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Thai entrepreneurs in Los Angeles
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Content
THAI ENTREPRENEURS IN LOS ANGELES
by
Krittiya Kantachote
________________________________________________________________
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(SOCIOLOGY)
December 2018
Copyright 2018 Krittiya Kantachote
ii
Dedication
To my family and the Thai Community in Los Angeles.
iii
Acknowledgments
All my academic life, I have been fortunate to meet with devoted professors. At USC, I am
again blessed with a great mentor Dr. Rhacel Parreñas who is the best mentor one could possibly
ask for. She has always gone out of her way to help, guide, and support me and not just in my
pursuit of the Ph.D. With her mentor, I have grown in many aspects, including my development
as a scholar and my personal growth.
In the summer of 2014, I was lucky to work as a research assistant for Rhacel. It was an
invaluable experience as I learned so much from her that summer and continued to. My first few
days in Singapore I got few interviews, and Rhacel was the one who cheered me up and gave me
the courage. She teaches not only by explaining things theoretically but also shows me by
demonstrating those skills in fieldwork. She has always set a good example. Because of her, I dare
ask strangers for interviews- an asset that is most valuable for qualitative work. That summer has
forever influenced and shaped me in my way of thinking and doing research.
People who have worked with Rhacel will unanimously agree that she is smart. I continue
to be amazed at how fast she can digest difficult theories and explain them so simply and how fast
she can come up with great ideas within a few minutes, if not seconds. Her kindness is not
secondary to her intelligent. Throughout my time in the program, I face various obstacles and I
know that I can always count on Rhacel. She always supports me in various ways, from helping
me write up grant proposals, editing my dissertation chapters, to letting me take time off to care
for my baby girl - Nara.
iv
From her, I learn that one can be great not only in research but also in teaching. Without
the guidance and the support from Rhacel, this dissertation would have not been possible. I am
deeply indebted to Rhacel, she is much more than my dissertation chair, she is like family.
I am also grateful to my other dissertation committees, Professor Tim Biblarz and Professor
Lon Kurashige. Both gave me so many insights and many different views to look at my dissertation
from the day that I presented my proposal to the writing stage.
I would also like to extend my gratitude to all the professors that have taught me at USC, I
have learned a lot from all of you: Alwyn Lim, Ann Owens, Jennifer Hook, Jody Vallejo, Leland
Saito, Lynne Casper, Manuel Pastor, Michael Messner, Nina Eliasoph, Paul Lichterman, Pierrette
Hondagneu-Sotelo, and Sharon Hays. I am grateful for all the critical insights on my research at
various stages of the program.
I wholeheartedly thank my colleagues who supported me through multiple phases of my
academic life. Your friendship and comments on my work have been valuable. I especially want
to thank my best friend in the program, Rachelle Wang-Cendejas. You are a great friend. Your
good sense of humor, your delicious food and your visits to my home have made my stay at USC
memorable.
I owe a big thank you to Stachelle Overland, Lisa Losorelli, Melissa Hernandez, and Amber
Thomas for not only helping me navigate USC’s bureaucracy but also for their support, good
humor, and friendly advice during my time here. With your help, USC sociology feels like home.
Most importantly, I want to thank my family. I have believed and continue to believe that
I am blessed to be a daughter to my mom and my dad. You both have taught me many life lessons
and have been and always will be my role models. I admire you both for all that you do and you
v
both continue to inspire me in various ways. Mom, you are my rock and my idol. Despite working
full-time, you have always put family first. Your sacrifice is always remembered. Dad, I thank you
for your great vision. You always have grand dreams for your kids. I thank you for believing in
me and whenever I am in doubt of anything I know that I can always rely on your genuine and
insightful advice. My siblings, you are the best siblings I could ask for. Sibling rivalry is never the
case in our family. I am blessed to have such a supportive family. My brothers, Kaoson Kantachote,
and Kasemsan Kantachote, who have taken such a good care of me since I was little and continue
to do so to now. My sister, Kulvatee Kantachote, who continues to love me unconditionally and
would read various drafts of my work and help me correct not only the grammar but also the logic
of the paper itself. I also want to thank my aunts: Tua E, Aunt Kimlung, Aunt Kimeng, and Aunt
Wan; my uncles: Chic Ku and Puay Ku, and all my cousins, nieces and nephews. I love you all
very much and look forward to our reunion in Thailand.
My husband, Nathakhun Wiroonsri, who has been a great support, through the ups and
downs of my academic life and life in general. I love you and thank you so much for taking care
of me and our daughter, Naranat Wiroonsri. You are a great father. I thank you for your
understanding and your patience as I write up the dissertation chapters. All the delicious meals you
have cooked are very much appreciated. My little girl, Nara, you bring so much joy to my life.
Your smile and positive energy always melt my heart and give me the courage to overcome
whatever obstacles come my way.
I also want to thank the Thai Government for believing in me and granting me the
scholarship to pursue my Ph.D. in sociology in the United States. I will forever be grateful. Lastly,
I thank the Thai business owners for letting me into their lives and sharing their personal life stories
with me. I admire them for the route they have chosen.
vi
Table of Contents
Dedication ii
Acknowledgments iii
Abstract vii
Chapter 1: Introduction 1
Chapter 2: Neo-Colonialism and Tourism 27
Chapter 3: Cultural Funneling 58
Chapter 4: Inventing Thainess 77
Chapter 5: Managing Surveillance 107
Chapter 6: Conclusion 145
Bibliography 154
Appendices
Appendix A: IRB Approval 176
Appendix B: Interview Protocol 178
Appendix C: Survey 181
vii
Abstract
This study examines the business operations of Thai entrepreneurs in Los Angeles County.
Los Angeles County is home to the largest Thai population outside of Thailand and is the only
place with a designated Thai Town in the United States. While Thai entrepreneurs engage in
different kinds of businesses, the two most prominent businesses are Thai restaurants and Thai
massages. This dissertation focuses on the experience and the perspective of Thai business owners
in operating their businesses. Most are first-generation Thai immigrants. The study examines Thai
business owners' migration histories, motivations for opening an ethnic business, business
operations, employment processes, perceptions of gender, race, and ethnicity in the workplace,
strategies of market competitions, and future plans.
This study relies primarily on seventy-eight semi-structured interviews with Thai business
owners in Los Angeles County from 2015 to 2017. The data reveals that the Thai community
engages in what I call "cultural funneling”- a predisposition of Thai immigrants to be in a business
that markets or sells Thai ethnic goods and services. I discuss how structural forces, along with
social networks and one’s work experience funnel Thais into ethnic businesses. I then discuss the
gains and the losses of being in an ethnic business. My data also reveals how Thai business owners
engage in the construction of “Thainess” for their business prosperity. Yet, as they operate their
businesses they soon realize that there is a mismatch between perspectives of Thai business owners
and the consumers on what is "authentic." I then study how business owners try to resolve this
misunderstanding. Another important finding is that all Thai business owners at one point or
another discuss how they are constantly surveilled by the U.S. government and how that affects
their business operation. Thai business owners, while trying to cut costs to increase their profit
viii
margins, must navigate their ways within the U.S. laws and regulations. These findings have
significant implications for the sociological fields of immigration, culture, and race.
1
Chapter 1: Introduction
Why a Focus on Thai Business Owners?
Currently, the literature on Thai community in the United States is much less extensive
than other ethnic groups. This is also true for the literature on immigrant entrepreneurs. While
scholars have conducted extensive research on businesses owned by different ethnic groups such
as Chinese (e.g. Lu and Fine 1995; Zhou 1992), Koreans (e.g. Lee 2002; Light and Bonacich
1991), Mexicans (e.g. Ramirez and Hondagneu-Sotelo 2009; Trevizo and Lopez 2018) and other
ethnic groups (e.g. (Gold 2014, 2015; Lee 2002; Light 1972; Park 2005; Portes 1987; Portes and
Shafer 2007; Valdez 2011), very few studies have Thai as the focus (e.g. Disayawattana 1993).
1
This trend is understandable as the Thai population consists of less than 0.1 percent of the
total U.S. population. Nevertheless, I believe that Thai immigrants are another important group to
study in terms of immigrant entrepreneurship as each ethnic group in the United States face
different challenges from the host society. According to Portes and Zhou (1993), each immigrant
group encounters different government policies (receptive/indifferent/hostile), societal reception
(prejudiced/nonprejudiced), and coethnic community (weak/strong). Each immigrant group thus
goes through different modes of incorporation. Therefore, to fully understand the challenges that
1
Most research devoted to Thai population are on: acculturation (e.g. Desbarats 1979; Jitmanowan
2016), cross-cultural marriage (e.g. Footrakoon 1999; Kitivipart 1988; Taweekuakulkit 2005),
foodways (e.g. Padoongpatt 2017), and Thai community and Buddhism (e.g. Bao 2005, 2015;
Dechartivong 2012), for instance.
2
Thai immigrants face in operating their ethnic businesses, they should be studied as an individual
group and not lumped together with other Southeast Asians or Asians in general.
Thai business owners are a strategic group of population to investigate in terms of
entrepreneurship because even though the Thai population is small in numbers compared to other
Asian ethnic groups e.g. Chinese, Vietnamese and Koreans, many can sustain their ethnic
businesses despite a much smaller consumer power scale of Thai people compared to other Asian
ethnic groups. This implies that the majority of the Thai business clienteles are actually Americans
and other locals. Further, the business niche most Thais engage in sell their distinct culture (Thai
restaurants and Thai massage businesses
2
) which means they do not impose a threat to other local
business owners.
While Thai food and Thai massage are potent sites for producing and disseminating
knowledge about Thai people, Thai culture, and Thailand in the United States, little is known on a
deeper level about the actual business operation and the struggles that these ethnic entrepreneurs
face in bringing out their cultural services. My dissertation aims to fill that gap by examining the
business operation of Thai immigrants, particularly Thai restaurants and Thai massage businesses.
This dissertation is one of the first major studies of Thai business owners. I choose to study
Thai businesses in Los Angeles County as Los Angeles County is home to the largest Thai
population outside of Thailand and is the only place with a designated Thai Town in the United
States. I use seventy-eight semi-structured interviews and over five years of fieldwork at Thai
2
I choose to use the word “massage business” rather than “massage parlor” because the term
“massage parlor” is treated by some people as a euphemism for a brothel.
3
businesses to find answers to the following questions: 1) How do Americans become familiar with
Thai cuisines and Thai massages? 2) How do Thai business owners explain their pathways to
becoming cultural business owners? 3) How do Thai business owners construct “Thainess” and
“authenticity” for business advancement? and 4) How do Thai business owners negotiate the
surveillance of the U.S. government regarding their business operations?
To fully understand the structural and cultural impediments Thai business owners faced in
becoming business owners, it is important to give an account of immigration and cultural
scholarships such as migration theories, immigrant entrepreneurship literature (e.g. structural
barriers, cultural factors, and social networks and ethnic resources), ethnic entrepreneurship
literature, cultural construction, and state roles in immigrant businesses.
1. Migration Theories
The causes of migration vary across different groups, yet there are some overlaps. Many
different theories on migration exist; for example, neoclassical economics, new economics of labor
migration, structural theories of international migration, gravity model, segmented labor market
theory, and social capital theory.
Neoclassical economics emphasizes that workers from low-wage countries move to high-
wage countries due to the cost-benefit calculation. Rational actors migrate to locations where the
expected net returns are greatest, usually monetary returns (Massey et al. 2003). Almost any job
in more developed countries pays immigrants more than they have received in their origin less
developed countries. This allows immigrants to send money to their home countries (Eberts 2007).
Yet, neoclassical principles do not explain temporary migration; as if the principles were
true, immigrants should want to stay abroad permanently (Massey et al. 2003). The new economics
4
of labor migration differs from neoclassical theory as it does not assume migration decisions are
made solely by isolated actors but of interrelated people: families, households and sometimes
communities. Individuals do not act individually to maximize expected income but work
collectively to overcome capital, credit, and insurance markets’ failures (Stark 1991; Taylor 1987).
Households thus diversify risks by sending members to work in different labor markets (Massey
et al. 2003).
Structural theories of international migration explain that as markets expand into
peripheral, nonmarket, or premarket societies, these markets create mobile populations that are
prone to migrate. For example, displaced agricultural workers who experience a weakened
attachment to the community tend to migrate internationally (Massey et al. 2003). This theory is
greatly enhanced by the gravity model. This theory emphasizes space as a determinant of
migration. The gravity model posits origin (push factors) and destination (pull factors), the regional
population size, relative housing, labor market conditions, for instance, to lead to regional network
gross migration flows (Molho 2013). Push factors in the place of origin push people to leave their
country of origin. Push factors vary from “natural disasters, population pressures, economic
hardships, political turmoil or disturbances, environmental disadvantages” (Yang 2011, p.19). Pull
factors that attract people to that location can be from endogenous sources, for example, friends or
relatives that already established abroad, or from exogenous sources, such as casual encounters,
mass media, books, or movies. Pull factors can also be at a macro level; immigration laws of
certain countries have been liberalized, economic opportunities, environmental improvements,
and/or political preferences (Desbarats 1979; Yang 2011).
Segmented labor market theory believes that in advanced industrial economies, there is
labor force segmentation. The primary sector is stable because skilled laborers work with good
5
tools and equipment. Employers invest in their workers’ human capital through training and
education; hence, these workers become expensive to let go. In contrast, labor in the secondary
sector is poorly paid. The jobs are unstable and workers may be laid off at any time with little or
no cost to the employer. Employers turn to immigrants to fill the shortfall in demand within the
secondary sector (Massey et al. 2003).
Social capital theory considers people achieve social capital through a relationship in
interpersonal networks and social institutions and convert it into other capital forms to improve or
sustain their positions in society (Bourdieu 2002; Coleman 1990). Migrant networks are an
important source of social capital for people planning to move overseas as networks provide access
to employment and assistance at destination countries (Massey et al. 2003).
Although many migration theories exist, individuals’ decision to migrate may be a
combination of different theories and will vary from one individual to another and all theories are
related and do not exist in isolation. Thai immigrants are no different. Some Thai immigrants
decided to move to the United States because of economic opportunity. Others were persuaded by
their families and friends. The social networks along with the bad economy in Thailand, and/or
personal mishaps, can make one decide to migrate and leave behind the life in one’s home country.
Thai immigrants to the United States are of various educational and socioeconomic background.
This explains why the Thai community in Los Angeles consists of different occupational groups;
for example, factory workers, restaurant workers, massage therapists
3
, students, clerks, nurses,
physicians, lawyers, and business owners.
3
In this dissertation, I intentionally choose to use the word “massage therapist” instead of
“masseuse” or “masseur.” First, because it is gender-neutral. Further, while all the terms refer to a
6
Contemporary immigrants to the United States according to Portes and Rumbaut (2014)
differ on two dimensions- their personal resources (e.g. material and human capital) and the way
the government classifies them. Portes and Rumbaut (2014) then categorize immigrants into four
different groups: 1) labor migrants 2) professional immigrants 3) immigrant entrepreneurs and 4)
refugees and asylees.
Labor migrants, both legal and undocumented, are foreign workers who mostly end up
working jobs at the bottom of the labor market. They work in various industries from agriculture
to other labor-intensive industries such as construction, restaurant, and landscaping, for instance.
These jobs often are unwanted by native Americans. Professional immigrants, often come to the
United States legally, and are considered by their motherland to cause "brain drain." They migrate
not because they could not find employment in their countries of origins, rather because they want
to improve their careers and life chances. Some of the professional immigrants include doctors,
nurses, and engineers. Immigrant entrepreneurs are those who engage in businesses. They emerge
due to three conditions 1) they acquired substantial business expertise in their home countries 2)
they have access to capital and 3) they have access to labor. Immigrant entrepreneurs engage in
various types of businesses. Refugees and asylees, on the other hand, are immigrants who are
permitted into the United States as they have a well-founded fear of persecution or physical harm
person who provides massage professionally, they have different connotations. The latter two have
connotations that link it to sexual services.
7
(Portes and Rumbaut 2014).
4
My dissertation focuses on Thai immigrant entrepreneurs who some
as part of their journeys to the United States have moved to and from the first three categories
though in no particular order.
