Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing a new citizenship law coming into effect here in Thailand. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: New rule allows citizenship for many stateless people in Thailand. Quoting directly: "A new regulation that will facilitate the granting of Thai citizenship to children of stateless people residing in Thailand and also to members of ethnic minority groups living in Thailand, has come into effect, being announced in The Royal Gazette on Monday." 

So, what's going on here? Well there are indigenous tribes, most notably people like the hill tribes, who are similar to what we would call Native Americans in the United States or First Nations as they call them in Canada. Basically these are indigenous folks that sort of have always sort of been here, but they never amalgamated if you will into Thai Society; they sort of live off on their own. They have never really had a mechanism to deal with those folks in terms of getting them their documentation as Thai citizens, and the law has been amended to allow this. 

Now the reason for the video is to effectively dispel what I think will likely end up probably being some misnomers and misinformation out there in sort of the ether of the internet where we see the foreigners interact and talk about things. And I mean 15 years ago, a headline like this you would hear for weeks on forums and things about, "oh no, it's easier for foreigners to become a Thai now." No, that is not what is going on. Quoting further: "He made it clear the regulation does not apply to migrant workers, displaced people in temporary shelters or foreign passport holders." Again, we are talking stateless people and primarily folks that are of indigenous tribes that have been in Thailand pretty much for time immemorial. We're not talking about this has sort of made it easier for foreigners to become Thai. 

For those who are unaware, as I've discussed in other videos, I naturalized to Thai citizenship; it's very possible. For those out there who meet qualifications, it can be a serious benefit and frankly I urge people to maybe check it out if they think they might be eligible for Thai citizenship. But not everybody is going to be eligible. It is actually a relatively small subset of people that ultimately are eligible, and it's an even smaller subset of people that end up actually getting it. So it is not something that is just handed out willy-nilly, but yes they have changed the Thai Citizenship Laws to welcome sort of if you will with open arms, some of these folks who were stateless who probably otherwise should have had their documentation, and I think that is definitely a positive development. But what I wanted to be clear about and clarify for folks out there in the sort of expat public, this does not have anything to do with standard foreigners here in Thailand on other types of passports. It's primarily for stateless people here in the Kingdom of Thailand.