According to the research, 70% of Thai people who migrated to the UK are women, most likely working-class women (pink/blue-collar workers, skilled laborers). I have asked around 15 women who have moved to and lived in the UK for more than 10 years – specifically, those who moved here not to study or get an office job – about why and how they migrated. All of them said in the same way that they got married to British guys before coming here.
Thus, I have conducted in-depth interviews with 3 women: two from a massage shop that I’m working with, and another from a Thai-UK Facebook group. The interviews provide rich information on the socioeconomic and geopolitical factors that push them away from their hometown, struggles, stigmatizations, and the concept of relationships.
To elaborate more, this reflects to the socio-economic and geopolitical problems of Thailand or even SEA, how the country failed to decentralize and give citizens a good living quality. This pushes female citizens, who in a way are already a second-class citizen, to go out to seek new opportunities that their country couldn’t offer.