5
2. Immigrant Entrepreneurship
Immigration propensity for entrepreneurship has variations on the theme, nevertheless,
major theories have converged on the independent and/or interactive effects of some key structural
factors and individual or group characteristics that may preexist prior to immigration or are
adopted once in a host country. While some scholars may give more emphasis on some factors
over another, most scholars on this issue are more likely to add-on to preexisting literature rather
than getting into a heated debate.
Portes and Rumbaut (2014), for instance, emphasize a framework that cut across
individual, group and societal levels in dealing with intergroup variations in immigrant
entrepreneurship. They stress the importance of contexts of exit and reception that can affect
members of different national groups with distinctive social environments and cultural conditions.
This may generate constraints or offer opportunities to the individual, independent of the
individual-level human capital, structural, and cultural characteristics. Similarly, Aldrich and
Waldinger's (1990) framework for understanding ethnic entrepreneurship is built on three
interactive components: opportunity structures, group characteristics, and ethnic strategies. In the
4
Refugee and asylee differs in the physical location of the person. Refugee still lives abroad and
must be transported to the United States, asylee, on the other hand, is already in the U.S. territory
(Portes and Rumbaut 2014).
5
No participants of my study claimed to be a refugee or an asylee.
8
next sections, I discuss three factors that I believe contribute to immigrant entrepreneurship: 1)
structural barriers 2) cultural factors and 3) social networks and ethnic resources.
2.1 Structural Barriers
The earliest literature on immigrant entrepreneurship identified and examined the
structures that encourage ethnic entrepreneurship. Thai immigrants, like other ethnic groups, face
structural barriers such as racial exclusion and discrimination that prevent them from competing
on an equal basis with the native born in the mainstream economy (Zhou 2004). Discrimination
thus leads many immigrants to ethnic entrepreneurship (Light 1972; Portes and Zhou 1995;
Tsukashima 1991; Zhou 2004). Chinese immigrants, is one of the groups that face discrimination
in employment. Prior to 1940, as opportunities were eliminated for Chinese in the general labor
market, Chinese sought self-employment in restaurants or laundries (Light 1972). Another
example is of Japanese American men who turned to residential maintenance gardening as a skilled
work and entrepreneurial niche. Doing so, allowed the Japanese men to capitalize on their
background in agricultural work and to divert racial discrimination and exclusion (Tsukashima
1991).
Apart from discrimination in the labor market, immigrants seek self-employment more
than natives because of the disadvantages associated with immigrant statuses, such as poor English
skill, human capital depreciation (Mata and Pendakur 1999), or unfamiliarity with the American
corporate structure and culture (Lee 2002). The fact that Filipinos have a low rate of
entrepreneurialism support this claim. Because Filipinos have greater English proficiency and
share a unique history with the United States, they have had more access to other employment
avenues than other groups (Park 2005).
9
Immigrants with limited English proficiency choose self-employment because of limited
labor market opportunities. At the same time, fluent English proficiency immigrants do so for
superior economic returns (Zhou 2004). Retail proprietorship is a symbol of opportunity and a
classic path for the disadvantaged to gain upward social mobility as self-employment allots the
foreign-born better income and status rewards (Light 1972). Park's study (2005) illustrates this
point; the children of immigrant entrepreneurs believed that their parents own a small family
business as to allow them to thrive in their education as education will enable them the acquire
social status needed to lift them from the more modest social position of their parents.
Nonetheless, labor market disadvantages alone cannot explain ethnic business
development as African Americans represent one of the most disadvantaged groups in the United
States, yet they remain underrepresented in small business ownership. This then leads to my next
discussion of cultural factors.
2.2 Cultural Factors
By tradition, cultural factors have been emphasized in the establishment and maintenance
of ethnic business; such factors include attitude and behavior patterns of hard work, frugality and
future orientation, and the ability to utilize ethnic resources collectively. Value system was an
important component of the ethnic business development of earlier immigrants. Jews and Chinese
have been described as distinct in these characteristics (Min 1987). Zhou's study (1992) of
Chinatown supports this point as Chinese believed that their solid ethnic culture of work ethic,
persistence, self-esteem, self-sacrifice and family commitment helps them unfold their American
dream. Jewish and Korean merchants in Lee's study (2002) concur that the value system is of great
importance. Jewish and Korean traders subscribe to the American dream ideology that if they work
hard and value frugality, it will lead them to business success. Jewish old-timers who witnessed
10
the closing of African American businesses attributed their failure to cultural characteristics. The
veteran business owners believed that African Americans did not have the skills to run a business.
The African American business owners in the study partially reflected on this point that when
"they were growing up, their families never guided them into self-employment but instead directed
them toward landing a "safe" and "secure" job in the public sector" (Lee 2002, p. 41). Yet structural
barriers and cultural factors are rather insufficient in explaining immigrant entrepreneurship. Not
considered are social networks and ethnic resources and the role they play in the success of
immigrant businesses.
2.3 Social Networks and Ethnic Resources
Independent of class, ethnic resources contribute to entrepreneurship. Ethnic resources are
sociocultural and demographic features of the group that coethnic entrepreneurs use in business or
from which their businesses benefit passively. Ethnic resources in combination with class
resources contribute financial, human, cultural and social capital to ethnic group members which
assist in their building of ethnic economies. In reality, the separation of class and ethnic resources
is nearly impossible as every social setting is characterized by both one’s class position and ethnic
membership (Light and Gold 2000). Ethnic resources of family/kin ties and in-group solidarity
give minority group advantages in small businesses as family/kin ties and social networks are
important to start a business as they provide access to business information, business training, and
start-up capital (Min 1987).
2.3.1 Starting Capital
Starting capital is most crucial to starting a business (Min 1987). Only a small percentage
of proprietors seek or use bank loans to open a small business; a greater percentage depends on
personal resources (Light 1972). Banks have always ignored low-income customers, small
11
businesses, and immigrants as people in such group are often not creditworthy, have steady jobs,
assets to pledge, and a personal history of paying previous loans. Moreover, small loans are
unprofitable (Light 2003; Tseng and Zhou 2001; Uzzi 1999). Chinese immigrants are a prime
example of a customer base neglected by banks. Because they lack a credit history, English
language ability, and stable incomes, they face more obstacles than native Americans in obtaining
loans from mainstream banks (Zhou 1992). Therefore, many small business start-ups have
historically depended primarily upon the owners’ savings and loans from families and friends
(Fairlie 2012; Lee 2002; Sanders and Nee 1996)
At the same time, rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs) are used among many
ethnic groups (Light and Gold 2000), including Chinese, Japanese and West Indians (Light 1972).
6
Light argues in Ethnic Enterprise in America (1972) that Chinese and Japanese Americans in
California make use of rotating credit associations to build up capital for business establishments.
This practice explains their over-representation in small businesses in comparison to blacks (Min
1987). Blacks, in contrast, were more likely than Jews or Koreans to seek external sources of
funding such as bank loans. While foreign-born may count on coethnic networks, this option is
closed for African Americans as their ethnic networks are likely to be less wealthy and borrowing
money among family members are not a common practice (Lee 2002).
6
A rotating credit association is “an association formed upon a core of participants who make
regular contributions to a fund which is given in whole or in part to each contributor in turn”
(Ardener 1995, p.1). Rotating credit associations are found frequently to “assist in small scale
capital formation” (Ardener 1964, p. 217).
12
Therefore, due to cultural reasons, some ethnic groups have a tradition that facilitates
entrepreneurship through engagement in rotating credit associations and some ethnic groups are
more likely to assist co-ethnics with capital to start a business (Wherry 2012). While some studies
(e.g. Light 1972, and Light and Bonacich 1991) show that rotating credit association is crucial at
the beginning phase of opening a business, Lee's study (2002) shows otherwise. Few Korean
merchants use this resource at the startup phase; nevertheless, rotating credit association becomes
important after the business is established as it is used for buying new merchandise or equipment,
remodeling, and pulling through a slow business cycle (Lee 2002). Only one of the Thai business
owners in my sample claimed to use ROSCAs, as most others pooled resources from their personal
savings, families and/or friends.
With the financial resources at hands, immigrants can open different kinds of businesses.
Yet, as many scholars have found, there is a tendency for particular ethnic group to concentrate in
certain businesses (e.g. Filipino caregiving businesses (Nazareno 2015); Indian motel owners
(Dhingra 2012) and Mexican gardeners (Ramirez and Hondagneu-Sotelo 2009)). Thai immigrants
too are concentrated in two businesses: Thai restaurants and Thai massage businesses. Social
networks explain this phenomenon.
2.3.2 Coethnic Labor
Immigrant entrepreneurs' success is not possible without the help of co-ethnics. The Cuban
ethnic enclave in Miami is a prime example of this (Portes and Shafer 2007). The help from co-
ethnics is important because it provides immigrants with ethnic resources including but not limited
to business information, business training, and start-up capital. Further, immigrants’ businesses
can stay afloat as they have access to their affordable coethnic labor (Zhou 1992). The low wage
labor supply combined with the middleman's thrift permit middleman firms to reduce costs so that
13
they can compete effectively with other enterprises in the same line (Bonacich 1973). Worker
recruitments depend largely on kinship and ethnic ties. Businesses are usually family enterprises
in which spouses, siblings, or relatives share ownership and managerial responsibilities. This
familiarity encourages less formal and hostile employee relations thus fostering a stable labor force
(Zhou 1992). Chai (1987) supports this point as she found that Korean immigrant women work in
partnership with their husbands to develop small family businesses to resist both class and
domestic oppression. Women keep down labor costs by working with no compensation in the
family business (Kim and Hurh 1988). Park's study (2005) also shows that children are obligated
to perform adult-like roles by helping family businesses without getting rewards.
Therefore, once a certain ethnic group dominates a business niche, it often remains that
way as they hire their coethnics. Once the workers acquire the necessary skills and accumulated
enough savings, they go out and open their own businesses. This lead to a concentration of certain
ethnic groups in a certain business niche.
3. Immigrant Businesses: Coethnic vs. Non-Coethnic Customers
Ethnic entrepreneurship literature distinguishes ethnic entrepreneurs into two main types:
middleman minorities and enclave entrepreneurs. Middleman minorities trade in between the
social elites and the masses. Middleman minorities usually establish business niches in poor
minority neighborhoods or immigrant ghettos in city areas that are abandoned by business owners
of the society's dominant group (Zhou 2004). Many immigrant entrepreneurs specifically locate
their shops in low-income black neighborhoods because there is little competition from larger
chain corporations and small business can thrive in these underserviced communities (Lee 2002).
Recently, middleman minorities opened businesses in affluent urban neighborhoods and middle-
class suburbs (Zhou 2004). Middleman minorities have particularistic resources that enhanced
14
their business success such as "entrepreneurial values, beliefs, institutions, and social networks
through which the children of middleman merchants easily moved into mercantile roles,
continuing the tradition of their family and people" (Light and Gold 2000, p. 6). Middleman
community organization with the low wage labor supply combined with thrift permits middleman
firms to reduce costs so that they can compete effectively with other enterprises in the same line
(Bonacich 1973).
Enclave entrepreneurs, in contrast, are bound by coethnic social structures and location. In
the past, they operated businesses in immigrant neighborhoods where their coethnic group
members dominated. Currently, many ethnic enclaves have evolved into multiethnic
neighborhoods and new ethnic enclaves developed in prosperous middle-class suburbs. This
implies that those who run businesses in a certain location may play dual roles as both middleman
minorities and enclave entrepreneurs. For example, a Korean immigrant with a business in Los
Angeles' Koreatown may be an enclave entrepreneur to his Korean coethnics who live there; yet
is perceived as a middleman-minority entrepreneur to Latino residents who make up the majority
of that neighborhood (Zhou 2004). Nonetheless, having an immigrant business in another
predominant ethnic neighborhood is a great challenge especially during recessions or political
upheavals. Some of the existing resentment towards business owners is that as the owners live
elsewhere they take the profits out of the black communities. Non-black merchants, therefore, must
try to subside tensions and maintain civil relations as failure to do so may lead to conflict-ridden
consequences such as the Harlem riot of 1964 and the Los Angeles riots in 1992 (Lee 2002).
Immigrants own various kinds of businesses and it is no surprise that ethnic entrepreneurs
create market niches for specific goods and services that are not offered in the mainstream
economy (Zhou 2004). This is possible due to the demands for ethnic consumer products which is
15
stimulated by the growing ethnic populations and the changing perceptions of non-ethnics for
goods that are exotic and underserved. In this sense, ethnic businesses’ success depends on the
ethnic population size as well as customers outside the ethnic community (Aldrich and Waldinger
1990).
As mentioned earlier, a particular ethnic group has the tendency to be concentrated in
certain businesses. Thai immigrants are concentrated in two businesses: Thai restaurants and Thai
massage businesses. Yet, the Thai case is unique in that both Thai restaurants and Thai massage
businesses, unlike other businesses, require the use of culture in their business operation. Thai
businesses can be considered primarily as “middleman” operations that functions as cultural
mediators of Thainess. This particular positionality is underexplored in the literature but have
increasingly become common with the growing interests of urban clienteles for “ethnic
experiences.” I add to the literature by making sense of the emerging immigrant niche through the
idea of “cultural funneling.” I show in chapter 3 that the Thai community engages in "cultural
funneling" which is a predisposition of Thai immigrants to be in a business that markets or sells
Thai ethnic goods and services. I build from Waldinger's discussion (1996) of how ethnic groups
are funneled into niches- special places in the labor market- and how they maintain those
specializations at varying rates over time. That is, ethnic ties provide networks of information and
support, giving access to occupations that fit the specializations and skills of immigrants. Cultural
funneling is different. Instead of having certain factors and skills that direct immigrants towards
certain occupations, immigrants respond to the demand of the market and use their networks to
gain those necessary skills. This allows them to work in that field and to also open a business in
that field once an opportunity arises.
16
While cultural funneling opens economic opportunities, it however comes at the expense
of cultural othering. What sells Thai experiences is the notion of these experiences as different and
foreign. Therefore, the strategy used in selling is the use of one’s “foreigness.” Further, as business
owners can manipulate consumers into buying certain products or services by emphasizing the
meanings, symbols, and images that make such product or service appealing to different
demographic groups (Wherry 2012). Kim (1999) points out that Asian Americans are viewed as
permanently foreign and unassimilable. Being viewed as a "perpetual foreigner" has negative
implications to Asian American lives in various spheres e.g. daily interactions, works, and politics
(Wu 2003).
Finally, to make sense of the process by which Thai entrepreneurs sell and market culture,
I turn to theories of boundary work. Boundary work is a process of developing a sense of group
membership by which people foster differences among groups through inclusion and exclusion.
During this process, similarities and differences within and between groups are constructed or
drawn (Lamont and Molnár 2002). Doing so, one group distinguishes oneself from others
(Bartkowski and Read 2003; Lamont 1992; Lamont and Fournier 1992). Groups are thus socially
constructed in relation to one another (Barth 1998; Jenkins 2008; Verkuyten 2005). These
boundaries are sometimes permeable, yet other times rigid (Eriksen 2010).
Building from Wherry's discussion of consumer manipulation (2012), Kim's argument of
"perpetual foreigner" (1999), Espiritu (1993) and Okamoto (2014) discussion of panethnicity, and
Lamont and Fournier's work on boundary work (1992), I examine in chapter 4 how Thai business
owners use their “foreignness” and “Thainess” for capital gain via the marketization of their
services. Thai business owners manage impressions that outsiders have of Thai services by
constructing and promoting Thai services in terms of authenticity and exoticism. Thai business
17
owners draw boundaries of what is considered “authentic” Thai food and Thai massage for their
business prosperity. Although consumers know they are manipulated by marketers, nonetheless
consumers conform as they are able to establish who they are (identity work) (Zukin 2004).
4. State Roles in Immigrant Businesses
Currently, the literature on state roles regarding immigrant businesses can be viewed in
three main streams: 1) state as a resource to ethnic businesses 2) state as a source of
interethnic/racial conflict in ethnic businesses and 3) state as a surveillance and a tool of repression
to ethnic businesses.
