Vol. 15 No. 2 (2022): Challenging Stereotypes in Europe-Thailand Transnational Migration

The migration flows connecting Thailand and Europe have constructed social spaces in which different stereotypes regarding Thais and Europeans emerge, perpetuate, and circulate, thereby affecting to various extents the lives of these individuals. To challenge these stereotypes, the present issue takes into account the mechanisms of social categorization at transnational and local dimensions in three critical steps. First, it adopts an inclusive stance by not limiting itself to heterosexual relationships involving Thais and Europeans. Second, it shifts the scholarly gaze from marriage and family issues to Thai migrants’ mobilities in spatial, social, and intergenerational terms. And third, it highlights Thai migrants’ engagement in the labor market as intimate workers and entrepreneurs to uncover the factors shaping their (re)productive labor and social incorporation in their receiving countries. Using an intersectional approach, this special issue presents six empirically grounded case studies to unveil often-neglected dimensions and complexities of Europe-Thailand transnational migration. Articles outside the special issue focus address topics of community-based tourism in Brunei Darussalam and inclusive development in the context of a festival in Malaysia.

MANAGING EDITORS
Alexander Trupp & Rainer Einzenberger

GUEST EDITORS
Asuncion Fresnoza-Flot & Sirijit Sunanta

COVER PHOTO
Sirijit Sunanta, 2022 (Thailand, Hua Hin, Soi 94 in the evening)

LAYOUT
Karl Valent

LANGUAGE EDITING
Daniel Brown