International migration literature has shown that infrastructures consisting of people and institutions sustain migration and help migrants cope in new environments. However, analytic focus on these infrastructures is often limited to the migration process and its impact on migrants. This article extends the growing literature on migration infrastructure by analyzing its socially reproductive capacities in the context of economic development in Thailand. Drawing on ethnographic and interview data from the Tak border zone, I show how the social and humanitarian dimensions of migration infrastructure that grew from war displacement, labor migration, and migrant survival efforts became essential to economic development aims of the Thai state. Through this case, I illustrate a process of infrastructural co-optation by which the state harnesses grassroots and humanitarian actors’ capacities for childcare, education, and healthcare to advance such aims. Authorities spatially contain migrant workers with limited rights and social protections while loosely engaging with parts of the border's infrastructure, which keeps noncitizen workers alive and available for low-wage jobs. The findings show that aspects of migration infrastructure are co-optable, with impact beyond the migration process and for non-migrants.

中文翻译：

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社会再生产基础设施：泰缅边境的移民生存和经济发展


国际移民文献表明，由人员和机构组成的基础设施可以维持移民并帮助移民应对新环境。然而，对这些基础设施的分析重点通常仅限于迁移过程及其对移民的影响。本文通过在泰国经济发展的背景下分析移民基础设施的社会繁殖能力，扩展了关于移民基础设施的日益增长的文献。借鉴 Tak 边境地区的人种学和访谈数据，我展示了因战争流离失所、劳动力迁移和移民生存努力而增长的移民基础设施的社会和人道主义维度如何对泰国国家的经济发展目标至关重要。通过这个案例，我说明了一个基础设施增收的过程，通过这个过程，国家利用基层和人道主义行为者在儿童保育、教育和医疗保健方面的能力来推进这些目标。当局在空间上收容权利和社会保护有限的移徙工人，同时松散地参与边境的部分基础设施，使非公民工人得以生存并从事低薪工作。研究结果表明，移民基础设施的各个方面是可合作的，其影响超出了移民过程和非移民。