agreed by the cabinet in late October, provincial authorities will be able to grant citizenship, cutting down on red tape and saving time, said government spokesman Jirayu Houngsub.
“It will bolster national security, enable those Thai citizens to access medical plans and support the economic drive,” he said.
New citizens will gain the right to work freely, buy property, open bank accounts, get domestic rates for tuition fees and apply for university scholarships.
A retired government official familiar with the issue said security worries were at the root of the decision, and a fear stateless people were more likely to get mixed up in “illicit” activities.
“They must gain Thai citizenship so the government knows who they are, and they can have a legal career and contribute to society,” said the former senior Thai official who declined to be identified commenting on the sensitive issue.
“Recognizing them helps Thailand earn their loyalty.”
While who precisely will qualify for citizenship has yet to be announced, a member of a parliamentary committee on ethnicities involved in the plan told Radio Free Asia that the focus was long-term members of ethnic minorities and tribal people, such as members of the Hmong ethnic group, as well as those settling from Myanmar and Laos, and long-term migrants from Cambodia and Vietnam.
Former members of the Chinese nationalist Kuomintang party, who fled from China after the 1949 communist victory there and settled in Thailand, will also be granted citizenship, said Surapong Kongchantuk, secretary of the house committee on the ethnicities.
“In a nutshell, the eligible people are ethnic and tribal people who have been surveyed and registered for a long time,” Surapong told RFA.
“The new system will take effect after the Ministry of Interior declares a ministerial act in around the next two months – a New Year gift,” he said.
Path to opportunity
But Surapong said those eligible would not include “new migrants.”
He declined to go into details of exactly who he was referring to but applicants must be able prove they arrived in Thailand before 1999 and remained here for at least 15 years.
That means no path to citizenship for the many thousands of people from Myanmar who have fled from their country’s latest round of bloody turmoil and repression since a 2021 military takeover there.
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It is also not clear if about 100,000 members of the Karen ethnic group from Myanmar living in border camps after fleeing fighting beginning in the 1980s, will be eligible.
But many people from Myanmar are hopeful after years of insecurity, temporary permits and endless scrutiny by the authorities.
“I have to submit information about where I’m going, what I’m doing and who I’m going to meet,” said one man from Myanmar, who asked to be identified as Maung Maung, who fled repression in his homeland and has been living precariously in Thailand for 27 years, most recently with a 10-year temporary permit.
For Maung Maung, citizenship would open up a new world, not so much for him, but for his children.
“My wife and I aren’t at the age to study anymore but for my son and daughter, if they want a better education in Chiang Mai or Bangkok, as a citizen they would have the opportunity,” he said.
Thailand’s Minister of Social Development and Human Security Varawut Silpa-archa said 130,000 stateless children born in Thailand would get citizenship.
Health benefits
Citizenship would also mean people can also get access to health insurance and the state health system, and relieve an immense strain on hospitals in border regions that operate under a humanitarian oath to provide care to anyone who needs it.
“Health insurance is really really important, especially for elderly people,” said Brahm Press, the director of the Migrant Assistance Program in Thailand.
“Migrants aren’t allowed to work after age 55, which means they’re not really entitled to any health insurance either, but that’s the age when you really start to need it.”
While there has been no public outcry about the prospect of nearly half a million new citizens, there has been some grumbling among online posters, with some questioning if all of the likely applicants were “really Thai.”
A Bangkok-based businessman who identified himself as Somchai told RFA he agreed that hill-tribe people who had been in Thailand for many years should get citizenship: “They feel Thai even though they’re living in remote mountains.”
But Somchai said he’d then draw the line.
“I disapprove of granting people from Myanmar, or other nationals, the right to resettle here. That isn’t right. What benefits do Thai people get out of this? Why is the government thinking about that?”
Edited by Taejun Kang.
Khet Mar contributed to this report.