Some scholars acknowledge that the state can be viewed as a resource to ethnic businesses,
taking notes of how the state grants visas to immigrants (Seal 2015; Zhou 1992). In 1965, President
Lyndon B. Johnson signed the law that ended the national-origin quota system. This immigration
law serves two central interests: 1) a humanitarian interest to reunify families and 2) an economic
interest to attract skilled and needed workers from foreign countries. This law allows each sending
country to be on a more equal footing with an annual limit of 20,000 (Zhou 1992). This law proves
to be an important source of support to the immigrant business as it allows families to reunite and
as noted earlier in ethnic businesses, the use of family labor is important to the business success.
Currently, the state still facilitates the immigrants' ability to migrate via the visa channels.
According to Seals (2015), immigrants that hope to establish a business in the United States may
try to do so through three visa categories: 1) the EB-5 visa 2) the EB-2 visa and 3) the H-1B visa.
Other mentions of the state focus on misconceptions that result in interethnic/racial
conflict. Many native-born view the government as providing certain groups of immigrants an
18
upper hand in their quest for mobility via different financial resources such as small business loans,
tax breaks, and welfare. This leads to the contention between African Americans and immigrants.
Lastly, the state is examined as a surveillance and a tool of repression to ethnic businesses.
Many scholars have touched on this issue. Min (1996), for instance, talks about how Korean nail
salons in New York was surveilled by the New York State when the city begins to regulate nail
salons in 1991. Estrada and Hondagneu-Sotelo (2011), discuss how street vendors, which is illegal
in Los Angeles, are in fear of police and city authorities. Dhingra (2012), discusses how Indian
motel owners are a target of local government as authorities are suspicious that the owners may
allow for illegal activities on their premises such as drug dealing and prostitution. My dissertation
contributes to this set of literature. I will discuss this in detail in chapter 5.
Methodology
This research is based primarily on semi-structured interviews with seventy-eight Thai
business owners in Los Angeles from 2015 to 2017. Los Angeles is the city with the largest Thai
population outside of Thailand and is the only place with a designated Thai Town in the United
States. According to the Thai American Chamber of Commerce of California (2011), from 2010-
2011, there were 854 Thai restaurants, 167 beauty and health services which included Thai
massage businesses, and 817 other businesses owned by Thai e.g. legal and financial services, auto
repair shop, construction, and newspapers.
I found my research participants through phone inquiries and referrals. To diversify the
sample, I selected thirty Thai restaurant owners, thirty Thai massage business owners and eighteen
Thai business owners of other kinds of businesses e.g. real estate, media company, Thai boutiques,
and non-Thai restaurants from different neighborhoods in Los Angeles County. The interviews
19
included questions on business owners’ migration histories, motivations for opening an ethnic
business, business operations, employment processes, perceptions of gender, race, and ethnicity in
the workplace, strategies of market competitions, and future plans. The interviews on average
lasted for an hour. The interviews usually took place at the respondent's business establishment, in
a public setting (e.g. a café), and a few cases (N=6) via phone. All but one interview were audio-
recorded and fully transcribed. Most of the interviews were conducted fully in Thai, except in
cases where the business owner grew up in the United States and is better able to express their
points of view in English or when the American spouses were present, English is then used as
deemed appropriate.
Some of my research participants hold important positions within the Thai community.
They include presidents and/or board members of Thai Women Council of Southern California
(Sapa Satree Thai), Thai American Chamber of Commerce of California, Nuad Thai and SPA
Association of America
7
, and Thai temples, for instance. By having a chance to interview Thai
business owners, along with prominent figures within the Thai community, I am able to understand
the overall Thai community perspectives on various issues.
Characteristics of Sample
Most of the respondents are first generation Thai. The respondents' age ranges from 21
years-old to 71 years-old and averages at 49 years old, and most are married. The sample is diverse
in their educational attainment. Thai business owners' education level ranges from primary
7
The association was formed on August 4
th
, 2016 and is a non-profit organization that seeks to
help educate its member regarding Thai massage and spa profession in the United States (Khaosod
USA 2016).
20
education to those with PhDs, yet most have a bachelor's degree (47%). Most Thai business owners
(59%) came from the central region of Thailand, followed by seventeen percent from the northern
region, sixteen percent from the northeast region. Only a small amount came from either eastern,
southern, or western region.
Most migrated to the United States to further their own education (31%), some came for
brief English language classes, while others for their higher education but most were sidetracked
as the work/business opportunity arises. Twenty-one percent came because they have family
members already living in the United States. Only sixteen percent came straight from Thailand
hoping to achieve the American dream from the start (for business/work opportunity). Most Thai
business owners first came to the United States either through a student visa (43%) or a tourist visa
(42%).
Thai business owners have been in the United States for an average of 20 years (median =
16 years) and many speak English fluently. Some have been in the United States for only a year
while many others have lived more than half of their lives in the country- one staying for almost
five decades in the United States. Seventy percent now have dual citizenships (Thai-American)
and twenty-five percent have a green card (permanent resident).
Most Thai business owners, despite the types of business they now own, start off working
in a restaurant (64%), most often a Thai restaurant. Only ten percent started off working in a
massage or a spa business and another twenty-six percent work in different jobs e.g. nurse aid,
office work, garment factory, and construction work. Most find their first job through their friends
(46%), family (20%) and newspapers (19%).
21
Thai business owners open their businesses mainly because they said they had the
knowledge and skill in the field of their business (37%), that it requires little investment compared
to other businesses (19%), and that they wanted to have their own business (18%). On average,
the businesses have been in operation for 11 years (median = 7 years); while some are relatively
new businesses which have been opened for several months, the longest business has been in
operation for forty-three years. The location of their businesses is based primarily on the
availability and affordability of the business location (38%), and the perception that there is a high
chance of success (24%) e.g. located in an area where there is a customer base.
Most started their businesses using personal savings (81%), while some also received loans
from their family members (12%) and/or from a bank institute (13%). Only one mentioned the use
of rotating savings and credit association (ROSCAs). This is not prominent among my sample
which contradicts findings with Korean and Chinese business owners (Light 1972; Light and
Bonacich 1991). The initial investment money in their businesses ranges from $150 to $7million,
8
the mean being $178,098 (median = $50,000).
9
Most (97%) opened their business without the help
of any organization (government or private organizations) both monetarily and in getting advice.
Most businesses are family business (78%) where family members will help in running the
business. For the business that has shareholders, all the shareholders are Thai. Most customers are
Americans in general (82%), working-age population (74%), and family (56%). Business scales
range from small family-owned businesses, which hires no workers, to large-sized business
8
The $ sign in this dissertation refers to U.S. dollars unless otherwise specified.
9
The investment money range is wide as Thai businesses consist of small businesses to large
corporations.
22
corporations with 100 employees. On average, Thai business owners hire eleven workers. Overall,
Thai business owners hire sixty-seven percent female workers, the number of female hiring
become much higher among massage business at eighty-six percent. Thai restaurants hire fifty
percent women and other businesses hire fifty-nine percent women. Most businesses hire forty-
four percent full-time workers. This does not vary much by the type of businesses: Thai restaurants
(44%), massage places (42%), and other businesses (46%). Most Thai businesses hire Thai staff
(81%). Thai massage businesses have the highest percentage of hiring Thai at ninety-seven
percent, compared to seventy-two percent among Thai restaurant owners and sixty-seven percent
among other businesses owned by Thai. Business owners mostly find their workers through
referrals (65%), newspaper advertisement (52%), and the candidates apply themselves (38%).
Some attributes give workers the advantage when they come in and apply for jobs at Thai
businesses: have legal documents/work permit (license) (52%), have experience or skill in the
business they are applying for (49%), and are Thai (48%). Most business owners let their workers
work elsewhere (98%).
More than half of Thai businesses (56%) give their workers free meals routinely or on
special occasions, this is especially prominent amongst Thai restaurants (96%), less so in massage
business (43%) and least in other businesses (13%). Sixteen percent mention giving a bonus of
some sort to their workers e.g. year-end bonus and forty-six percent report to letting the workers
keep their tips.
Most business owners (88%) own only one type of business, however, twelve percent own
two or more businesses. Yet, nineteen percent has more than one branch of the same kind of
business. These business owners mostly use the same business strategy (87%) and offer similar
23
goods/services (67%), yet they tend to diversify their locations to not take customers from their
other branches (80%).
In terms of business strategy, all restaurants emphasize the deliciousness of the food
taste, and all but one claims the significance of cleanliness, eighty-eight percent pay attention to
the service provided to customers and eighty-four percent consider the worthiness of the food that
the customers received (food price suitable for taste and amount of food). As for massage
businesses, most business owners give importance to the cleanliness of the establishment (93%)
and the service provided to the customers (87%). As for other businesses, they paid attention most
to the service provided (75%) and authenticity and price (both at 50%).
Most Thai businesses (74%) open their business seven days per week yet others choose to
open only a few days per week. Most are closed on Christmas (68%), New Year (56%) and
Thanksgiving (42%).
Thai business owners learn of the news regarding their businesses mostly via private
organizations e.g. Thai newspapers and Nuad Thai and SPA Association of America (50%),
another thirty-six percent learn via the internet and social media, while thirty percent knows the
news via friends or people who are in the same business.
The business earnings per year after deducting all related expenses range from $9,600 to
$1.8 million. However, the mean is $148,075 and the median is $65,000. Most business owners
(35%) plan to sell their businesses to those who are interested once they retire, yet thirty-one
percent plan on having family members take over their businesses. While twenty-five percent
haven’t thought of their retirement yet.
24
Thirty-eight percent plan to stay in the United States permanently while thirty-five percent
claim to want to return permanently to Thailand and twenty-seven percent have not decided. The
factors that influence their decision is the proximity to their family, either in the United States or
Thailand (52%), and their perception that they are used to living in the United States and the better
life quality in the country (22%).
Regardless of whether they decided to return permanently to Thailand or not, most (96%)
keep in touch with both family and friends in Thailand. They do so via social network e.g.
Facebook, LINE, and Skype (92%). Fifty-seven percent of the participants send remittances home.
Each year the amount varies from one business owner to another but it ranges from $1000 to
$300,000, the mean being $23,068 and the median at $12,000.
I also supplemented my research with five years’ participant observation and took detailed
field notes when I attended Thai businesses and gatherings; for example, Songkran Festival in
Hollywood and Thai festivals at Thai temples. I also spent time with local Thais and had lunch
and dinner at local restaurants. Doing so, I observed, interacted, and engaged with people in the
Thai community and had many conversations not only with business owners but also with the
workers (e.g. waiters, therapists, and managers).
That I am Thai shaped my rapport with the respondents. Our shared racial and social status
also facilitated a level of comfort as respondents can openly discuss their business situations, the
problems they face in operating their business, and even business strategies which they use to
compete with their fellow coethnics.
Several limitations are acknowledged. First, as the sample is comprised of Thai business
owners who voluntarily agreed to an interview, there may be selection bias. For example, it could
25
be that these business owners treat their workers better than the average employers, and these
owners are the ones who obey the law and do not offer sex-related acts on their premises. Further,
as my article goal is to identify the business strategy utilized by Thai business owners thus I cannot
examine the effectiveness of their business strategy. Lastly, because I interviewed only Thai
business owners who are Thai I cannot determine whether they are more or less successful than
non-Thai who owned Thai businesses.
Organization of the Dissertation
This dissertation examines four main research questions to understand how Thai business
owners manage to operate their businesses in Los Angeles County: 1) How do Americans become
familiar with Thai cuisines and Thai massages? 2) How do Thai business owners explain their
pathways to becoming cultural business owners? 3) How do Thai business owners construct
"Thainess” and “authenticity” for business advancement? and 4) How do Thai business owners
negotiate the surveillance of the U.S. government regarding their business operations? The
analysis is based on seventy-eight semi-structured interviews with Thai business owners. Chapter
2 discusses the U.S. government’s role in Thai history and how this led the United States to
becoming an important part of Thailand tourism. American tourists are no stranger to Thailand
and Americans have increasingly become familiar with Thai cuisine and Thai massage. At the
same time, the influence of the U.S. government in Thailand during the Cold War along with the
changing U.S. immigration policy led more Thai people migrating to the United States.
Recognizing the cultural recognition of Thai food and Thai massage, Thai migrants in turn took
advantage of this as a new market opportunity.
Chapter 3 investigates Thai business owners’ pathways to becoming cultural business
owners. In this chapter, I introduce the concept of “cultural funneling,” a predisposition of Thai
26
immigrants to be in a business that markets or sells Thai ethnic goods and services. I discuss how
structural forces, along with networks and one’s work experience funnel Thais into ethnic
businesses. I also discuss the gains and the losses of being in an ethnic business.
Chapter 4 examines how Thai business owners in response to the consumer search for
authenticity utilize it for their business opportunity. Thai business owners construct what is
“authentic” and “Thai.” In this chapter, I also discuss how there is a mismatch between Thai
business owners and consumers on what "authentic" is and how business owners try to resolve this
misunderstanding in order to succeed in their business.
Chapter 5 examines how Thai business owners are surveilled by the U.S. government and
how that affects their business operation. I find that while Thai business owners try to cut costs to
increase their profit margins, they at the same time negotiate and navigate their ways within the
U.S. laws and regulations.
Chapter 6 is the concluding chapter. I summarize the main findings of the dissertation and
discuss the broader theoretical implications of the study.
27
Chapter 2: Neo-Colonialism and Tourism
This chapter begins with background information of Thailand. I then discuss the history of
the Thai tourism campaign and the United States influence on Thai tourism. The United States
plays an important role in Thai history, particularly during the Cold War period, which is the time
Thailand became an important tourist destination for U.S. military personnel as well as general
Americans. Next, I discuss tourist compositions to Thailand. I distinguish tourists to Thailand into
three groups: 1) leisure tourists 2) business tourists and 3) medical tourists. I then move on to
discuss the Thai government’s role in promoting Thai tourism. Next, I elaborate on how Americans
became familiar with Thai cuisines and Thai massages. Then, I discuss how the United States
influence in Thailand during the Cold War period along with the changing U.S. immigration policy
led to more Thai people migrating to the United States. I categorize Thai immigrants into three
main categories: 1) students 2) professionals and 3) spouses. I then move on to give an overview
of Thai businesses in Los Angeles and how Thais faced with limited labor market opportunities
came to recognize the cultural recognition of Thai food and Thai massage among the general U.S.
population and consequently turn them into new market opportunities. I finish the chapter with the
contemporary data on Thai immigrants in the United States.
Background Information: Thailand
Thailand is located in Southeast Asia. To the north of the country are Myanmar and Laos,
to the east are Laos and Cambodia, to the south is the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the
west is the Andaman Sea and Myanmar. Bangkok is the capital city of Thailand. In 2017, the
country had 68,414,135 million people (Central Intelligence Agency 2018b). According to World
Bank Group (2018c) “Thailand has made remarkable progress in social and economic
development, moving from a low-income country to an upper-income country in less than a
28
generation. As such, Thailand has been one of the widely cited development success stories, with
sustained strong growth and impressive poverty reduction, particularly in the 1980s.” This perhaps
can be explained by a free-enterprise economy, and pro-investment policies in general, along with
a relatively well-developed infrastructure (Central Intelligence Agency 2018b). Thailand is
considered a middle power in global affairs (Ping 2005).
Thailand is heavily dependent on international trade. Exports account for approximately
two-thirds of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Thailand’s exports include agricultural
commodities, processed foods, automobiles and parts, and electronics. In 2017, the industry and
service sectors produced about 90 percent of GDP (36.2% industry and 55.6% services). The
agricultural sector employs almost one-third of the labor force, yet contributes less than 10 percent
of GDP. Most are small-scale farms. Its economy is the 21st largest in the world by GDP
(purchasing power parity)
10
(Central Intelligence Agency 2018a, 2018b).
Tourism is one of Thailand’s main economic sectors, it accounts for 6 to 7 percent of the
country’s GDP. In 2016, the revenue stood at 2.5 trillion baht ($71 billion) - 1.6 trillion baht from
international markets and 870 billion baht from the domestic market. Thailand tourism market is
one of the most developed in Asia and Bangkok is listed in the top 10 of the world’s most attractive
cities to visit. Thailand is an important regional hub as it is located in the heart of mainland
Southeast Asia and has a relatively well-developed infrastructure (Netherlands Embassy in
10
Central Intelligence Agency (2018a) defines GDP (purchasing power parity) as “compares the
gross domestic product (GDP) or value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in
a given year. A nation's GDP at purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates is the sum value of
all goods and services produced in the country valued at prices prevailing in the United States.”
