Thai Xenophobia

[Eastender]

As a British English teacher I only seemed to get respect. But then of course I didn't understand much Thai, and was never aware of what people were saying behind my back.

This is something I never sensed from my wifes family either. If for one moment we except that Thai's are xenophobic. Who are the most extreme? The rich, the poor, the elite, the media...?

[qwertz]

As a British English teacher I only seemed to get respect. But then of course I didn't understand much Thai, and was never aware of what people were saying behind my back.

This is something I never sensed from my wifes family either. If for one moment we except that Thai's are xenophobic. Who are the most extreme? The rich, the poor, the elite, the media...?

Teachers are in general respected there and not regarded as common tourists. It's a common belief among Thais that the best language teachers must be farangs i.e. native speakers.

[Acquiesce]

I think the big difference is the crowd you hang out with. Lived here now 17 years since 1980

Ummm, that would be 27 years my friend.

[qwertz]

I think the big difference is the crowd you hang out with. Lived here now 17 years since 1980

Ummm, that would be 27 years my friend.

He might be meaning on and off, Mr.A

[kmart]

To give the Thai xenophobia a little perspective; its nice to know that they look down on each other all the time also.

Central Thais don't seem to be liked much by Northern and Isarn Thais, for example. The patriotism and sometimes ultra-nationalism-bordering-on-fascism seems to be the only glue that binds them as a nation.

The conquests and land-grabbing that happened during Thai history left a lot of seething resentment. Most especially in the South.

[Heng]

THE PHILIPPINES is globally the friendliest country to migrants

Just a 6,000 Baht+ plane ride away too!

[alexth]

THE PHILIPPINES is globally the friendliest country to migrants

Just a 6,000 Baht+ plane ride away too!

:D

[dondraper]

round and round we go.

[StatlerandWaldorf]

My personal experiences are:

The less well off Thais (and I am talking not in tourist areas) are quite accepting and friendly and will make an effort to talk with you and have a drink with you, especially if you are paying.

The middle classes are a bit more stand offish but are generally accepting of foreigners.

The rich Thais dislike us and generally want nothing to do with us. They don't want us bringing our poisonous values here and disturbing the equilibrium.

Just my personal experiences, I am sure everyone has different ones.

[Scott]

it exist. I am living more than 20 years in LOS and IMHO it started around 1997 - after Doomsday!

Webfact got it right. I was living here for several years prior to 1997. I did some traveling and was relocated in other countries on short term contracts. I returned in late 1997 and the country was completely different. The rather colorful and active soi where I lived had changed. It no longer felt safe. The warm, friendly smiles were gone.

Foreigners were beaten, mugged and eventually killed in the area--something that was either non-existent or very, very rare before that time.

I have since become more sensitive to xenephobia and it seems to have returned. As I had said earlier, however, it usually subsides after a time, but there is a xenophobic side to the country that can't be ignored.

[littlebigboss]

My personal experiences are:

The less well off Thais (and I am talking not in tourist areas) are quite accepting and friendly and will make an effort to talk with you and have a drink with you, especially if you are paying.

The middle classes are a bit more stand offish but are generally accepting of foreigners.

The rich Thais dislike us and generally want nothing to do with us. They don't want us bringing our poisonous values here and disturbing the equilibrium.

Just my personal experiences, I am sure everyone has different ones.

The other day I called Warren Buffet because I needed advises about some investments I was about to make. He didn't take my call. Does it means that rich Americans are a bunch of xenophobic foreigners haters ? Or was he afraid that my investments will disturb the equilibrium of the stock market ?

[MrHammer]

And am I the only one who spotted that scene in the Thai Block Buster 'Ong-Bak'.

He comes to the aid of a Thai women who is being treated disrespectedly by a foreigner.

The foreigner slaps a couple of skinny little Thai guys about when Ong-Bak appears to beat the foreigner senseless.

That scene did not get put in the movie for no reason.

I relaise I'm answering an old post, but this is just stupidity.

It's just a release trough entertainment. The small Thai that has to move aside from the big foreigner every day, finally gets his revenge. It's no different than the western stereotype of the ordinary (nerdy) joe or jane who gets involved in some international scandal. Do you really believe that scene was something?

What do you think Russians, Chinese, Japanese, Germans and Arabs would think of the way they are depicted in mainstream American movies?

[Heng]

My personal experiences are:

The less well off Thais (and I am talking not in tourist areas) are quite accepting and friendly and will make an effort to talk with you and have a drink with you, especially if you are paying.

The middle classes are a bit more stand offish but are generally accepting of foreigners.

The rich Thais dislike us and generally want nothing to do with us. They don't want us bringing our poisonous values here and disturbing the equilibrium.

I haven't found any clear cut trend according to class, as I've seen positive, negative, and indifference in all the groups mentioned... with exception that as you go up the spectrum, contact with a wide range of foreigners becomes less and less (again excluding Thais that travel frequently, which is probably only a few hundred thousand fokls) and leans towards indifference. Towards foreigners in general, towards farangs. There just isn't much contact, thus, out of sight, out of mind.

