Migrant schools in the Thailand-Burma borderland: from the informal to the formal

This article examines migrant schools in the Thailand-Burma borderland. Substantial existence of migrant schools enables migrant children to have their own education even in the absence of proper legal status. The growth of migrant schools marked the building up of a migrant education institution in cooperation with international partners, showing progress in the constitution of migrant lives. Since the mid-2000s, the Thai government has engaged in migrant schools in an attempt to regularize them as learning centres under its guidance. This article argues that it should not necessarily be interpreted as a victory of the state over the migrants and migrant schools. Rather, it shows the impressive growth of the migrant education institution, bringing the state into play and has achieved recognition from the state as a legitimate formal institution.