29
Bangkok 2017). Tourism in Thailand while much larger than Cambodia and Vietnamese, is
relatively underdeveloped compared to Western European countries, such as France, Italy, and
Spain, and Mexico. In 2002, Thailand had 10.8 million tourists, whereas Vietnam had 2.6 million
and Cambodia had merely 66,000. Malaysia was trailing behind Thailand as well but not so much
at 10.2 million (http://www.world-tourism.org as cited in Berger 2007). Nevertheless, Thailand is
currently facing increasing competition from neighboring countries such as Myanmar and
Vietnam. This led the Thai government to ease the visa procedures along with waiving certain visa
fees (Netherlands Embassy in Bangkok 2017).
The History of Thai Tourism Campaign and the United States Influence on Thai Tourism
The foundation for international tourism in Thailand began during the second half of the
19
th
century when King Mongkut (Rama IV) and King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) instituted
modernization reforms. Open-door economic policies led to the construction of Western-oriented
hotels and tour activities (Kontogeorgopoulos 1998). Further, King Chulalongkorn and his
successors engaged in the “Grand Tour” by visiting foreign countries or inviting European
aristocrats and dignitaries to Bangkok (Meyer 1988).
By the 1930s, Bangkok hosted five cruise liners per year for wealthy westerners, each
containing at least 500 passengers (Meyer 1988). From the 1930s to late 1950s, most foreign
tourists were British and French who passed through Thailand en route to colonial possessions.
However, after Europe was greatly damaged from the Second World War, American tourists began
to surpass Europeans (Kontogeorgopoulos 1998). In 1957, British and American tourists
represented 59 percent of foreign tourists to Thailand. Americans consisted of over half of that
figure (Tourist Organization of Thailand as cited in Kontogeorgopoulos 1998).
30
The official relations of Thailand and the United States of America began in 1833 with the
signing of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce (Roberts Treaty) (Perreira 2010; The National
Archives 2018). After the Korean War, the United States main geopolitical interest in East and
Southeast Asia was to pursue its containment policy to support and strengthen the spread of
communism (Gaddis 2005). While Thailand is the only country in Southeast Asia to avoid Western
colonization, after World War II, the United States maneuvered itself into Thailand more than ever
before.
During the 1950s and 1960s, Thailand went through two related transformations: 1) the
rise of post-World War II tourism to the Asian-Pacific region and 2) the massive expansion of
Thailand’s tourism industry and tourist-based infrastructure (Padoongpatt 2017).
Around 1955, Pacific Area Travel Association officials (from hereon PATA)
acknowledged Thailand as a destination with tourist potential (Pacific Area Travel Association
1955). Prior to the intervention of PATA, the Thai government and Thai leaders had very little
interest in tourism. No organized tourist industry exists. The country had merely 871 tourist-
standard rooms and only 40,000 visitors per year. Most tourists stayed in Bangkok for around two
or three days (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009; Clement 1961). PATA worked with the Thai
government and Thai leaders to make tourism one of the country’s top priorities for postwar
national development (Clement 1961). As a result, Prime Minister Sarit Thanarat established the
Tourism Organization of Thailand (TOT) to develop planning and promotion of tourism
(Ouyyanont 2001). This was in line with World Bank-inspired development policies, Prime
Minister Thanarat opened the economy to foreign investment and encourage tourism growth to
bolster foreign exchange reserve (Kontogeorgopoulos 1998).
31
In the 1960s, the Thai government through TOT financed heavily and offered incentives
to private investors to construct infrastructure e.g. construct new airport runways and highways,
along with new hotels, bars, restaurants, rest and recreation sites, and shops. This rapid expansion
turned rice fields and fruit orchards into New Phetchaburi Road- an “American Strip” filled with
massage businesses, bars, nightclubs, and brothels (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009; Ouyyanont
2001).
In 1966, the Service Establishments Act (also known as Entertainment Act) was enacted
to regulate hotel operation and legitimize entertainment operations e.g. massage businesses,
nightclubs and bars. The main clients at the time were U.S. military serviced men stationed in the
country. In 1967, the Thai government and the U.S. military signed a treaty to allow U.S. soldiers
stationed in Vietnam to come on “Rest and Recreation” leave (R&R) in Thailand (Truong 1990).
By mid-1960s, U.S. military and American GIs constituted the majority of the growing number of
U.S. farang in Thailand.
11
In 1969, around 45,000 U.S. military personnel were stationed in
Thailand (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009). Adjacent to military bases are bars, massage businesses,
and nightlife operations which primarily target U.S. soldiers, yet other U.S. citizens frequented
them as well. Bangkok is not the only city affected by this new development, other areas around
Thailand are also designated as official rest and recreation (R&R) destinations for American GIs
(Padoongpatt 2017).
11
Farang is a generic Thai word for someone of European ancestry, implying that a person is of a
white race. Farang is not linked to any particular country. White French and white American can
be both considered as farang, for instance.
32
As large numbers of U.S. soldiers were stationed in Indochina, R&R activities were
lucrative. In 1970, the spending of U.S. military personnel on R&R leave was 391 million baht
(approximately $18.62 million).
12
This equals one-fourth of the total value of rice exports for that
year (Bangkok Bank Limited 1973b; Truong 1990). Many Americans, by the 1950s, became
international travelers as they had more disposable income for leisure due to the booming economy
(Klein 2003). In 1985, there were 171,247 American tourists to Thailand (Meyer 1988).
The initial phase of Thailand tourism development which focused on the R&R market led
to an excessive supply of accommodation and entertainment facilities. It also created an expansion
of production and employment in the service sector which were difficult to reduce despite the
decline of the U.S. military. Tourism therefore was incorporated into the export-diversification
strategy, a strategy which extended the R&R market to an international market (Truong 1990). In
the late 1980s, Thailand became a major destination for international tourists, and tourism had
become central to the Thai government’s development strategy (Enloe 2014).
Traditionally, the majority of tourist arrivals in Thailand are from the United States and
Western Europe. By mid-1970s, this changed as tourists from Asian countries (e.g. Japan, South
Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan) began to dominate (Kontogeorgopoulos 1998). By
1996, Asian tourists (East Asia and South Asia) were approximately two thirds (66.5 percent) of
all arrivals to Thailand (Tourism Authority of Thailand 1996). By 2017 Asian tourists (East Asia
and South Asia) accounted for 72 percent of all arrivals to Thailand with Chinese being the largest
international tourists (Ministry of Tourism & Sports 2018b). The share of U.S. tourist arrivals in
12
Calculation based on free-market exchange (selling) rate for U.S. dollar (Bangkok Bank Limited
1973a, p.49).
33
grand total has declined from 15.56 percent in 1973 to less than 7 percent in 1986 (Truong 1990)
and to around 3 percent in 2017. Still, U.S. tourists ranked the eight largest tourist nationality to
Thailand with 1,056,124 tourists (Ministry of Tourism & Sports 2018b).
The number of international tourists arriving to Thailand has increased tremendously from
81,340 in 1960 to 1.86 million in 1980. The number continued to rise to 5.30 million in 1990 and
9.51 million in 2000 (Tourism Authority of Thailand 2001). The number of international tourists
then increased gradually to 11.57 million in 2005. Then from 2009 onwards the increase was
sweeping, from 14.15 million in 2009 to 32.53 million in 2016 (World Bank Group 2018a).
Overall, Thailand has a double growth rate of tourist arrivals since 2010, except for a slight decline
in 2014 due to the military coup.
Thailand tourist industry growth has been remarkable. In 1960, the earnings from tourism
were approximately 200 million baht, by 1986 it rose to over 37 billion baht. By mid-1970s,
tourism has been the major foreign exchange earner, surpassing rice in 1982 (Truong 1990).
Indeed, in 1982, for the first time it became Thailand’s top foreign exchange earner. The increase
of tourists’ arrival to Thailand coincides with the increase of international tourism revenues. It
grew from $8 million in 1960 to $8.7 billion in 1996. In 1996, tourism earned 32.8 percent more
than the next leading export- computers and computer parts (Tourism Authority of Thailand 1997a
as cited in Kontogeorgopoulos 1998). In 2016, the international tourism receipts
13
was $52.5
13
International tourism receipts are “expenditures by international inbound visitors, including
payments to national carriers for international transport. These receipts include any other
prepayment made for goods or services received in the destination country. They also may include
receipts from same-day visitors, except when these are important enough to justify separate
34
billion and by 2017 it reached a total of $58.7 billion (BMI Research 2018; World Bank Group
2018b). In sum, foreign tourism has become Thailand’s largest export industry by a wide margin.
On average during 1998 to 2005, Thai tourism accounted for 10 percent of employment (3 million
jobs), 12 percent of investment and 13 percent of GDP (Wattanakuljarus and Coxhead 2008). By
2015, Thai tourism remains an important employment sector at 11 percent (over 4 million jobs)
(Ministry of Tourism & Sports 2018a).
Who are Tourists to Thailand?
Tourists to Thailand consists of multiple groups. First, there are tourists who come to
Thailand for leisure. The interests of this group are rather diverse, they may be interested in the
historical, cultural and/or natural sights. Thailand features several World Heritage sites such as
Ban Chiang Archaeological Site, Historic City of Ayutthaya and Historic Town of Sukhothai. It
also has palaces and Buddhist temples open to tourists. Thailand has both national and local
festivals. The national festivals include but are not limited to Thai New Year (Songkran) and Loy
Krathong. Many locales in Thailand also feature their own festivals, for example, Phi Ta Khon
(ghost festival) in Loei, Surin Elephant Round-up in Surin, and Buffalo Racing Festival in
Chonburi.
Alternatively, leisure tourists may be attracted to Bangkok’s shopping mall and its
nightlife. Shopping malls are found throughout Bangkok in different districts featuring both
international and local brands. Further, local market such as Chatuchak Weekend Market is a
famous attraction for both Thai and foreigners as it sells almost everything from food, household
classification. For some countries, they do not include receipts for passenger transport items”
(World Bank Group 2018b).
35
items, to animals. The night markets are also found in tourist areas such as Silom area and Khaosan
Road. As for nightlife, it has different niches; for example, Patpong caters mainly to foreign
tourists and expatriates, whereas Ratchada targets more locals.
Overall, leisure tourists can range from those who visit Bangkok for a few days to those
who take their time in exploring the country e.g. travel to the south for the beaches and islands,
travel to the north for trekking through the forested mountains and experiencing diverse ethnic
minority groups- the hill tribe.
One form of leisure tourism is sex tourism. According to Miller (1995), sex tourism is
prominent in Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand. Southeast Asia developmental policies and the
representation of Asian women as sexually exotic allow sex tourism to flourish. While sex tourism
is often asserted to account for a significant portion of foreign tourists in Thailand, there are no
hard data to back this claim (Wattanakuljarus and Coxhead 2008). Yet, high numbers of male
tourists compared to female tourists whose stated reason for travel is leisure, are sometimes cited
(e.g. Renton 2005). In 1994, for instance, male tourists made up 62.21 percent of the total number
of tourists (Tourism Authority of Thailand 1994).
Business tourism is another type of tourism that Thailand accommodates. While traditional
business traveling declined due to new communication technologies, the MICE (Meetings,
Incentives, Conferences, and Events) industry has gained its importance. In Thailand, there are
five designated MICE cities: Bangkok, Pattaya, Chiang Mai, Phuket and Khon Kaen. Thailand has
a reliable reputation within the MICE industry. In 2016, MICE tourism generated over 140 billion
baht revenue (Netherlands Embassy in Bangkok 2017).
36
Medical tourism is another kind of tourism that is gaining traction. Since 2004 Thailand
has set out to become the “Medical Hub of Asia,” and it has succeeded. It became one of the world
leaders in medical services. Getting medical service in Thailand has its advantage as it has the
first-rate technological infrastructure with the quality on par with developed countries, yet the cost
of the treatment is much less. There are more than 1,000 public and 400 private hospitals which
comply with international standards. They are fully-equipped with internationally trained
physicians. The surgery services in Thailand can be up to 90 percent less expensive compared to
the United States. Each year, the Thai medical care industry attracts almost 2 million foreign
medical tourists (Thailand Board of Investment 2012).
Thai Government Roles in Promoting Thai Tourism
The Thai government is aware of the profits that tourism generates and thus promotes it
vigorously. Centeno et al. (2011) discuss three types of tourism: bells, beaches, and bars. “Bells”
are cultural tourism such as cultural heritage sites e.g. cathedrals, and museums. “Beaches” are the
seaside and natural attractions known for relaxation, rest and/or debauchery. “Bars” are party
places. The developmental effects of the beach and bar tourism are not as significant as the bells
tourism. To leverage Thailand’s economic wealth from global tourism, the Thai government needs
to market the country as “bells” destinations (Centeno et al. 2011).
As discussed earlier in the chapter the U.S. military established bases in Thailand during
the conflicts in Vietnam and in Indochina and the U.S. military had a treaty with Thailand in the
1960s and 1970s which designated several places as “rest and recreation” destinations (Miller
1995; Truong 1990). Thailand’s reputation at that time was associated with a getaway for rest,
relaxation, and commercial sex. This gives Thailand a negative image, even to people who have
never been to the country. Television programs and magazines often depict Thailand’s commercial
37
sex trade and the ease of access to such a trade (Nuttavuthisit 2007). “Thailand Express Sex Tour,”
for instance, is among the many promotional campaigns advertising sex tourism in Thailand. The
campaign referred to Bangkok as one big brothel (Hantrakul 1988).
Thailand currently has been moving away from the bars (images of brothels and
debauchery) and toward bells (highlights of temples and cultural resources) and upscale beaches-
spas and tree-house luxury hotels (Centeno et al. 2011). Luckily, Thailand possesses many positive
features, including natural, cultural and historical sites.
The Thai government is motivated to rebrand the country for several reasons. First, the
government expects higher revenues from tourists who stay in luxury hotels, visit temples, and in
search of high-end fashion and furniture. In addition, Thais also want to be known for having
universally valuable cultural contributions (Centeno et al. 2011). Further, as Thailand is a small
country, in order to compete in the competitive global marketplace, the Thai government realizes
the need to enhance the nation’s branding (Nuttavuthisit 2007). Place branding strategies are to
correct the negative image by placing emphasis on positive characteristics to suppress negative
perceptions. This could be done through promotional campaigns that use positive features, natural
beauty and local hospitality, for instance; and communication tools such as slogans, themes, and
events (Nuttavuthisit 2007). Many national level projects have been developed such as “Bangkok
38
Fashion City,” “Kitchen to the World,” “Health Hub of Asia,”
14
“Amazing Thailand,”
15
“2015
Discover Thainess”
16
and “Thailand Tourism 4.0 initiative.”
17
An example of how the official attempts to fix Thailand as a tourism space is seen through
Thailand Illustrated, a magazine that was published by the Department of Public Relations in
Thailand beginning in the 1960s through the 1970s. From 1967 to 1974, beauty-contest winners
and Thai women are on 44 percent of the magazine’s covers (Del Casino Jr and Hanna 2000). Del
14
Tourism Authority of Thailand has promoted “health-tourism” at many overseas exhibitions and
seminars. One of the goals was to correct the negative association of Thai massage and brothels.
The organization does so by having skilled Thai massage therapists demonstrate and provide
information on the history of traditional Thai herbal treatments (Nuttavuthisit 2007).
15
“Amazing Thailand” features various types of tourism, such as nature- mountains and beaches,
Thai cultural places- temples, and museums, and Thai services- Thai food and Thai massages. The
website is easy to navigate as tourists can select the destinations, the activities, and/or the period
that they plan on visiting Thailand and a long list of suggestions will come up. By coming to
Thailand tourists can experiment new, different, and exotic environment which differs from their
daily routine (Tourism Authority of Thailand 2018a).
16
This 2015 campaign aims to highlight “Thainess,” as a distinct character of the Thai people and
the unique culture of Thailand. Thailand’s cultural assets can be characterized into seven unique
aspects: Thai food, Thai arts, Thai way of life, Thai wellness, Thai festivals, Thai wisdom, and
Thai fun (Tourism Authority of Thailand 2018b).
