Stateless migrant and the Journey across Border to Establish a Proper Family

This article was writed on 15 August 2012 for applying to International Conference on Dynamics of Marriage/Divorce-related Migration in Asia organized in Japan

Stateless migrant and the Journey across Border

 

to Establish a Proper Family

 

The nature of human in establishing a family is without border of state and does not depend on nationality. However, exactly, there are border lines and rules apply to people from different states to be together in reality which limit their possibilities to travel across borders and establish a proper family. The vital point is the question “Can anyone immigrate across border to be with their families?”

          This research based on facts of a stateless (as nationality-less) woman in Thailand and a Japanese man who are married and have children together. The Japanese man’s family prefers to have the woman immigrate and establish a proper family in Japan. Normally, transnational migration requires travel document, officially accepted by both countries. Usually, the documents are issued by the state of nationality or the personal state of the traveller. However, the problem is that how the woman who lives in Thailand but has never been granted a Thai nationality or any nationalities from any other countries in the world will be granted to get the necessary documents to complete a proper migration. If the documents cannot be issued for stateless woman, she certainly cannot immigrate to legally live with her family in another country regardless the fact that she has already legally married to the Japanese man.

          The objectives of this research are1)To explore the possibilities of an immigration of stateless persons which are also rootless people in Thailand (people who do not have any proven evidence of their parents and their birth which lead to their proven nationalities) that whether they can possess any travel documents and immigrate to legally live with their families in destination country under the laws of Thailand and Japan as same as national people.2) To study the possibilities that could happen after the immigration succeed which include a divorce, a cultural conflict that might happen with stateless woman and a possibility of moving back to Thailand.3)To study the impacts toward the stateless people in both cases of immigrating and returning back to the base country. 

This research is studied by field work of the researcher that helped the stateless woman in Thailand who wants to immigrate to live with her family in Japan and performed academic documents research involved with the matter. All activities are done with quality based on the purpose of finding the solutions for the stateless woman in Thailand. 

The findings are the stateless woman in Thailand is allowed to travel to Japan from the Ministry of Interior of Thailand and both Thailand and Japan granted the woman to have proper documents for travel which ultimately allow her to live with her family in Japan. In addition, it found that by the principles of human rights, there are laws and applications that can allow the migrant to move back to the base country.

In summary, statelessness and nationalitylessness makes the process of cross-border migration become much more complicated because travelling out of the base country without being allowed to legally return makes it impossible to reenter the base country while it is also impossible to legally live in the destination country. Eventually, the person will get stuck in the middle of two states. On the other hand, this strict restriction exists to protect the stateless people to become a victim of human trafficking.  However, immigrating to establish a proper family of a stateless woman is possible with additional steps to be taken which is receiving a written authorization from the base country to travel, then request the legal documents for travel.

 

Article for applying to International Conference on Dynamics of

       Marriage/Divorce-related Migration in Asia 

 

Author’s name is Miss Puangrat Patomsirirak

Her main field is the international law, conflict of laws, nationality and immigration law and human rights law.

 

She is currently Lawyer and Researcher of Bangkok Legal Clinic (for People with Legal Status and Rights Problems), Prof.Kanung Luchai Fund, Faculty of Law, Thammasat University, Thailand and also studying for a master of law degree (international law) in the faculty of law, Thammasat University, Thailand. The topic of her thesis is on the journey and migration of People with Legal Status and Rights Problems.