The key input IMO is not Hollywood movies, is not whatever gov't policies are in place (folks are generally unaware of what the letter of the law is as it applies to folks that they have no concern for on a day to day basis), but rather contact and experiences with whatever foreigners they run into.

Ergo, at least in my opinion, if you run into more and more folks that don't seem to like you, you only have yourselves and the trends going on in your particular social groups to blame.

[Jonmakmak]

When I first moved to Thailand, almost twenty years ago, I would say that the general reception of foreigners was almost wholly positive. I have to measure that against the fact that I, and the other foreigners I was working with, were given a number of privileges that came with being employees of a multinational. At that time there were extremely few expats living in Thailand outside those working for multinationals.

So rarity of foreigners actually living in Thailand has to be considered.

However, it was not all good news. The company I work for have in place extremely stringent anti discrimination policies, our policies are the same across all our offices. They need to be since we move employees globally.

This brought about my first encounter of Thai Xenophobia. We had an incident of Thais refusing to work with an Indian member of staff who had been assigned to our Thailand office.

The company response was to add 'Anti Discrimination Practices' to our cross cultural training.

It was clear we needed it, when the issue of 'You are required to work with whoever is assigned to your team regardless of race, religion, gender or age' was raised, we had a group of Thais ranting 'This is Thailand we do Thai way'.

Clearly, the cover they took for their bigotry was to hide their beliefs in 'Thainess'.

Well you take the company money you take the company rules. One of these ranters, was dismissed less than six months for distributing racist cartoons in the office.

But it's not just in the office, sitting on a Bht bus one evening I overheard the driver ask the driver of the bus next to him 'how was he doing for passengers?" - 'Two Thai people and one farang animal was his reply' (If you speak Thai, you'll know the classifier he used and it's implications).

Those are cases, of what I would regard as background racism and xenophobia. I would not regard them as noteworthy beyond that they are an indication of how things where.

Things have got worse.

There was a marked shift in Thai attitudes to foreigners during the financial crisis of the mid 90s. Foreign speculators and foreigners in general where made the scapegoats for the collapse of the Thai economy. The ensuing collapse of work and income for Thais created ill feeling, I experienced this and I know of many others that did too. Perhaps we can understand this, I don't say excuse it, but at least accept that it arose out of extraordinary conditions.

What is not excusable is the use Thaksin made of this atmosphere of increasing dislike of foreigners. He and his Thai Rak Thai party used fear of foreigners as a means to gain political control. Thai Rak Thai played on the growing Xenophobia and racism.

The consequences of that were regularly discussed here on TV.

What where those consequences. Well for one there has been a raft of laws that preclude foreigners from gaining any more rights in Thailand and there has been an increase of animosity towards foreigners.

Back when I first came to Thailand I almost never heard of Thais attacking foreigners, or rather it was such a rare occasion that when it did occur it made the BK Post. The same cannot be said now, attacks of foreigners are common place.

I've not suffered such an attack, I know others who have, but as a Thai speaker I am absolutely aware of the change in the way Thais speak about foreigners.

Yes we can argue that the quality of foreigners turning up in Thailand has dropped and yes that would have an impact on Thai attitudes. But I think it is more than that, post after post on TV and else where asks 'where has the Thai smile gone' or some other reference to Thais no longer being as friendly as they once where.

To deny this is to deny repeated reports from many quarters while to suggest that xenophobia does not exist in Thailand is just plain silly (or out of touch with reality).

My firm belief is that there is an increase in Thai racism and xenophobia and that the reasons for the increase is the use the Thai Rak Thai made of nationalism and xenophobia for the political ends of Thaksin and his henchmen.

I might add, to imbibe the Thais with some super human quality of not being possessed of the self same faults as the rest of humanity is nothing more than the flip side of the racism coin – The intellectual failing is the same, to attribute qualities (negative or otherwise) on the basis of race. It's the kind of feeble thinking that comes from a lack of real knowledge and experience of Thailand, its people and culture.

Agreed, Good post.

[JR Texas]

thais being xenophobic.?

biggest load of bollicks ive ever heard and it never ceases to amaze me that people keep throwing this one up.

every where i go in los i dont encounter it. i mean where are you guys hanging out to form such an opinion.?

i suppose if you got a bad attitude you might think the thais have got it in for you but the normal well ajusted punter will usually have a fine time in los.

XENOPHOBIA = noun = " intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries."

who in there right mind would say that this is how the average thai thinks?

get a grip people.

There are lots of people from Lao, Cambodia and Myanmar who would vehemently disagree with you. Xenophobia has been rising in Thailand for at least 9 years, and it is reflected in attitudes and statements and behavior in general towards outsiders, including "farangs." IMHO, and in contrast to the myth, Thailand is one of the least expat/foreigner friendly countries in Southeast Asia........there is most definitely a strong anti-foreigner sentiment in Thailand and it is growing.