17
This campaign aims towards improving the long-term sustainability and competitiveness of the
tourism market.
39
Casino Jr and Hanna (2000) view this as the result of the economic importance of the sex-tourism
industry at that time (Truong 1990) and the feminine identities role played in the development of
national identities (Hendricks and Parker 1994; Katrak 1992).
To address commercial sex work and the economic inequalities that promote such an
industry, the Thai government re-evaluated tourism and diversified its tourism economy.
Throughout the 1980s, there are investments in beach resorts, ecotourism, trekking and shopping
districts. Patpong, the once exclusively sex tourism space of Bangkok full of go-go bars and sex-
show shops, too is transformed into a tourism shopping mecca (Del Casino Jr and Hanna 2000).
Even the tourism map of Thailand has changed. For example, the 1994 cover of Nelles Verlag’s
Thailand map changed from a woman to a Buddhist monk. Thailand thus is represented less as an
exotic overtly feminine site and more for its traditional cultural attractions (Del Casino Jr and
Hanna 2000).
Thai Tourism Authority has been active in managing the impressions that outsiders have
of the country. This is reflected on the covers of the tourist guidebooks. Earlier covers were
dominated by exotic women lounging on the beach holding a cocktail, whereas more recent covers
display monks in robes, temples, and classical Thai dancers. The shift in images reflects the shift
in the type of tourism and the types of market offering local Thai businesses now promote (Wherry
2012).
The Thai government highly supports the tourism industry and continues to invest in
campaigns to raise awareness of the country's various attractions. In 2018, the Tourism Authority
of Thailand (TAT) campaign moved away from quantity as a measure of tourism success and
towards quality. The organization focused on advocating that the country become a “quality leisure
destination through the Thai-ness concept”- incorporating Thai culture into tourism promotion.
40
Also, it aimed to increase the average length of stay and overall quality of visitor experiences. The
tourism campaign focused on three R's: 1) repositioning (gear towards tourism quality) 2)
restructuring (identify new target markets in term of geography and customer segmentation) and
3) rebalancing (balance the tourism industry benefits across all economic areas and social classes)
(BMI Research 2018).
Business Monitor International Research (2018, p. 21) indicates that “Thailand's tourism
industry is one of the best developed in the world and in the Asia-Pacific region in particular.”
Thailand tourism industry is now flourishing more than ever as the country has various kinds of
attractions to suit a variety of budgets, for example, eco-tourism activities, beach holidays, cultural
attractions and nightlife attractions. Around the country, various festivals and exhibitions are held
year-round. Further, the country hosts different kinds of sporting events each year and is gaining
its reputation as a sailing and golfing destination. The variety of attractions means that tourists can
visit Thailand year-round which reduces the effect of seasonal falls and provides for steady returns
and relatively stable occupancy rates (BMI Research 2018). To accommodate the increasing
number of tourists each year, Thailand is developing its infrastructure e.g. air travel and railway
system. Bangkok, for instance, has the Skytrain (BTS), underground rail systems (MRT), as well
as extensive bus and riverboat services.
How Americans Became Familiar with Thai Cuisines and Thai Massages
As mentioned earlier in the chapter, U.S. Cold War politics along with the tourist culture
paved the way for American citizens to participate in the imagining of exotic Thailand and Thai
people. They are able to have direct contact with Thai culture e.g. food and massage. While in the
past, U.S. tourists were largely U.S. military along with other American officials and volunteers
41
such as U.S. Peace Corps, Fulbright scholars and their spouses; now American tourists are more
diverse ranging from backpackers to businesspeople.
Thailand has many tourist destinations around the country, to name a few Bangkok, Chiang
Mai, Phuket, and Pattaya. Despite being geographically dispersed, what all these destinations have
in common is the abundance of Thai cuisines and Thai massages. These services are common and
are available almost 24/7 all around Thailand, though the formality may vary.
First, I will discuss the informal aspect of Thai food and Thai massage. In Thailand it is
common to have no formal store signs. This is true for restaurants and massage places. Street food,
a popular cuisine choice for many tourists in Thailand can be located almost at every corner of a
neighborhood. Walking around you will find ready-to-eat meals, snacks, fruits and drinks sold by
local vendors. It could be at food stalls or food carts on the street side. The food can either be pre-
cooked or cooked on the spot based on the customers’ order. While officials from the Bureau of
Food and Water Sanitation conduct health inspection in these markets (Bureau of Food and Water
Sanitation 2018b), for some Thai population the food taste trumps cleanliness in some occasions.
The price of the food is affordable as it ranges from as little as 5 baht to 100 or more (16 cents to
$3.18 or more).
18
Thai massage too can be quite informal and can be found almost everywhere. It can be
located on the street side, in a gas station, even in one’s house, for instance. As Thai massage does
not require clothes removal, this makes it possible. In these places, the setup is simple- a
lightweight mattress, a chair, and a pillow sometimes suffice. The massage therapists in Thailand
18
The money exchange rate in this dissertation is according to CNN money exchange rates, unless
otherwise specified (CNN Money 2018).
42
are not all licensed as some massage therapists learn their skills through another family member
or from a teacher in a local village.
19
Some go back and forth working in agricultural fields and
other seasonal jobs. Massage in this informal setting usually is not expensive and is around 150 to
300 baht per hour ($4.77 to $9.54 per hour).
Thai restaurants and Thai massages can also be formal. The ordinance requires that Thai
restaurant owners must register their business at a government department e.g. Bangkok District
Office, Tambon Administrative Organization, Municipality Office for restaurants that are located
in municipality areas, and Pattaya City Hall (Department of Business Development 2018). These
kinds of Thai restaurants are routinely inspected for cleanliness by officials from the Bureau of
Food and Water Sanitation (Bureau of Food and Water Sanitation 2018a). The food is cooked by
professional chefs. Indeed, eating out in Thailand has its perks as there are a variety of restaurants
to choose from; from small size restaurant with few tables to fancy, themed restaurants located in
the middle of a nicely decorated garden, on a mountain top, on the beach and in some cases with
piers leading towards the ocean. Thai cuisine also is diverse. You can eat different regional food
e.g. Southern food, Northern food, or Northeast food, vegetarian food, or seafood that you can
choose how to be cooked.
Massages in Thailand apart from being a temporary set-up can be a permanent shop ranging
from places that can accommodate few customers to a department within the hotel, airport, or a
19
Yet, according to the Health Workplace Act 2016 ( พ ร ะ ร า ช บ ั ญ ญ ั ต ิ ส ถ า น ป ร ะ ก อ บ ก า ร เ พ ื ่ อ ส ุ ข ภ า พ
พ.ศ.2559), massage therapists in Thailand are required to seek a license through the Department
of Health Service Support (Ministry of Public Health) (Chiangmai Provincial Public Health Office
2018).
43
whole building with several floors dedicated to different kinds of massages. To legally operate
Thai massages, the owners must register their business at the Bureau of Sanatorium and Art of
Healing (Ministry of Public Health), or at Province Public Health Office (Ministry of Public
Health) depending on the business location. As for health and beauty massage, the owners must
seek the license by contacting three main offices: Provincial Health Office, District or Municipal
Administration and Department of Business Development (Department of Business Development
2018). In upscale places, the massage therapists are more likely to be licensed though this may not
hold true in all cases. The services can range from 200 baht to several thousand baht ($6.36 and
above).
Being a tourist in Thailand for a couple of days or several weeks will definitely lead one to
encounter Thai cuisine and Thai massage in one way or another. While foreign food is available
(often priced higher than average Thai food) the popularity of Thai food in the media along with
its affordable price makes it hard for foreigners to resist. Often time too, restaurants are located
within the shopping mall, making it even tougher to avoid getting a taste of Thai food itself.
According to Berger (2007, p. 96-97), “Thai food offers new taste sensations to Americans, ones
that they had not experienced before…It is a distinctive cuisine with complex and very rich flavors,
including combinations of seemingly opposite flavors and textures that are surprising to the
American and Western palate.”
Further, being in Thailand, the mass supply of massage places with a broad range of service
price and usually no wait line, tourists will get a chance to get a massage done after the long walk
exploring the city or after a business meeting. It is this familiarity with the authentic Thai
experience that have been seized by some resulting in the rise of ethnic businesses.
Thai Migration to the United States
44
The first Thai immigrants to the United States were the famous conjoined twins Chang and
Eng. They arrived in Boston on August 16, 1829. After Chang and Eng, very few Thais immigrated
to the United States. It was only in the 1960s that we saw a growth in cross migration between
Thailand and the United States. Thais came to the United States in successive waves of migration.
The combination of the United States intervention in Thailand and the Immigration Act of 1965
led to many arrivals of Thai immigrants. In 1965, the Immigration and Nationality Act eliminated
the quota system and introduced less discriminatory grounds for immigration to the United States.
The act gives preference to professionals, skilled or unskilled workers for which labor was in short
supply, and family reunification (Bao 2009). Thais like other nationalities benefitted from this act
resulting in an influx of Thais to the United States. Thai immigrants can be categorized into three
main groups: 1) students 2) professionals and 3) spouses.
20
Thai Students in the United States
Students constitute a part of each wave of Thai migration to the United States. During
World War II, a small group of Thai students arrived on the East Coast of America (Kaeonil 1977).
From 1951 to 1960, only 458 Thais were registered immigrants (Bao 2009). At that time, most
immigrants were students (Desbarats 1979). They primarily studied medicine and education
(Perreira 2010). Most students were either funded by a government scholarship or private funding.
The latter group of students were usually children of wealthy families and/or the royal family
(Kaeonil 1977).
20
These categories are not rigid. One can move over from one category to another and can hold
several statuses at once. For example, a Thai student can be a spouse of an American citizen.
45
Thai students enrolled in high schools and colleges. In California, the education institutions
include but is not limited to California State University system (e.g. California State University of
Los Angeles, and California State University of Long Beach), private universities (e.g. Pacific
State University, Woodbury University, and University of Southern California), and business
colleges (e.g. Sawyer College) (Kaeonil 1977).
During that period, there was no problem of visa-overstayers as the United States would
instantly offer green cards to Thais who graduated from a U.S. institution. Most Thai students were
not interested in such an offer and were intent on returning to Thailand as the career opportunities
for those with a degree from abroad were abundant and promising. They often occupied prominent
posts in public and private sectors (Kaeonil 1977). Moreover, those with Thai scholarships were
required to return to Thailand according to their contracts (Disayawattana 1993). In that era, Thai
immigrants were unique as their immigration purpose were usually for novel life experience or
higher education opportunities rather than economic necessity created by a situation in the
motherland, such as the case for Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, and Korean (Kaeonil 1977).
Later, Thai students who sought higher education in the United States came from more
diverse socio-economic and educational backgrounds. To supplement their meager income, many
students worked part-time as busboys, waiters, dishwashers, and janitors. They did jobs that were
often associated with minority labor (Kaeonil 1977).
In fact, from 1966 to 1970, the goals of many Thais shifted from education abroad towards
earning money (Tilokamonkul 2012). These fortune-seekers, many with good educational
backgrounds, were willing to do any job such as food servers, cooks, and parking attendants as
long as it did not require English-speaking skills (Disayawattana 1993). One of the evidence is that
in the first half of the 1960s, Thais would live close to campus, however in the second half of the
46
1960s Thais try to live as close as possible to their works which were at factories, restaurants, and
parking lots (Tilokamonkul 2012). This is further supported by the fact that in 1975, only 25
percent of all students returned to Thailand (Desbarats 1979). Desbarats (1979) hence believes that
many student-visa applicants did not go to the United States for an education but were using it as
a means to enter the country to seek employment. In fiscal year 1971, 3,211 Thai were admitted
on a student visa. In fiscal year 1973, it increased to 4,083 and dropped slightly in fiscal year 1975
to 3,430 (Immigration and Naturalization Service as cited in Kaeonil 1977).
Furthermore, many graduating students did not want to return to Thailand to live under the
Thai military regime, particularly after the massacre in Bangkok on October 6, 1976. Instead,
students stayed and found jobs, some climbed the corporate ladder, and some started a business.
Many opened the first Thai restaurants throughout the United States, others started import and
export businesses, gift shops, or jewelry stores. Thus, an entrepreneurial class has quietly but
steadily emerged from the former student body (Bao 2009). According to the Directory of Thai
Owned Business in Los Angeles (1976 as cited in Kaeonil 1977), there were in total 168
businesses. The three most popular businesses amongst Thai were restaurants and coffee shop,
grocery stores, and gas station (Kaeonil 1977). By 2010, the number of businesses owned by Thai
increased tremendously to a total of 1,838 businesses. At the same time, the type of businesses
owned by Thai become much more diverse. While restaurants remain the popular business among
Thai (854 restaurants accounting for 46.46 percent of all businesses), beauty and health services
came in second at 167 businesses (9.08%). Many of which are massage businesses owned mostly
by Thai women. The third rank is law and finance service (e.g. accounting/tax services, lawyer,
and immigration service). There were 110 such businesses, accounting for 5.98 percent of the total
businesses (Thai American Chamber of Commerce of California 2011).
47
Immigration and Naturalization Service statistics indicate that in the late 1990s and early
2000s, each year, between 11,000 and 13,000 Thai were granted temporary admission as students
(Bankston III and Hidalgo 2007). In 2010 and 2015 respectively, 24 percent (54,436) and 22
percent (54,500) of the Thai population were students (U.S. Census Bureau 2018a; U.S. Census
Bureau 2018b). In 2018, there are 7,341 Thai students enrolled in U.S. higher education
institutions. Thirty-seven percent are enrolled in undergraduate programs while forty-six percent
are enrolled at the graduate level. California has the highest number of Thai students at 1,343
students. Apart from California, Thai students favor New York, Massachusetts, Texas, and Illinois.
The top popular institutions for undergraduate Thais are the University of Washington, University
of Illinois- Urbana-Champaign, Houston Community College System, City College of San
Francisco, and Academy of Art University in California. As for the top institutions receiving Thai
pursuing graduate studies are the University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Illinois-
Urbana-Champaign, New York University, Northeastern University, and the Academy of Art
University in California (U.S. Embassy and Consulate in Thailand 2018).
Thai Professionals in the United States
During the late 1960s and 1970s, high inflation and low salaries in Thailand led many
doctors, nurses, scientists, and engineers to come to the United States (Lewis 1997). Thai
professional men and women, doctors and nurses, in particular, migrated to the United States as
the United States offers higher salaries and more opportunities to improve their skills which result
in their career advancement (Kaeonil 1977).
From 1960s to 1980s, the proportion of professionals among Thai immigrants grew. For
example, in 1967, 29 percent of Thai immigrants held technical or professional or related
occupations. This is much higher than Korean and Japanese immigrants’ percentage wise (1984
48
Statistical Yearbook of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, p. 3 as cited in Bao 2009). In
early 1980s, approximately 1,000 Thai physicians were practicing medicine in the United States.
Thai physicians were spread throughout the United States (Kangvalert 1986). Professionals also
open offices; for example, in 1976, in Los Angeles, there were income tax and accounting services
owned by Thai (Kaeonil 1977). This remains true today. In fact, professional businesses have
become much more diverse and much higher in number. In 2010, in Los Angeles, there were 110
Thai businesses that specialized in law and finance (e.g. accountants and lawyers), and 78 Thai
businesses that focused on health and medical services (e.g. chiropractors, dentists, and physicians)
(Thai American Chamber of Commerce of California 2011).
Thai Spouses in the United States
The Vietnam War provided an unforeseen opportunity for many Thai women to migrate.
From 1968 to 1977, 14,688 Thai wives of American servicemen immigrated to the United States
(Immigration and Naturalization Annual Reports 1968-1977, table 6 as cited in Bao 2009). Many
of these women were wives of Air Force men who were stationed in Thailand or spent their
vacations there when on active duty in Southeast Asia. By the 1980s, there was a concentration of
Thai people near military bases, especially Air Force bases in certain U.S. counties (Ratner 1995).
Most of these women came from peasant families and had a primary school education (Bao 2009).
Along with the Thai wives were the children of the American soldiers (Kaeonil 1977). During this
period the United States was flexible with Thais. Some even refer to it as a special treatment due
to the Vietnam War as the United States had six military bases in Thailand (Setchuay 2011).
