The People &
Culture
Thailand’s cohesive national identity provides a unifying patina for eth-
nic and regional diff erences that evolved through historical migrations
and geographic kinships with ethnically diverse neighbours.
Ethnic Makeup
Some 75% of the citizens of Thailand are ethnic Thais, providing a su-
perfi cial view of sameness. But subtle regional diff erences do exist. In
the central plains (Chao Phraya delta), Siamese Thais united the country
through its historic kingdoms and promulgated its culture and language.
Today the central Thai dialect is the national standard and Bangkok ex-
ports unifi ed culture through popular media and standardised education.
The northeast (Isan) has always stood apart from the rest of the coun-
try, sharing closer ethnic and cultural ties with Laos and the Thai Lao
people. The Isan dialect diff ers from central Thai, folk beliefs vary and
even the local ingredients insôm·đamm (spicy papaya salad) mark a cultur-
al shift: sôm·đammLao contains fi eld crabs, while standard sôm·đamm con-
tains peanuts. In the northeastern provinces that border Cambodia, there
is a distinct Khmer infl uence as many families migrated across the bor-
der during historical tumult. A minority tribe, known as Suay lives near
Surin and Khorat (Nakhon Ratchasima) and are traditional elephant ma-
houts; with the expansion of the elephant-tourism business many Suay
people have relocated across the country for job opportunities.
Thai Pak Tai people defi ne the characteristics of the south. The dialect
is a little faster than standard Thai, the curries are a lot spicier, and there
Thailand
Demo-
graphics» (^) Population: 66.7
million
» (^) Fertility rate: 1.6
» (^) Percentage of
people over 65:
9.2%
» (^) Urbanisation
rate: 34%
» (^) Life expectancy:
73 years
THE INVISIBLE BURMESE
Due to the ongoing dysfunction of the Myanmar state, there is an increasing exodus
of Burmese to Thailand. Approximately 150,000 people have entered the kingdom as
political and ethnic refugees but the vast majority are economic migrants (estimated at
two to three million but less than half are documented). They fi ll the low-level jobs –
fi sh-processing, construction, domestic and factory work – that used to employ un-
skilled northeastern Thai labourers. In part, many Thais believe that the country needs
this imported workforce as the population is ageing faster than it is reproducing.
However, the emerging immigration ‘situation’ has not been dealt with as swiftly by
the government as the private sector. Because many of the Burmese immigrants are
residing and working in the country illegally, they are subjected to exploitative relation-
ships with employers that many activists describe as modern-day slavery. The Burmese
can’t return home due to persecution by the military regime and they can’t turn to the
Thai authorities in cases of workplace abuse because they would face deportation.