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Policy Entrepreneurship and the Drafting of Refugee Law in a Non-Signatory Country: The Case of Thailand
26 October, 2022 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
SEA Junction in collaboration with IPSR In-House Seminar and Mahidol Migration Centre (MMC) has launched a series of bi-monthly events entitled ‘Wednesday SEA Mobilities’, starting in February 2022. The last Wednesday of every two months, we will jointly hold seminars or panels discussing vast arrays of current Southeast Asia’s mobility issues by experts, academics, practitioners, NGO workers, migrants, and people from the fields.
Our fifth Wednesday SEA Mobility’s event on 26 October 2022 at 2.00-3.00 pm will be a presentation by Dr. Bhanubhatra Jittiang on “Policy Entrepreneurship and the Drafting of Refugee Law in a Non-Signatory Country: The Case of Thailand”. This online event will be held via Zoom at https://bit.ly/WEDNESDAY-SEA-MOBILITIES and also livestreamed on the FB pages of IPSR and of SEA Junction.
Abstract
This study explores the making of the National Screening Mechanism (NSM) to classify forcibly displaced persons in Thailand, a non-signatory state to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. It argues that the enacting of the NSM as Thailand’s first refugee law resulted from policy entrepreneurship by officials in the Department of International Organizations (DIO), who promoted innovations in urban refugee management. The global refugee events of 2016 provided windows of opportunity for DIO officials to structure the need for creating the NSM and convince ruling generals to commit to new policy directions. However, bureaucrats in other agencies, who endorsed the status quo, leveraged their power to amend the initial conceptualization of the NSM and made it less progressive. Policy entrepreneurship offers another perspective for exploring changes in non-signatory states’ refugee policies that can also be applied more broadly to the context of signatory countries.
Speaker’s Profile
Dr. Bhanubhatra Jittiang is a development sociologist and a lecturer in the Department of International Relations at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. His research and teaching interests encompass forced migration and refugees, humanitarianism, atrocities prevention, international development, and international conflicts.
Organizers
Institute for Population and Social Research (IPSR), Mahidol University
IPSR was established in 1971 and has become one of Asia’s premier population research and training hubs. The Institute conducts research and provides training in population, sexual and reproductive health and development with a focus on Thailand and on neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia, with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of life for all. For more information, see https://ipsr.mahidol.ac.th
SEA Junction
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 408 of the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre or BACC (across MBK, BTS National Stadium), 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
