Seeking peace: migration to escape oppression and violence

RIGHTS AIPP AIPP Regional Capacity Building Program - Training Manual on the UNDRIP 149 In Northern Thailand, many indigenous peoples founded their villages in relatively recent times. While some indigenous peoples, like the Karen and Lua, have lived there for centuries, all other indigenous ethnic groups – like the Lahu, Lisu, Hmong, Mien, Akha and others – have settled there only within the last 100 years, and most of them even only within the last 50 years. For the majority, the main reason for moving to Thailand was oppression in their places of origin, i.e. China and Burma. EXAMPLE: HMONG MIGRATION The Hmong’s ancestral lands lie in the southern provinces of China. Their relation- ship with the Chinese dominantly, the Han has changed over time but has, in general, been rather antagonistic since the Chinese have always regarded the Hmong and other indigenous peoples as “barbarians”. From the mid-18th century onward, from what we know, Han-Hmong relations deteriorated severely as suppression of the Hmong became increasingly harsh and the Hmong responded with a series of armed re- bellions. The wars became especially bloody between 1855 and 1881. Warfare and the severe oppression by the Chinese are generally seen as the main causes of the start of the Hmong exodus into Northern Vietnam and Northern Laos dur- ing these years. From there, the Hmong con- tinued to move southward and westward, into Thailand. Large numbers of Hmong were also forced to leave Laos in the wake of the In- dochina wars. Many Hmong were recruited into the “secret army” created by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to fight the com- munist Pathet Lao. After the US lost the war and the Pathet Lao took full control over Laos in 1975, about 25,000 Hmong fled across the border into Thailand. Tens of thou- sands have followed over the past 30 years. Most Hmong from Thailand were resettled to various countries all over the world. It is estimated that by 1990, more than 90,000 Hmong refugees had gone to live in the United States; 6,000 in France; 3,000 in Canada, Australia, Argentina and French Guy- ana.

2. Eking out a living: migration to escape poverty

Poverty is the main reason for migration among indigenous peoples. It has many causes, among which are: • Loss of land and resources due to encroachment by settlers, state and corporate re- source extraction like logging or mining, the construction of dams, or the establishment of plantations; Hmong embroidery showing the war in Laos and the people’s escape to Thailand. Module-7 RIGHTS AIPP AIPP Regional Capacity Building Program - Training Manual on the UNDRIP • Resource scarcity as a result of the population growth of indigenous communities and the constriction or lack of land available for territorial expansion; • Environmental disasters like droughts or floods; • Armed conflicts; • Forced relocation. The migration patterns found among indigenous peoples are similar to those briefly intro- duced earlier. Foremost has been rural-rural migration, when people have tried to find land to cultivate and establish new communities far from their places of origin, like what has happened in northern Thailand over the past 100 years. But rapidly increasing is rural-urban migration. More and more indigenous peoples, above all the youth, are seeking employment in cities in their own countries or abroad. Often, this starts among the youth seeking higher education outside their communities, in nearby towns, in national capitals or, when they succeed in getting scholarships, in universities abroad. Parents of indigenous children are often ready to sacrifice their savings or even land and other resources to allow their children to obtain higher education, as they hope this will allow them to lift themselves out of poverty and to lead a more comfortable life.

C. The Implicaions of Migraion for Indigenous Peoples

1. Cross-border migration: lack of legal status

Indigenous migrants crossing international borders to escape repression, violence or pov- erty often become extremely vulnerable due to their lack of legal status in the host country. Un- less they are recognized as refugees and under the protection of the UN High Commission on Human Rights or the respective government agency of the host country, they are treated as ille- gal immigrants and thus exposed to exploitation, denial of basic rights and arbitrariness of state authorities. EXAMPLE: LACK OF CITIZENSHIP AMONG INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN THAILAND Indigenous peoples in Thailand are badly affected by the Thai Kingdom’s National- ity Act of 1965 amended in 1992. Section 7 of the Act provides that: A person born within the Thai Kingdom of alien parents does not acquire Thai nationality if at the time of his birth, his lawful father or his father who did not marry his mother, or his mother was: 1 the person having been given leniency for temporary residence in the Kingdom as a special case; 2 the person having been permitted to stay temporarily in the Kingdom; and 3 the person having entered and resided in the Thai Kingdom without permission under the law on immigration. Ask the participants for examples from their own communities. Group Interacion Module-7 150