The “Bare Life” of Thai Migrant Workmen in Singapore was written by Pattana Kitiarsa, a former lecturer at Suranaree University, Thailand, and more recently, an assistant professor at the Department of Southeast Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore. The book was published posthumously in honour of his significant contributions towards understanding the culture of contemporary Isan (located in north-eastern Thailand) and the ongoing evolution of Thai society. It is a well-compiled collection of Pattana's earlier writings on Thai transnational workers in Singapore between 2005 and 2012.
The book tells a multi-faceted story of Thai immigrant workers from the Isan or north-eastern region of Thailand. It reveals the impact of challenging constraints—economic and judicial—on the cultural life and social relations of the workers, alongside their romantic attachment to their homeland as a subjective driving force. The research methodology is primarily anthropology. Besides Pattana's close ethnographical observation of the workers’ cultural behaviour and social relations, among them a study of numerous well-known Thai country songs, he employed two other research methods: documentary work and interviews. His collection of a voluminous and rich body of data was made possible by teaching English to over a hundred Thai workers.
The book contains seven chapters. The first summarises and explains the book's organization. Chapter 2 looks at Thai country songs to understand the reasons Thai workers went overseas to struggle for their future. Chapter 3 explains how the workers’ worldview and life in a transnational village was signified through their masculine-based social relations. Chapter 4 examines how the workers’ desire for sexual relations was shaped in part by strong state regulations in Singapore. Chapter 5 explores the workers’ dreams and the possibilities for sexual relations with female migrant workers. Chapter 6 studies workers’ deaths due to occupational and living hazards by examining the phenomenon of “SUNDS” (Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome), by providing statistics, and an account of the state's reaction. Chapter 7 draws conclusions and looks at the workers’ return to Thailand.
Thai migrant workers are framed as heroic breadwinners sacrificing their lives for their beloved families, while also being the working class builders of modern urban Singapore. The book is useful to Thai people in general for describing the lives and work of Thai migrant workers, and to scholars of labour and social policy for its insights into how governments and employers should better provide for migrant workers. It can be read alongside the stipulation of universal labour standards concerning the employment of migrant workers issued by the United Nations (1990) and the International Labour Organisation (1975) (see also Taran Reference Taran2011).
The strongest contributions by Pattana are achieved through his ethnographic-anthropological research methodology and investigation into the social and cultural aspects of the workers’ lives. Thai scholars have seldom looked at the struggles of transnational Thai workers. The book is also a good account of labour migrations both in the ASEAN Community and the rest of the world.
There are, however, some weak points in the book. Firstly, many may question whether Thai country songs could fully reflect workers’ ideas and experiences. Secondly, the author did not adequately address the ramifications of working under the authoritarian government of Singapore, which de facto controlled the country's trade union movement. It is significant that this movement refrained from assisting Thai migrant workers. Thirdly, the author only focused on workers from north-eastern Thailand and not from other regions of Thailand. However, this is likely a natural consequence of his research specialisation on the Isan region. Fourthly, the author's generalisations are based on a case-by-case analysis, rather than through a multi-case approach, and a list of all workers interviewed should also have been provided in the appendix. Fifthly, the aim of the workers was to make a living, but the book does not provide information on their income, expenses, and savings for their family. Finally, since the book is a compilation of previous work, there is some repetition, which could have been avoided by better editing.
Rather than the “bare life” of the workers, this reviewer would rather label them as “dare life” workers. They are courageous to be working in dirty, difficult, and degrading jobs outside their homeland for many years at a time. Though many suffered hardships and died, not all failed to attain their dreams. A larger number of them saved money and sustained their families, as compared to those who failed to do so. Furthermore, I agree with Pattana's view that we should investigate the workers’ lives after they returned to Thailand. The points of research, I would advise, are the workers’ new jobs, their utilisation of knowledge and experiences from Singapore, and why a number of them returned to work in Singapore, or went abroad to other countries. Such research can be conducted through the collaboration of scholars and labour activists in the ASEAN Community and other regions.
