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Thailand The Non-Tai Minorities
Besides the Tai-speaking minorities, there were a number of
peoples speaking languages of other families (although increasing
numbers were acquainted with a Thai dialect, especially Central
Thai, if they acquired the language in school). Some--such as the
Khmer in the eastern portion of the country, the Karen in the
northern and western parts of Thailand, and the Malay in the
South--found themselves within the boundaries of Thailand as a
consequence of conflict and shifting borders. Others, such as
many of the hill peoples, were relatively recent migrants from
China and the Indochinese Peninsula. They found their way to the
peripheries of Thailand either in search of land or to escape
political turmoil. Groups entering Thailand that had been
minorities in their countries of origin, as hill peoples
typically were, became more or less permanent residents of
Thailand, although still largely unassimilated. Others,
particularly the Mon, who lived in the central region, became
substantially integrated. The groups of Vietnamese who had
arrived for various reasons from the nineteenth through the
mid-twentieth centuries varied in the extent to which they were
rooted in Thailand. Some groups of Khmer, refugees from political
turmoil in their own country since 1975, were also recent
arrivals in Thailand. Finally, there were the Chinese. Of the
estimated 6 million in Thailand in 1987, most could be
differentiated by the region of China from which they came, when
they had arrived, and the extent to which they had been
assimilated into Thai society.
Data as of September 1987
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