Crisis as a Trigger for the Reproduction of Otherness: The Never-ending Discrimination Against Myanmar Workers in Thai Society
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Abstract
This paper examines the othering discourse regarding Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand during the recent severe coronavirus outbreak around the workers’ communities. Adopting an othering online discourse (OOD) framework, the study analyzes the comments made by Thai netizens in the posts of the three most popular Facebook news pages. It argues that there remains in Thai society an undercurrent of discriminatory attitudes and even hostility toward migrant workers among certain host-country population groups and that these attitudes can resurface at any time if a migrant-related crisis is presented as imminent. The findings show different usages of othering discourse: the slanderous remarks expressed in the comment threads are demonstrated as the reinforcement of social stigma, victim playing, and even eliminating the undesired through overt malice. They also reveal the frequent use of name-calling, vulgarities, and consensus-building among Thai netizens, which potentially perpetuate self-perceptions of superiority and mistreatment of migrants. Such usages indicate that Thai netizens who comment on these news posts harbor ideas of stigmatization, stereotyping, and alienation against migrants, which are likely to contribute significantly to their continual exclusion from Thai society. The social implication of this study is that misleading media coverage can trigger online reactions such as vile comments about migrants, thereby lowering their likelihood of being positively welcomed into host communities.
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