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Book Discussion “The Trade-Offs of Legal Status; Safe Migration, Documentation and Debt in Southeast Asia”
May 27 @ 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm
On 27 May 2025 at 5:30 – 7:00 pm, SEA Junction will host the book discussion “The Trade-Offs of Legal Status Safe Migration, Documentation and Debt in Southeast Asia” by author Maryann Bylander. This recently published book explores the costs, risks, and unfreedoms produced alongside migrant regularization in Southeast Asia. Based on multi-sited ethnography and informed by a decade of experience researching migrant communities in Cambodia, the book describes the experiences of Cambodians confronting Thailand’s intensifying documentation regime. While Cambodians want legal status for the protections, they believe it will offer, the book shows that documentation has ambiguous and often unwanted effects.
In the session moderated by our director Rosalia Sciortino, Maryann Bylander, will be presenting the content of the book, before Ben Harkins from the International Labor Organization (ILO) will provide an analytical review to encourage discussion with the public. After the Q&A few copies of the book will be available for signing by the author.
Speakers and Moderator
Maryann Bylander is Associate Professor of Sociology at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. Her research focuses on questions of migration, development and debt/ financialization in Southeast Asia.
Benjamin Harkins is the ILO Technical Adviser for the Ship to Shore Rights South-East Asia programme, formerly in a similar function for the Tripartite Action to Enhance the Contribution of Labour Migration to Growth and Development in ASEAN (TRIANGLE II project). He holds a BA in Cultural Studies from the New College of California and a MA in International Development Studies from Chulalongkorn University.
Rosalia Sciortino is associate professor at the Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University; visiting professor at the Master in International Development Studies (MAIDS), Chulalongkorn University; and the Founder and Director of SEA Junction (seajunction.org). She has served as IDRC Regional Director for Southeast and East Asia (2010–2014), Senior Adviser to AusAID in Indonesia (2009–2010), and Regional Director for Southeast Asia of the Rockefeller Foundation (2000–2007). She also served as a program officer at the Indonesia and Philippines offices of the Ford Foundation. She regularly writes on funding trends in the region (see www.rosaliasciortino.com).
For more information, please email: info@seajunction.org or phone/wa: +66970024140
NB: The event is free, donations are welcome to support SEA Junction activities.
Organizer
SEA Junction established under the Thai non-profit organization Foundation for Southeast Asia Studies (ForSEA), aims to foster understanding and appreciation of Southeast Asia in all its socio-cultural dimensions, from arts and lifestyles to economy and development. Conveniently located at Room 407-8 of the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre or BACC, SEA Junction facilitates public access to knowledge resources and exchanges among students, practitioners and Southeast Asia lovers. For more information, see www.seajunction.org, join the Facebook group:http://www.facebook.com/groups/1693058870976440/ and follow us on Twitter and Instagram @seajunction.
The JFK Foundation in Thailand was founded by H.E. Dr. Thanat Khoman, the former Ambassador to the United States, with the purpose of commemorating President Kennedy’s principles through education, public service, and good governance that benefits mankind in Thailand, the United States, and ASEAN, now and in the future. For more information, please visit https://jfkth-foundation.com/index.php/en/