While Hidalgo and Bankston III (2011) have shown in their study that much of the marriage
of Thai Americans to non-Thai is historically rooted in the military connection between Thailand
and the United States; the marriages of Thai women to non-Thai men over the years have been
49
“demilitarized.” That is, marriage migration due to the military background of spouses has become
much less convincing over the years (Hidalgo and Bankston III 2011).
In the Thai community, Thai women married non-Thais to a greater extent than Thai men.
This perhaps is due to the unequal sex ratio of Thai women to Thai men. In 1980 and 2000 Thai
women outnumbered Thai men by 22.4 percent. In 1980, 1990, and 2000, the majority of Thai
women married white men. Thai men, in contrast, are more likely to be married to Thai women
and their rate of exogamy is much lower than Thai women. In addition, marriages with former
American soldiers are much higher among Thai women than Thai men. In 2000, 34.6 percent of
Thai women have spouses who were veterans compared to only 2.1 percent of Thai men (Hidalgo
and Bankston III 2011). Currently, many Thai wives are middle class. They either married up-
have husbands who worked as technicians or engineers, while they themselves work (Bao 2009)
and/or own a business.
Thai Businesses in Los Angeles
In 1969, we saw the emergence of the first Thai owned businesses in Los Angeles. One of
the first was a Thai restaurant that catered to the Thai community (Tilokamonkul 2012). As the
restaurant business turned out to be a successful enterprise, other Thais sought to emulate their
success (Bao 2008). The restaurants aimed to cater to Thai customers (Nakagawa 1992). That same
year, a small retail store, “International Market” emerged. In 1970, there were more than 10,000
Thais (Tilokamonkul 2012). While Thai businesses were expanding, the first Thai newspaper in
the United States emerged, “Thai Poln Talay.” Other newspapers soon followed. During the peak
of the business, there were ten Thai newspapers. The cost of publishing the newspaper came from
the support of Thai restaurants and other businesses, hence these businesses were paying their
social dues to the community (Setchuay 2011). The Thai American Chamber of Commerce of
50
California (TCCC) was established as early as 1970 but was not prominent until 1980 when it
started to bring the pioneer Thai business owners to work together. The goal of the organization
was to help entrepreneurs exchange ideas in conducting businesses (Setchuay 2011) and perhaps
to reduce cut throat competition.
During 1970 to 1975, the Thai population reached 15,000 to 20,000. More restaurants
opened. Apart from restaurants, Thais also owned gas stations and sewing factories (Tilokamonkul
2012). Many started small businesses; usually family-oriented, family members were main
employees of the business (Disayawattana 1993). The majority of local businesses in Thai Town
were small family-operations that employed five employees or less (Nutgirasuwan 2010).
21
From 1980 to 2000, Thai businesses expanded extensively due to various reasons. First, in
1980, the Thai population reached 80,000 and many begin to occupy high-status jobs such as
doctors, nurses, bankers, and financers. Second, in 1986 after the United States had an amnesty
and allowed visa-overstays to become legal, many undocumented Thais came out from the shadow
and opened new businesses (Setchuay 2011). Finally, Thai financial institutions such as Bangkok
Bank, Kasikorn Bank, and Siam Commercial Bank opened branches in Los Angeles and played
an important role in the expansion of Thai businesses (Tilokamonkul 2012). Thai commercial
banks allowed for loans which were less strict than American owned banks (Setchuay 2011). Yet,
ROSCAs were also utilized by Thais. Suthep Tiawtrakulwat, a Thai restaurant owner, claimed to
use ROSCAs and never receive any help from either the government or the Small and Medium
Enterprise Banks (SME bank) (Thai American Chamber of Commerce of California 2011).
21
Thai Town has the densest Thai business in California. It is well-known for foods, groceries,
and products from Thailand (Nutgirasuwan 2010).
51
Thai businesses during 2010 and 2011 are still small in number and most Thai-owned
businesses are of small-size or at most, mid-size. Thai restaurants are the prominent business of
Thais which make up 46 percent of all Thai businesses in Los Angeles (854 restaurants), followed
by beauty and health services at merely 9 percent and other businesses in much smaller portions
(Thai American Chamber of Commerce of California 2011). Apart from owning small businesses,
Thais also work in real estate, law offices, insurance companies, travel agencies, import-export
companies, medicine and other sectors; yet despite the businesses they are in, they are likely to
serve Thai customers (Disayawattana 1993).
Food business for Thai is a popular investment as it requires neither special skills nor big
investment. A restaurant can be just among families and friends (Disayawattana 1993). In the
beginning, Thai restaurants catered only to Thais as restaurant businesses emerged to meet the
sojourners’ demand (Nakagawa 1992; Zhou 1992). Nowadays targeted customers are no longer
just Thais but also include other ethnic groups. This is supported by Nutgirasuwan's study (2010)
of the Thai Community in Los Angeles, she found that sixty-one percent of the local businesses
stated their customers were of different ethnicities. In the beginning, Thai food was not widely
known in the United States hence restaurants would display the restaurant as “Chinese Thai
Restaurants.” Chinese food was used to attract Americans to sample Thai food. Once Americans
became familiar with Thai food the word Chinese was taken down (Tilokamonkul 2012). Ethnic
restaurants are now patronized not only by coethnics but by Americans who are interested in
foreign cuisine (Portes and Yiu 2013). Thai restaurants have become ubiquitous in the United
States. In 2007, Thai restaurants had approximately 16 percent of U.S. market share in the
restaurant industry (Ibrahim 2008).
52
Thai town, especially Thai restaurants, provide great job opportunities for newly arrived
Thais with little skills and no English-speaking abilities (Disayawattana 1993). Discrimination in
the labor market and disadvantages associated with immigrant statuses, such as poor English skill
and human capital depreciation (Mata and Pendakur 1999) can also partly explain why Thai
immigrants seek self-employment or work in an ethnic enclave. Many Thais with good educational
backgrounds were willing to work as food servers, cooks, and parking attendants as long as it did
not require English-speaking skills. Class structure among Thai immigrants often is defined by
income instead of occupation status as is practiced in Thailand. While food service job is
performed by uneducated or poor workers in Thailand, it is a popular job for Thai immigrants of
all education levels in the United States. Many see these jobs as a feasible path to social mobility
(Disayawattana 1993).
Chancee Martorell, the Executive Director of the Thai Community Development Center
(Thai CDC), believes that most Thai residents plan on staying only temporarily in the United States
and will eventually return to Thailand (Nutgirasuwan 2010). This may explain why many Thais
have little motive to develop relationships with members of the host society. Considering Thai
community in the current context, Thais in Los Angeles are said to be able to easily survive with
minimum contact with American culture. Thai immigrants may rent a room in a Thai-owned
house, work in a Thai-owned business which does not require good English speaking skills, buy
food from Thai groceries, eat at Thai restaurants, and attend Thai national holidays at Wat Thai.
Moreover, in term of media, despite their lack of English ability Thais can entertain themselves
with Thai newspapers, magazines, television programs and radio programs that are catered to serve
the Thai community in Los Angeles. It is thus possible that many Thais who live in the United
States for several years still may not speak communicative English. English speaking ability is key
53
to whether Thai migrants will keep themselves to an ethnic enclave or enter the U.S. workforce
(Disayawattana 1993). According to Nutgirasuwan (2010), Thai residents tend to move out of Thai
Town when they become proficient in English, have professional careers, and have higher salaries.
This thus confirms Zhou's study (1992) of Chinese immigrant that immigrant Chinese who have
stronger human capital tend to reside in the suburbs. Chinese immigrants need not confine
themselves to Chinatown but they may suffer significant downward mobility in profession and
social status in the larger labor market (Zhou 1992).
How Thai Capitalize on Thai Food and Thai Massage: Thai Ethnic Enclave and
Entrepreneurship in Los Angeles
As mentioned earlier in the chapter, Cold War politics, as well as tourist culture, have
paved the way for American citizens to participate in the imagining of exotic Thailand. By being
immersed in the Thai community in Thailand, U.S. military along with other American
officials/volunteers and tourists e.g. U.S. Peace Corps, and Fulbright scholars, were able to
experience for themselves Thai culture which included both Thai cuisines and Thai massages.
Thai immigrants in Los Angeles entered an increasingly service-based economy. With
culinary tourism being famous in Thailand, the food industry was one of the few appealing
economic opportunities open to them. Thais saw their exotification and perceived natural ability
to cook as positive representations hence they participated in creating and perpetuating them.
Viewed as exotic meant being different and unique which inevitably meant more customers
(Padoongpatt 2017).
Padoongpatt (2017, p. 54-55) states that “culinary contact zones also allowed ordinary
Thais to meet American officials and distinguished travelers, especially in hotels. They struck up
conversations and developed friendships. In some cases, Thais learned of new culinary
54
opportunities in the United States.” This has proven true in many cases of my interviews. Take for
instance, this 62-year-old Thai restaurant owner who has lived in the United States for 18 years:
“Back then my aunt had a bungalow resort in Pattaya. She asked me to join her. That was in 1970
or 1971. So I went and stayed with her. I helped carry the luggage for the westerner. At that time
there were no tourists, there were only…so at that time, the Vietnam War was still active. It ended
in 1975, right? At that time there were many airlines: Air France, Air Lufthansa, and Air India.
Once they landed at Don Mueang Airport they would stay in Bangkok for 2 to 3 days then they
would drive to Pattaya to stay in these small bungalows and cook their own food. Or if they didn’t
want to cook they just order from the bungalow….and because I know how to climb the coconut
tree, the westerners would give me 20 baht which is a lot then to get coconuts for them (laugh). So
I did that and I learned to speak English with them. Sometimes I understand, sometimes I
don’t….In the morning I also worked as a waiter and served them breakfast in a small restaurant.
We also have Swiss ambassador as a guest….Pattaya in the past is not developed...There were two
to three bungalow owners. We had around 19 bungalows. There were also small hotels that have
like 20 rooms….So working there I learned what westerners eat because Pattaya have many
westerners….so I talked to them about food and things in general so I learned English bit by bit.
After that I opened my own restaurant.”
While this restaurant owner did not migrate right away to the United States for the business
opportunity, he became familiar with Western people and understood their desires as well as likes
and dislikes about Thai food from working in his aunt’s bungalow resort. Once an opportunity
arose he migrated to the United States and used that knowledge to successfully operate a Thai
restaurant.
55
Another case is of a 38-year-old massage business owner (in the United States 11 years):
“I was a secretary and I also did real estate. So when foreigners went to Thailand I would find
them their accommodations. I did that till I moved here in 2006. So I knew American businessmen
because I talked to them and helped them find their houses. So they asked if I was interested in
coming to the United States. So I came here for a vacation. Then I stayed for 6 months. First I did
waitressing and then I decided to get a green card and opened the business.”
In this case, the massage business owner became aware of the business opportunities in the
United States through conversations with her real estate clients in Thailand. She first came to the
United States for a vacation and once she saw a business opportunity she decided to stay on.
As Americans recognize and value Thai cultural services, Thais saw it as a market
opportunity and therefore incorporated themselves into the restaurant and massage industry as
business owners and low-wage workers. This resulted in the formation of a stratified Thai
community of the middle class and working class.
Contemporary Thai in the United States
Regardless of the categories they are in- students, professionals, business owners, and/or
spouses, Thai immigrants are spread throughout the United States. Nevertheless, approximately
one-third of all Thais in the United States are believed to be living in California. The Thai
community in Los Angeles is the biggest in the United States and is perhaps the largest outside of
Thailand (Desbarats 1979; Perreira 2010). By the 1970s, Los Angeles hosted the largest Thai
population outside of Thailand. Kaeonil (1977) asserts Thai people chose California and Los
Angeles as their destination due to minimal physical adjustment. First, climates approximate those
of Thailand. Further, as California has a cosmopolitan nature Thais believe that it minimizes the
need to adapt. In 2000, approximately 20,000 Thai reside in Los Angeles County and over 3,000
56
in Orange County. That same year, certain sections of Hollywood Boulevard, between Normandie
and Western Avenues were designated as “Thai Town” (Bankston III and Hidalgo 2007).
Thai immigrants were also concentrated in large cities such as New York and Chicago;
some parts of the Sun Belt, Texas and Florida, for instance; and a smaller portion in states that had
traditionally accommodated Thai students such as Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania (Bankston
III and Hidalgo 2007; Desbarats 1979).
In accordance with the 2000 U.S. Census, Thai populations in the United States reached
150,283, which account for a 64.6 percent growth rate since 1990 (Bao 2008). In 2000, 26.75
percent of Thais hold bachelor’s degrees or higher. This is higher than the average of the country
as a whole which is at 24.40 percent. Among Thais in Silicon Valley (Santa Clara, Alameda, and
San Mateo counties), the percentage is even higher. Forty-five percent of Thais have at least a
bachelor’s degree in Santa Clara County, and thirty-seven percent in Alameda, followed by thirty-
one percent in San Mateo (U.S. Census Bureau as cited in Bao 2009).
In 2007, the Thai population in the United States had increased to an estimated 210,850
(Bao 2009). By 2010, the number increased to 222,759, and in 2015 to 247,205 (U.S. Census
Bureau 2018a; U.S. Census Bureau 2018b). In 2010 and 2015, 37.4 and 37.7 percent of the Thai
population, respectively, hold bachelor’s degrees or higher (U.S. Census Bureau 2018a; U.S.
Census Bureau 2018b).
The Thai population has a high participation in the labor force. In 2010 and 2015, 66.8 and
65.3 percent of the Thai population, respectively were in the labor force (U.S. Census Bureau
2018a; U.S. Census Bureau 2018b). The labor market incorporation of Thai is bifurcated. In 2010,
for instance, 31 percent of employed Thai migrants are in management, business, science, and arts
57
occupations, and 26 percent are in service occupations (U.S. Census Bureau 2018a). In 2015, 33.5
percent of employed Thai migrants are in management, business, science, and arts occupations,
and 29.6 percent are in service occupations (U.S. Census Bureau 2018b). The median household
income for Thais in 2010 and 2015 was $45,759 and $56,105 respectively (U.S. Census Bureau
2018a; U.S. Census Bureau 2018b).
Overall, Thais have the highest median earnings among Southeast Asian Americans, and
more Thai than Khmer, Hmong, Lao, and Vietnamese hold bachelor’s degrees or higher,
participate in the labor force, and work in managerial and professional occupations (Bao 2009).
Conclusion
I start this chapter with some background information of Thailand. I then discuss the history
of Thai tourism campaign and the United States influence on Thai tourism. Thailand has since then
became an important tourist destination for U.S. military personnel as well as general Americans.
I show that tourists to Thailand can be grouped into three main groups: 1) leisure tourists 2)
business tourists and 3) medical tourists. Taking into account the different types of tourists to
Thailand, the Thai government strategically promote Thai tourism by rebranding the country in a
positive light. I later discuss how Americans become familiar with Thai cuisines and Thai
massages from the Cold War period to present. The United States influence in Thailand during the
Cold War along with the changing U.S. immigration policy led more Thai people to migrate to the
United States. Thai immigrants can be categorized into three main categories: 1) students 2)
professionals and 3) spouses. I then give an overview of Thai businesses in Los Angeles and how
Thais faced with limited labor market opportunities come to recognize the cultural recognition of
Thai food and Thai massage and turn them into new market opportunities. I finish the chapter with
the contemporary data of Thai immigrants in the United States.
58
Chapter 3: Cultural Funneling
Duangjai,
22
a 62-year-old restaurant owner, has lived in the United States for 19 years. She
found her first job in the United States as a kitchen helper at a Thai restaurant through a coethnic
living in the same apartment. She gave up her career as a teacher in Thailand and came to the
United States not knowing what was ahead so that her daughter could have access to a better
education. Working in the kitchen was extremely difficult for Duangjai as back in Thailand she
considered herself quite spoiled (khun nai). She never needed to cook and in fact did not know
how to cook. She recalls:
“I didn’t even know what basil look like. I didn’t know anything, I didn’t know how to
cook. So I first worked as a helper. The chef seasoned the food and I did the stir-fry. The
pan was so heavy…I also had to prepare things for the chefs. And I didn’t know anything
about food but the only advantage I had was that I know English. The orders were placed
in English and I did the translation for the chefs…I had to prepare vegetables and make
them ready for the chef to stir-fry. I messed up sometimes and I often got complaints…I
was about to give up because I kept on making mistakes and I couldn’t remember…I never
did anything like this before, you understand?...So it took almost 3 months before I could
remember correctly the ingredients required for each dish. It was quite long.”
