Migrant labor takes a holiday - Reworking modernity and marginality in contemporary Thailand

This paper examines the practice of working-class group excursions in Thail and, organized by and for rural labor migrants in Bangkok. These trips invo lve traditional forms of Buddhist ceremonial as well as more self-conscious ly 'modern' sightseeing activities in distant regions of the country. More than just a welcome respite from the drudgery and discipline of factory job s, these excursions allow labor migrants to make important claims about the ir experiences as members of the Thai nation-state. As tourist-consumers, m igrant workers appropriate powerful signs and symbols of modern Thai identi ty and status; in so doing they contest (and at least partly rework) their material and ideological marginalization within contemporary Thai society.