Highland Birth and Citizenship Registration inThailand. Final Report on Karen Focus Group Discussions in Chiang Mai Province

This investigation on highlander’s access to citizenship was conducted in 2007. It is based on the record of stateless Pwo Karen life stories, interviews of state local administrative officers, and the study on the historical process of granting legal status to highland ethnic minorities of Thailand. Despite the Thai State policies to integrate the so-called “Hill Tribes” since the seventies, the following governmental pressures to control illegal immigration has undermined the process of granting them Thai citizenship. Although the Karen are classified among the indigenous tribal groups who should access citizenship de facto, the overlapping of multiple regulations, tribal surveys and ID cards to establish a clear classification between native ethnic groups, tribal groups of refugees and illegal migrant workers coming from the neighboring countries, has created a great confusion among both officers and applicants about the rightful legal status they can apply for. By examining in detail the itinerary of stateless Karen's engaged in an administrative process of naturalization, this research highlights the various obstacles they face in order to prove their nationality and how the lack of citizenship impacts their life with regard to mobility, access to health care, education or job opportunities. In the same time, it shows how this social precariousness captive them in a situation of dependency toward their relatives and render them more vulnerable to economic exploitation inside the mainstream society