Working in the kitchen required Duangjai to make many adjustments as she was not
accustomed to cooking, yet making matters worse was the work environment of the restaurant that
she worked at:
22
Pseudonyms are used in this dissertation to preserve participant confidentiality.
59
“The kitchen job, I was not happy because I faced situations where they get into fights. I
couldn’t stand it…men and women fought. They cursed at each other mercilessly. I
couldn’t stand that, I didn’t want to hear it. They cursed about one another parents, so they
swore a lot and I couldn’t stand that…They fought over things like I prepared this, and you
didn’t (using ku and mueng
23
) so when I worked there I thought I need to have my own
place if I am still to work in a kitchen. I didn’t want to be an employee anymore. I couldn’t
stand that.”
Apart from the stressful work environment she also faced bad working conditions where
she did not get a proper rest period and a proper meal break. She explains: “When we did get to
eat, we sat on the floor and used those big bamboo shoots’ tin container as a table. So we ate on
the floor…The owner didn’t allow us to sit and dine at the actual dining table. Also, there’s no
break. I stayed there for a year and a half. I couldn’t really stand it, but I tolerate. My husband had
to tell me every day to put up with it. I almost reached a point where I couldn’t. It’s very tiring
because I never did it before.”
Despite all the sacrifices she went through, bringing her daughter to the United States
turned out to have many negatives. As she and her husband had to work from early morning to late
at night, they did not have much time to raise their daughter. They had no choice but to leave their
teen daughter at home and call in to check on her as to make sure that she stays home. The daughter
according to Duangjai turned out to be quite disobedient towards her husband and her and did not
pay much attention to her education as they had hoped.
23
Impolite words for I and you; yet, it is commonly used among close friends. In this context, it is
used to show anger rather than close bond among friends.
60
This story of Duangjai resemblances many Thais who migrated to the United States hoping
to fulfill their American dreams by sacrificing their social status and to find success found
themselves funneled into a coethnic business despite their lack of the skills set needed to work in
such a business.
The Cultural Funneling Process
In this chapter, I will show that the Thai community engages in what I call “cultural
funneling”- a predisposition of Thai immigrants to be in a business that markets or sells Thai ethnic
goods and services. Examples are restaurants and massage businesses. This concept builds from
Waldinger's discussion (1996) of how ethnic groups are funneled into niches- special places in the
labor market- and how they maintain those specializations at varying rates over time. Waldinger
(1996) describes the making of the immigrant niche as a two-stage process. The first stage, a phase
of specialization, skill, language, or predispositions, predisposes immigrants to particular
occupations. The second stage is when occupational closure sets in. Ethnic ties provide networks
of information and support, giving access to occupations that fit the specializations and skills of
immigrants.
For Waldinger, funneling becomes a self-fulfilling process. Immigrants become attracted
to certain niches according to the acquired skills, and then use networks to enter or facilitate the
entry of others to jobs. Cultural funneling is different. Instead of having certain factors and skills
direct immigrants towards certain occupations, immigrants respond to the demand of the market
and use their networks to gain those necessary skills which not only allows them to work in that
field but also to open a business in that field once an opportunity arises.
While Thai immigrants engage in various kinds of businesses such as media-related
businesses, real estates, and non-ethnic restaurants; Thai restaurants and Thai massage businesses
61
remain the two popular business venues for Thai immigrants as the demand for these two services
remain high in the United States because it sells a distinct cultural repertoire. Once Thai
immigrants arrive in the United States, with or without prior experience in Thai food and Thai
massage, Thais would use their networks to land themselves a job in these businesses and gain all
the necessary skills required which will allow them to open their own businesses later on. Thais,
generations after generations, engage in the “cultural funneling” process due to the structural
barriers that they face in the U.S. labor market (e.g. their unproficiency in English, and their
inability to transfer their professional credentials from Thailand) and their coethnic network.
This chapter introduces the concept of cultural funneling, describing the process and
experience as a window to the labor market experience of Thai entrepreneurs. It begins with a
discussion of the structural forces that push Thai immigrants outside of the dominant labor market
and funnel them into ethnic businesses. Then, it describes the resources enabling their funneling,
specifically network and experience. Lastly, it continues with a discussion on a few experiences
of those culturally funneled to Thai businesses, enumerating the gains and losses.
1. Unproficiency in English and the Inability to Transfer Professional Credentials
Thai immigrants, like other ethnic groups, face structural barriers that prevent them from
competing on an equal basis with the native born in the mainstream economy (Zhou 2004). Apart
from discrimination in the labor market, immigrants seek self-employment more than natives
because of the disadvantages associated with immigrant statuses, such as poor English skill, human
capital depreciation (Mata and Pendakur 1999), or unfamiliarity with the American corporate
structure and culture (Lee 2002). Most research established how migrants turned to business
ownership to thwart discrimination (Light 1972; Portes and Zhou 1995; Tsukashima 1991; Zhou
62
2004) and negotiate the limited recognition of their skills acquired in the country of origin (Mata
and Pendakur 1999).
As English is not the primary language in Thailand, Thai immigrants have difficulties in
transferring their skills to the U.S. labor market. Several of my interviewees, for example, worked
as a teacher in Thailand, but because of their unproficiency in English, they do not even consider
getting a teaching license in the United States and make use of their existing knowledge. The lack
of English skills which are required for most jobs outside of ethnic enclaves is pointed out by many
Thai immigrants. Take for instance a 34-year-old massage business owner (in the United States 10
years) who used to work for a film production company in Thailand. He explains his reason for
going into a Thai massage business as: “At first I wanted to work in the entertainment field here
but because I wasn’t born here, I had difficulties with my English. So even though I can say things,
but my accent is not right. So I feel that it can be any job that will give me money to support
myself. My aunt then took me to a massage place. So her friend is the business owner. So I worked
there for 6 months and then I opened my own business.”
A 55-year-old restaurant owner who now lives in the United States for 11 years recalls his
reason for working in a restaurant prior to owning one as: “Because my English is not that great…
I don’t have any “connections.” So Thai people, the “Robin Hood,”
24
it comes down to working
24
The term “Robin Hoods” are used widely among Thai to refer to undocumented Thai
immigrants. According to Krittayapong (2012), it is likely to originate from the famous English
folklore tale of Robin Hood- an outlaw character, who stole money from the wealthy and gave it
to the poor. The story of Robin Hood seems to “parallel to the situation of the undocumented Thai
63
in a Thai restaurant. I didn’t have anything, I didn’t have the work permit. So I was “kon dod”
(undocumented).
25
The easiest way is to just stay on, collect money, and then one day open one’s
restaurant.”
A massage business owner (age 50, in the United States for a decade) also explains: “So
before one opens a business one needs to learn about it…So my life goal is not to be a worker. But
my English is not that great. I wasn’t born here or grew up here, so my chances of working for an
American organization is low. For Thai people like us if we don’t work in a restaurant, then we
work in a massage place. Because it’s well-known worldwide.”
In the Thai community, it is almost a tradition that at one point of their immigrant pathway,
if they are not from a wealthy family, that they have once worked in a coethnic business. While
Thai immigrants also engage in other kinds of businesses e.g. supermarket, law firm, and medical
facilities; most Thai, especially when they first arrive in the United States, will get funneled into a
Thai restaurant and work either in the kitchen as a chef or a helper, or as a waiter. This is the case
for the earlier generation of Thai immigrants. After the year 2000, when Thai massage businesses
boomed, apart from being funneled into Thai restaurants, later generations were also funneled into
Thai massage businesses.
2. Coethnic Networks
immigrants who come to work in the United States (a richer country) in order to collect money
and send it back to help their families in Thailand (a poorer country).” (Krittayapong 2012, p. 5)
25
Some of my interviewees were at some point in the United States illegally but later were able to
legalize their status.
64
Networks play an important role in channeling Thai immigrants into Thai restaurants and
Thai massages. Thai people are often immersed in the Thai community. Many Thais after landing
at Los Angeles International Airport will head directly to Thai town, a Thai temple, or a Thai
family/friend residence. They then find their first jobs through family and friends who have
migrated prior, and some find their jobs through Thai newspapers, or simply a walk-in to Thai
businesses.
A Thai dessert shop owner (age 60, in the United States 19 years) explains, “So in the past,
restaurant was a number one go-to for Thais finding jobs as Thai massage wasn’t widespread yet.
But now restaurant and massage work become the two main jobs for Thai people. So those who
come from Thailand and don’t know anything they will just go and work in the kitchen. The
students will be the servers at Thai restaurants (implying that the students have more English skills
than the general Thai population in Los Angeles). So Thai people help each other. Some really
don’t know how to do anything, but then end up being restaurant owners. Some finished their MA
and didn’t want to go back and work in Thailand. Lots of Thai students here they calculate and
they think how much they would make with their MA degree in Thailand. It’s true you get your
status and honor, but you won’t earn as much as here.”
A 32-year-old massage business owner (in the United States 10 years) explains to me how
she found her first job as a waitress at a Thai restaurant: “So once I came here I lived with that
lady I told you about. So we lived in this house, all of us are Thai. So one person was a manager
at a Thai restaurant and he suggested that I go and work at the restaurant…I got $45 per day and
no tips. I started working at 1 pm. And if it’s a weekend I worked the whole day I got $55 and no
tips.”
65
Another massage business owner (age 38, in the United States 11 years) tells me how she
did not intentionally seek a job in a massage place but was persuaded by a friend: “I have no prior
massage experience but I have a friend who opened a massage place. She invited me to go and
work at her place. So I did that for 3 months and I thought it was ok. So I came out, studied about
it, and opened my own place…So I was a massage therapist first.”
For some, their coethnic network prepares them for the prospective job even prior to their
migration: “So after I did my MA in Thailand I wanted to travel…I came here on a student visa
and took ESL classes. During that time, I also worked as a massage therapist I found that job
through a friend. She told me to learn how to massage before I came to the United States, so I did
that at a ministry in Thailand. It took three months. So from Monday to Friday in the afternoon,
each day for 4 hours. So I accumulated the hours and got the certificate from the ministry. So my
friend said doing so I can study and make money at the same time. But I didn’t make that much
money because I also was studying. So I worked part-time.” (massage business owner, age 36, in
the United States 10 years)
Here, the roles of coethnic network are significant in channeling Thai into coethnic
businesses. The coethnic network can be a loose one as in the case with the 32-year-old massage
business owner who found her first job as a waitress through a housemate or it can be from a close
network of friends as the later cases show.
3. Work Experience Determines the Business that One Opens
After working a certain period in an ethnic business and acquiring all the necessary skills
and having accumulated enough money, many Thais consider opening a business of their own.
Again, the business that most Thais turn to is either a Thai restaurant or a Thai massage. This
reflects the effectiveness of the cultural funneling process within the Thai community. One needs
66
not have a prior background from Thailand in either business. In fact, only nine of my interviewees
have some background in a restaurant business from Thailand, that is, they had a restaurant
themselves, worked in a family restaurant, or worked as a chef. No massage business owners in
my sample worked as a massage therapist prior to their migration.
26
The work experience and the skills Thai immigrants gained from working in a coethnic
business then determined what business they will go into. As one Thai restaurant owner (age 41,
in the United States 17 years) mentions: “Because I think the work I do for others and for myself
I do the same thing (chef) but working for myself it will be beneficial in the long term. So when I
worked as a chef and I did good but it’s not mine. I couldn’t get more money, I always got the
same salary. So having my own restaurant is better for my future.”
For some Thai restaurant owners, the pathway to become a restaurant owner seems more
like a trap of having worked in the ethnic enclave than a choice: “I worked continuously in
restaurants since college. So Thai restaurants…if you worked in a Thai restaurant then you won’t
get to go elsewhere.” (age 37, in the United States 19 years)
At the same time, those who worked as a massage therapist are more likely to open a
massage place. Now a clothing boutique owner and a massage business owner of multiple branches
explains her route to owning the massage business as: “So when I came here because my English
was not good, what can I do except serve food? But then I couldn’t do it because they pay you just
$40-$50 which is 1,500 baht per day. So it’s a lot then but because I have three kids and I’m 40.
26
Some of the occupations that my interviewees held in Thailand include but is not limited to:
teacher, policeman, work in a private company e.g. marketing and sales, and own a business e.g.
garment shop and electronics store.
67
So that’s not good. What should I do? So I learned how to massage, and I went to work at a Thai
place.” (age 50, in the United States 16 years)
By being part of the cultural funneling process, Thai immigrants realize and take advantage
of their foreignness and amplify it for economic opportunities. Thai tourism as discussed in chapter
two makes Thai culinary and Thai massages well-known to U.S. tourists. As a result, 46 percent
of Thai businesses are Thai restaurants, followed by another 9 percent in health and beauty which
includes Thai massage businesses (Thai American Chamber of Commerce of California 2011).
Making the process easier is the abundance of Thai businesses available for coethnics to
takeover. This 47-year-old Thai restaurant owner (in the United States 16 years) recalls when he
first bought his business: “So my first restaurant wasn’t expensive. It was $30,000-40,000. I
worked and had around $10,000 in savings so I used that to down payment and negotiated to pay
the rest in installments. I could negotiate because the previous owner was also Thai.”
A massage business owner (age 32, in the United States for a decade) shares her experience
of taking over a massage place as: “So the place changed the owner two or three times before I
took over…I worked there…the owner asked if any of the workers wanted to take over, so she
sold it for the same price she got (the price with no profits). But the owner had a shareholder and
her shareholder wanted to sell it for $25,000. I told her that I couldn’t afford $25,000 …but because
that shareholder had a larger stock, so we ended at that price. However, they agreed to let me pay
in installments, so I paid in installments with no interests.”
The shared ethnicity and the shared social networks allow many Thai business owners to
let fellow coethnics pay them off in installments, though this is not always the case.
The Gains and the Losses of Cultural Funneling
The Gains of Cultural Funneling: The Creation of a Thai Ethnic Market
68
As “cultural funneling” leads to a predisposition of Thai immigrants to be in either Thai
restaurant or Thai massage businesses, it leads to a creation of a Thai ethnic market. These ethnic
businesses function as “a school for entrepreneurs” (Light et al. 1994: 72). Both Thai massage and
Thai restaurants function as schools that give workers the skills required before they go out and
open their own businesses. This restaurant owner (age 68, in the United States 46 years) clearly
summarizes Thai restaurants’ functions as: “Thai restaurants give work to those who just arrived
here. They learn about restaurant operation, so it’s like a school in a way. So they come and learn
before they go out and open their own business. Every Thai person, at one point, worked in
restaurants. So “Vimanmek” in the past it’s like a school and the previous owner of this place used
to work at “Vimanmek” too. So it’s like a school that gives Thai people the opportunity to go and
work and learn before going out to open their own business which can be either successful or
unsuccessful. So it depends. But many start from there.”
Because Thai perceives Thai restaurants and Thai massage places to have a high chance of
success as it sells a distinct cultural repertoire, many coethnics follow the pioneers’ suit and open
their own businesses which lead to the expansion of Thai ethnic market. This makes both services
well-known to the general U.S. population. The ethnic market can sustain itself because the U.S.
society demands exotic cuisines. Ethnic marketing thus functions as the interlocutor for Thai
populations in relations to mainstream America. At the same time, it is a site that regulates,
mediates, and positions Thai into a particular place within the U.S. racial and ethnic hierarchy
(Dávila 2012) and that is of the “other” (Kim 1999).
