For decades people from Myanmar have fled or migrated to Thailand. Civil conflicts, political repression, poverty and a lack of work opportunities are just some of the reasons why people have left Myanmar. Through these movements and the way they have been governed, a borderland has been constituted. In recent decades especially, the border itself has been strategically manipulated by state authorities to preserve a border area used as an industrial node for export-oriented industries dependent on cheap (i.e. migrant) labor. This article discusses the processes establishing the systemic categories of “refugee” and “labor migrant.” On the basis of fieldwork conducted from 2012 on, the article also analyzes the influence on the borderland of recent political and economic changes in Thailand and Myanmar.

中文翻译：

---

泰缅边境：流动性、政权、行动者和不断变化的政治背景

几十年来，缅甸人逃离或迁移到泰国。国内冲突、政治压迫、贫困和缺乏工作机会只是人们离开缅甸的部分原因。通过这些运动和他们的统治方式，已经构成了一个边疆。尤其是最近几十年，国家当局对边界本身进行了战略性操纵，以保护用作依赖廉价（即移民）劳动力的出口导向型产业的工业节点的边境地区。本文讨论了建立“难民”和“劳务移民”系统分类的过程。在2012年以来的实地考察的基础上，本文还分析了近期泰国和缅甸的政治经济变化对边境地区的影响。