[JimmyTheMook]

One quick reply. I confessed to some recent "Thai-bashing" because of the recent flurry about the Thai government making it nearly impossible to work as teachers in Thailand (and we can discuss that elsewhere), and the 30% withholding rules, and other news events. Today I decided not to be so critical of Thailand. So, instead I get raked across the ThaiVisa coals by....non-Thais. Can't win. Maybe I should limit my confessions to a booth, to the priest. I'm not even Catholic!!

Time to go eat pizza.

You'd probably exceed the allocated time limit given per confession...

[sanook2me]

Oh, come on, Thailand is clearly xenophobic!

I have travelled all over the world, and Thailand is by far the most xenophobic country I know.

The odd thing is that their xenophobia has served to preserve a very unique and interesting culture, one that many including me find quite fascinating.

So you take the good with the bad. But you have to understand things could get much worse and they could boot us all out. I sure hope not, but it isn't our country.

Thais maybe xenophobic but an openly gay American is still here after this post in 2007.....

So over 2 years laters has anything changed for you in the Thai xenophobia factor?

[Lancelot]

IMHO Thailand is simply over touristed. So many farangs visiting and living here that we have lost our novelity. I also observe that the Thais are not always so "gentle" with each other as well. So, if a Thai is having a bad day, he can take it out on a farang with little chance of of any negative consequences. Just the way the world works...

[doodee]

Just walked into a small grocery store in South Phuket near to where I live but never went to that shop before. In front were two Thai ladies sitting on a table, I tried to make eye contact while approaching the door to say Sawad dee ka, but they ignored me then one lady just looked at me and didnt reply to me, nobody was inside. I left my shoes outside and did my shopping and when I am done placed my stuff on the counter but nobody came inside to attend. While I was trying to look outside and check a Thai man came in so one of the ladies finally came inside, too. I think if the Thai man hadn't come inside they wouldn't have cared to attend the counter. Very strange and I was the one being polite, smiling and leaving my shoes outside which I doubt most tourists do and what not. They must be sick of tourists or something.

thats got nothing to do with being xenophobic, and all to do with being pissed off with sexpats in pattaya.

imagine being a decent thai in pattaya and watching some off the farang down there.

tell you the truth id be exactly the same.

but i must say that NOT all the thai are like this in pattaya and one must expect it when they are a bit dark.

Am i pissed or you???

The person is talking about Phuket and this poster is a woman i think,as her name is goodgirl.

[doodee]

IMHO Thailand is simply over touristed. So many farangs visiting and living here that we have lost our novelity. I also observe that the Thais are not always so "gentle" with each other as well. So, if a Thai is having a bad day, he can take it out on a farang with little chance of of any negative consequences. Just the way the world works...

he can take it out of a farang with litle channce of consequences?????

The consequences would be his face being re-arranged if it was 1 on 1

[Lancelot]

IMHO Thailand is simply over touristed. So many farangs visiting and living here that we have lost our novelity. I also observe that the Thais are not always so "gentle" with each other as well. So, if a Thai is having a bad day, he can take it out on a farang with little chance of of any negative consequences. Just the way the world works...

he can take it out of a farang with litle channce of consequences?????

The consequences would be his face being re-arranged if it was 1 on 1

Good man. By they way, how long have you been in Thailand? Can you "whip" 20 of his buddies? Or maybe 30?

On the other hand, go for it and let us know how it worked out

[ranger74]

How do people generally respond to foreigners having greater perceived financial success than the local population?

How would any nationality respond to foreign men having their way with the local women?

How does Thailand compare to other countries when it comes to violence against ethnic minorities?

I agree there's an element of xenophobia but when you take the entire picture into account, Thailand is a lot more tolerant than most places.

Most foreigners bitching about xenophobia should go back to their own countries and pay some attention to how minorities are treated there.

Edited August 14, 2009 by ranger74

[sbk]

round and round we go.

responding to a two year old post for a reason dondraper?

[doodee]

IMHO Thailand is simply over touristed. So many farangs visiting and living here that we have lost our novelity. I also observe that the Thais are not always so "gentle" with each other as well. So, if a Thai is having a bad day, he can take it out on a farang with little chance of of any negative consequences. Just the way the world works...

he can take it out of a farang with litle channce of consequences?????

The consequences would be his face being re-arranged if it was 1 on 1

Good man. By they way, how long have you been in Thailand? Can you "whip" 20 of his buddies? Or maybe 30?

On the other hand, go for it and let us know how it worked out

6 years if you want to know,and why dont people read the posts,as i did say 1 on 1 and yes i do know that thais can be like ferral dogs when fighting so thats why i said 1 on 1 derrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

good man,how long was you at school for reading.

[sbk]

given that we now have a new thread running in general, I am not sure there is a reason to have two topics on the exact same thing running.

Please post in the newer thread, thanks

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Xenophobia-t288745.html

//CLOSED//