In this final part of our series on the mia farang phenomenon in Isaan, we capture some of the comments and feedback we received from Thai and foreign readers. Themes raised by our readers included attitudes towards Isaan women and men, and questions about equality, social mobility, racism and the position of Isaan within the Thai state.
Thailand’s female marriage migrants often shoulder a double burden as unpaid caregivers for their families and paid workers in the care sector of their destination countries. Academic Patcharin Lapanun takes a look at the complex links of transnational marriages, migration and global care work.
How to satisfy your craving for some fried rice-field frogs in the UK or feed your relatives in Thailand seasonal red ants eggs when you’re thousands of miles away? Through online communities, Thai women living abroad have found creative ways to still their hunger for a taste of home and take care for their families back in Thailand through food deliveries.
When Thai women who live abroad with their foreign husbands face problems, to whom do they turn for help? The “Thai Daughter-in-Law and Farang Son-in-Law Clinic” was set up by the government to provide such services. But there’s one problem: hardly anyone has used it.
When Lanee Phaengthaisong married a Swiss man and moved to Switzerland, she never thought they would one day return to her home in rural Buriram to run an elderly home for retired Europeans.
Europeans retirees have found a new home in an elderly care facility in rural Buriram. The home was established by a local woman and her Swiss husband. [VIDEO]
A subdistrict in Udon Thani has become home to hundreds of Isaan-foreign couples, both legacy of the Vietnam War and a result of the efforts of a local matchmaker.
A subdistrict of Udon Thani is home to hundreds of Thai-foreign couples. Our guest reporter Krisada Phonchai talked to two women about how they came to marry Westerners and the challenges of intercultural relationships
Banjong Boonkit recalls the time when she worked as a “rented wife” for American soldiers at the US airbase in Udon Thani.
Anthropologist Patcharin Lapanan writes about how Isaan women who marry foreigners navigate a complex web of culture, love, money, and obligation.
Marrying upwards the social ladder is nothing new in Thai society. Why,then, do rural Isaan women bear the brunt of criticism when they marry foreigners? Anthropologist Sirijit Sunanta analyzes the stigma placed on the mia farang.
A column by a Matichon Weekly columnist last December derided Isaan women who marry Western men as uneducated, materialistic, and good-for-nothing. Pintong Lekan, a women’s right activist who filed a lawsuit for defamation against the author, writes about the lifelong discrimination she has faced as an Isaan woman.
