Gendered nation and classed modernity: The perceptions of mia farang (foreigners’ wives) in thai society

Abstract

The phenomenon of transnational marriages (phua farang) in the Isan region of Thailand epitomizes how transnationalism is intimately entwined with Thailand’s regional disparity and rural-urban divide. In this chapter, I demonstrate that the widely held moral concern in Thailand regarding the growth of transnational marriages in Isan is grounded in classed and gendered nationalistic discourses and unequal access to modernity by urban and rural populations. The stigmatization of rural Isan transnational wives (mia farang) as “immoral materialists” whose increasing economic and consumerist aspiration threatens traditional Thai ways of life is gendered and urban-centric in that two partially overlapping groups—women and rural populations—are ascribed with the roles of the reproducers and the preservers of “authentic Thai tradition.” The moral tone in the current valorization of Thailand’s economic localism reinforces classed and gendered nationalist discourses that underlie the stigmatization of Isan mia farang in wider Thai society.