![]() Shortly after her arrival in Thailand, then only a teenager with no prior history of activism, Khin Khin was drawn into this movement and began volunteering for a women’s organization founded by Burmese women on the border. This political environment provided fertile ground for the emergence of a multiethnic, transnationally connected women’s movement ( WLB 2011 Hedström 2016 Olivius and Hedström 2019). Donors provided funding for political programming, including human rights documentation, internships, outreach and networking events, and even alternative schools offering education in women’s rights, environmental sciences, advocacy, languages, and journalism. During the era of military rule in Myanmar up until 2011, border-based activism and activities were often supported by international donors. ![]() However, only some of those located in refugee camps are formally recognized as refugees by either the Royal Thai government or the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Here, we generally refer to the activists that we study as refugees, recognizing that they have all left Myanmar to escape armed violence and/or political or ethnic persecution. 2īurmese people engaged in activism along the Thai border are variously referred to, and refer to themselves, as refugees, migrants, and political exiles. Refugee camps as well as towns and cities located relatively close to the Myanmar border-such as Mae Hong Son, Mae Sariang, Chiang Mai, and Mae Sot-have long been hubs for political mobilization and networking among refugees from Myanmar ( South 2008 Simpson 2013). Myanmar shares a 2416 km long border with Thailand, where close to 100,000 refugees currently live in nine camps, dating back to the 1980s, scattered along the border ( The Border Consortium 2022). ![]() As Khin Khin, a women’s rights activist who left a conflict-affected area of Myanmar for Thailand in 2010, explains in the opening quotation, the border used to be a vibrant, dynamic space where various forms of activism and oppositional politics took place. Further, ‘Bamar’ is used to refer to the majority ethnic group in Myanmar, while ‘Burmese’ refers to all men and women from Myanmar, regardless of ethnic identification. Therefore, Burma is used when quoting interviews where this name is used. Since 1989, Myanmar is the official name of the state, but Burma is preferred by many of the women activists included in this study. In this article, Myanmar rather than Burma is generally used to refer to the country. ![]() Exploring the character and salience of the border as a space for activism over time, we demonstrate how the political space of the border is relational, constituted in interaction with other political spaces, such as politics and governance in Myanmar, transnational activist networks, and the politics of international aid. In particular, the spatial and temporal fluidity and in-betweenness of the border is shown to foster both repression and resistance. Drawing on life history interviews, our analysis expands conceptualizations of the border as a dynamic political space by illustrating its dual capacity to both facilitate and constrain the political agency of refugee women from Myanmar. At the same time, the border renders refugee activists insecure and precarious. This article explores the political space of the border through the experiences of women activists from Myanmar, for whom the borderlands in Thailand have provided refuge as well as a conducive environment for political mobilization. ![]()
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