As business owners can manipulate consumers into buying certain products or services by
emphasizing the meanings, symbols, and images that make such products or services appealing to
different demographic groups (Wherry 2012), Thai business owners manage impressions that
69
outsiders have of Thai services. Often, Thai business owners promote Thai food and Thai massage
as authentic and exotic. Further, consumer manipulation can be done utilizing a legitimate
authority e.g. a doctor’s recommendation (Wherry 2012). Although consumers know they are
manipulated by marketers, buyers nonetheless conform as they are able to establish who they are
(identity work) (Zukin 2004). Thai business owners employ legitimate authority in manipulating
the customer’s consumption e.g. associating Thai food with healthy food and Thai massage as a
cure for pain (health purposes). This 61-year-old massage business owner (in the United States 36
years), along with other massage business owners, reflects on this point: “We come here to cure
people and we didn’t come to provide sex service…Massage is a “prevention medication.” So it’s
not like modern medicine which cures instantly. Well it does, it does get rid of the pain right away,
or it may not go away the moment you massage but it takes a day or two…So we should have
scholars from Thailand or doctors to come and talk about prevention medication of Thai massage.
So if we look at the demand of the customers even though there’re many massage places yet the
customers are still abundant because it has been proven that this is a way to cure pain. Also, if
customers come and get a massage continuously they will live longer, they will get sick less often.
So overall it leads to a lower medical bill.”
The Losses of Cultural Funneling
Limits Integration of Thai to the U.S. Society
While becoming a business owner in the United States might seem like an ideal destination
for many Thais, it does not come without a compromise. First is the delay in assimilation.
According to Massey and Mullan (1984, p. 836), “assimilation is the process by which a group
comes to resemble, on a variety of dimensions, some larger society of which it is a part.” One
crucial indicator of assimilating to the host society is language (Gordon 1964; Waters and Jiménez
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2005). Language assimilation looks at English language ability and loss of mother tongue. Because
cultural funneling process leads Thai immigrants directly into Thai community- rent a room in a
Thai-owned house, work in a Thai-owned business, buy food from Thai groceries, eat at Thai
restaurants, and attend Thai national holiday at Wat Thai, many Thai immigrants, despite many
years in the United States, cannot communicate well in English. Many Thai business owners in
my sample have minimum contact with American culture; their only point of contact with
Americans is the American customers at their establishments.
The limited English skills of Thai workers is pronounced throughout the interviews. This
47-year-old dessert shop owner (in the United States 9 years) explains: “The chefs are the old
generation; some new generations are there but there’re not many. So the old generation has been
here for 20-30 years, and most can’t speak English. So they have to remain in the kitchen. And to
communicate with people at the front the waiters need to be Thai because the chef can’t speak
English and also can’t read English. So the new system, POS, they still use Thai language, more
than half that I know. So if you ask me why the waiters need to be Thai it’s because the people in
the kitchen can’t communicate with the people who are waiters if they are not Thai. So the new
generation can speak English, but that’s less than 20 percent. Plus, they don’t want to work in the
kitchen because it’s tiring.”
A 60-year-old dessert shop owner who has lived in the United States for 19 years also
attests to his inability to speak in English well: “I can’t speak English that well, so I can’t
communicate with customers. When customers ask me questions, I just point to that sign, which
71
listed the ingredients in writing. So they asked me this and that and I can’t explain so I just point
to the sign.”
27
Inability to Utilize One’s Skills and Education: a Sacrifice of One’s Social Status
Further, many, like Duangjai at the beginning of the chapter, forego their social status and
have to work several years receiving low-income in harsh working environment despite their high
education before they accumulated enough money to open their own business. They experience a
form of downward mobility.
This 55-year-old restaurant owner (in the United States for 11 years) who used to work as
a lecturer in Thailand explains his experience:
“I had no choice. So Thai people when you come to the United States, you become a chef,
even if you don’t know how to fry an egg. It’s the only path available. It somehow forces
you to do it. I got scold and I cried. I tried not to have my “ego” but I think to myself, who
the hell are you? What’s your education level? So they scold me…To stay in the United
States, you have to fight…you need to do everything in order to survive in the United
States. So no matter how many hats you have on, once you reach Suvarnabhumi Airport
(an airport in Bangkok) you must take off all those hats and leave them there. You have to
leave all the ego you have in Thailand, don’t bring it with you. So in the United States you
start from zero. So no matter how high or low your education is, or you don’t graduate at
all, everyone starts from the same point, at zero. So in the beginning, even though I said to
leave all the ego in Thailand, but sometimes I think to myself, fuck where did you graduate
27
Yet some Thai business owners are quite fluent in English as I observed when they interact and
communicate with customers.
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from? Why did you curse at me? But to survive, you need to adapt to the environment and
then develop yourself from there. So a goal in your life should be what do you want to end
up doing and then you do it. It may be fast or slow, so it depends on your ability, your
discipline...Even though it may be so tiring, but you need to reach it eventually…You can’t
deny jobs, you can’t choose jobs. So you just do your job and collect the money to open a
restaurant.”
Here, we can see that he is able to survive the hardship because he has set a goal for himself
from the beginning that he will become a business owner one day.
Apart from compromising one’s social status, immigrating to the United States also means
compromising one’s living situation.
28
This 52-year-old (in the United States 16 years), who used
to own a wholesale business in Thailand and lived in a luxurious townhome in Bangkok, recalls
her living condition in the United States for the first several years:
“I used to go to Goodwill where they sell used stuff and I would pack those and put them
in the back of my car. I then resell them to other massage therapists at the place I worked
at. I also sent them back to sell in Thailand and on Sunday I went to sell things at the
market. So 7 days I worked non-stop for 6 years…So I ate and lived thriftily. I had to
support my three kids myself. No one helped me…So when I went and applied to be a
massage therapist I was quite old, 41 or 42. My kids stayed home alone, and my oldest
daughter raised the two younger ones which is illegal. But I needed to work…I did 7 to 8
28
This is an example of “contradictory class mobility”- the decline in social status for the intent to
increase financial status. For more discussion and example of “contradictory class mobility” see
Parrenas (2001).
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turns per day and I had no time to eat…I brought my own food to work, I didn’t buy food
because I was afraid I would not have money. So I had $6000 when I came to the United
States with my three kids and all I could do was hide my money under the carpet in the
room that we rented because I was afraid. I was afraid I would be poor. I told myself I
cannot be poor…We used to rent and live in a room of a house.”
A Compromise to One’s Health
While working in a coethnic business might seem like a good go to job for Thai immigrants
with little English ability as the training is often free; working in Thai massage places and Thai
restaurants for a long time can and do compromise one’s health. This 38-year-old massage business
owner (in the United States 9 years) briefly explains why she retired from her massage therapist
job: “I opened this massage place because my body couldn’t stand it anymore. My fingers broke,
and my shoulders hurt.” Her pain is so severe to the point that she cannot hold a fist. It is indeed
not uncommon for massage therapists to get a “fixed” massage from other massage therapists to
cure the aches they get from giving customers massage. This 32-year-old massage business owner
(in the United States 10 years) explains her experience giving a deep tissue massage to a customer:
“Once I had a female customer, she was thin like you but smaller in figure. She liked her massage
really intense even though she’s very thin. I massaged and pressed her so hard (sound tiring)…So
I pressed to the extent that my hands ached. It was so intense that I had to go and get myself a
massage. My whole body ached. So yes, I had to go fix my own body. I had to go and get a two
hours massage.”
Working in a restaurant is no different, the nature of the business operation often requires
the worker to work with little rest. Apart from working in front of the hot stove all day, carrying
heavy pots and pans, one common complaint among the chefs is that when they are not cooking
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they always have to prepare the ingredients in advance. Thus, even when the business is slow they
still are expected to work non-stop. To prepare and cook foods thus require intense physical labor
which can lead to muscle strains and joint pains.
Waiter jobs, while it seems less physically straining than those in the kitchen as their main
tasks are to take orders and serve food to the customers also work non-stop. When the business is
empty, they are often asked to help with other chores within the business e.g. prepare the
condiments, help with kitchen work, and clean the restroom. Taking too long a rest can be
perceived by many owners as non-diligence. Restaurant work overall can be very stressful,
especially during the peak hour of lunch and dinner. The waiters must rush to service the customers
and the chefs must compete with a short-time frame to get the order out to the customers as fast as
possible. Working continuously in a Thai restaurant, therefore, can have a significant effect on
one’s physical and mental health. This is especially true if they work full-time for several days a
week.
The Difficulties of Acquiring New Skills
Besides compromising one’s social status, living condition, and health; one must also
endure the difficulties that their new job requires. A 59-year-old massage business owner (in the
United States 17 years), who used to work at a Thai restaurant before switching to work as a
massage therapist before finally owning one, explains her experience:
“I came here in 1999, there was no Thai massage businesses then… so we would either be
a waiter or work in the kitchen. So I was around 40 then which is old, so I was put in the
kitchen. It was my brother’s friend place. So they hired me $50 per day. I would work from
morning till the place close. And I’m laughing till today if it wasn’t my brother’s friend
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restaurant, he probably wouldn’t hire me because I couldn’t do anything. Usually, to peel
the frozen shrimp it takes less than an hour, but it took me 2 to 3 hours. I cried as I do it
because I used to work as a teacher in Thailand, so I didn’t know how to do anything. I
used to hire people to do my laundry and to cook for me. So when I came here I had to peel
the shrimps, my fingers were cold and numb. I cried while I was doing it…So the first 6
months I was in the kitchen. It was the most tiring part of my life because I didn’t know
how to cook, and I was there for 6 months…my first 6 months here was like living in hell.
The restaurant owner finished second grade and she treated me like I was a second grader.
And because I didn’t know how to cook, I heard she called behind my back, “yai khun nai
(spoiled brat).” I didn’t know how to cook and I was afraid of the splattered oil.”
Working as a massage therapist also proves to be a great challenge for many. This 32-year-
old massage business owner (in the United States 10 years) explains the difficulties she faced in
becoming a massage therapist: “So I trained for a long time and it was difficult till I get the order
right. So I hurt my wrist and had aches all over…I trained every day. And eventually I started to
do the actual massage on the client. In the beginning, I felt pressured because I didn’t remember
the position… if you ask me if they teach you to the point where you are an expert? I say no but I
think you need to practice and once you massage the client you adapt accordingly.”
Conclusion
This chapter discusses how Thai community engages in “cultural funneling”- a tendency
of Thai immigrants to be in a business that markets or sells Thai ethnic goods and services such as
Thai restaurants and Thai massage businesses. Thai immigrants respond to the demand of the
market and use their networks to gain those necessary skills which not only allows them to work
in those fields but also to open a business in those fields once an opportunity arises. Several factors
76
lead Thais to engage in “cultural funneling.” First are the structural barriers that they face in the
U.S. labor market (e.g. their unproficiency in English, and their inability to transfer their
professional credentials from Thailand). Second, are their existing coethnic networks. The
experience that Thai immigrants gained while working for their coethnic owners also contributes
to this funneling.
Cultural funneling represents a double-edged sword of gains and losses. As Thai
restaurants and Thai massage places are perceived by Thais to have a high chance of success as it
sells a distinct cultural repertoire, many coethnics follow the pioneers’ suit and open their own
businesses which leads to the expansion of Thai ethnic market. Nevertheless, cultural funneling
also has its disadvantages. First, by being highly immersed in a Thai community, it slows down
Thai immigrant integration into the U.S. society. Further, many Thai immigrants, despite their
high educational attainment and professional skills, are unable to utilize those credentials within
the U.S. labor market which leads to a loss of one’s social status. In addition, working in a coethnic
business compromises the health of workers and owners. Lastly, because many Thais had
previously worked in white-collar jobs in Thailand they have the added burden of acquiring a new
skills set.
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Chapter 4: Inventing Thainess
Jane, a successful Thai restaurant owner in her 40s, migrated to the United States when she
was 7 years old as part of her parents’ relocation for better education. When an opportunity arose,
her mom decided to take over a relative’s Thai restaurant, while her dad pursued his engineering
degree. Their restaurant was one of the first five Thai restaurants in Los Angeles and it was very
busy. It was busy to the point that her dad decided to drop out of school his very last semester to
pitch in. From then, her parents worked 24/7. When she got home from school she would be taken
care of by her grandmother who taught her how to cook all the Thai dishes from scratch. As she
grew older she was asked to help wait tables. Working in a Thai restaurant is in her blood.
Throughout the interview, she switched back and forth from English to Thai. Asking her about her
business authenticity, she replies:
“Depends on what you’re talking about. If you’re talking about when they (my parents)
first started it, there weren’t many ingredients offered in the market. We had to do a mix
and a match. Like, say, lime juice, we replaced that for tamarind as that wasn’t offered
back then…a little bit more Americanized Thai food. And then as the years changed [sic].
The millennium hits. Now everyone knows Thai food so we were one of the first five
restaurants to open in Los Angeles and now we have 999 restaurants competing pad thai.
Yeah, a lot of pad thai. So how I make mine different? It’s got to be authentic. So, we don’t
do the lime juice or the white chicken. We do the original stuff like…tamarind juice. So
the more authentic, the tastier the food. That’s what people want now. They would drive
around looking for the real Thai food.”
Jane is aware of her customers’ search for authentic Thai food and tries to enhance that
aspect of her restaurant. When her parents opened the restaurant, people were not accustomed to
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Thai food. Then, her parents would offer some Chinese dishes such as sweet and sour, egg fu
young, and chow mein, which were deemed well-known foreign food at the time to attract
customers. Now that she took over her parents’ business, apart from renovating the restaurant with
a new modern look, she got rid of those Chinese dishes on the menu as she believes it is not Thai.
Further, she changed some of the food taste to make it more authentic as more ingredients are now
available compared to the 1970s. However, in aiming for authenticity, Jane soon learned that there
are limits to her attempts as she explains:
“Now people are on Yelp and some old, old customers are like my mom age, would come
in and be like oh I don't like it. I like it in the 70s. So here we go. All the complaints you
know. And once you start off bad, everything goes downhill. We have a lot of complaints
from our old customers that we changed the menu, but we never have problems with new
customers…They're stuck with what they're used to…Like, I like my pad thai with the lime
and white sugar. They don't want the original. I can make that, it's pretty easy. I have all
the ingredients there and I can make it right now if you want, that's fine. But they
misunderstand. So they want it authentic, but that's not authentic. What I'm presenting you
is authentic but they're not used to that [sic]. Their taste palates are stuck in the past. So
there’s nothing I can do to actually please them.”
Thai massage business owners too are faced by this limitation of presenting what they
consider as authentic. Nueng, a 34-year-old massage business owner is an outspoken and a very
confident person. He is not shy to show his ambition in succeeding. While these are good
characteristics, he believes these prevented him from blending well in Thai society. He believes
the United States is the answer thus he decided to migrate to the United States 10 years ago. Upon
arriving, he studied and worked as a massage therapist. With his ambition and strong will for
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success, he was able to convince his friends to open a Thai massage store with him after being in
the United States for only a year. His rich friends invested their money while he invested his skills.
They got all their investments back within a year. Now, owning his fifth business
29
he explains to
me why he decided to limit his business authenticity:
“It’s adapted because if we do Thai massage 100 percent the customers will be scared.
They won’t understand if we walk on their backs. My place has the bar to hold on to when
we walk on customers’ backs but customers get really scared. Also, here, if anything
happens they can sue you. So there are two types of customers: those who really like
authentic Thai massage and those who will not have any of it. So if we are to explain to
each customer about walking on their backs, it’s not possible. We don’t have that much
time. So I do it like this. The first half hour is to warm up, so all the stretching. So it’s real
Thai massage. The walk on the back is optional if they don't want it the massage therapist
will use the elbow or something else. Later, we apply the oil which is to relax the customer.
So I do it distinctively and I don't mix it in between.”
These two vignettes illustrate how Thai business owners try to establish authenticity but in
doing so face limits in their efforts. What Thai business owners and their non-Thai customers
consider as “authentic” differ. Therefore, Thai business owners face a challenge in creating a
“Thainess” that fits what mainstream Americans imagine as Thai.
In general, when one speaks of an authentic Thai restaurant, one will think the restaurant
must have some version of pad thai. While Jane, the Thai restaurant owner, believes that an
29
Four of his previous businesses were a Thai restaurant and three Thai massage places. He
operated one business at a time. He opened his businesses and then sold them off for profits.
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important component of the dish is tamarind sauce and palm sugar, some of her customers believe
that for the dish to be authentic it must use lime juice and white sugar. For a Thai massage to be
authentic, the place must offer Thai massage. Yet during the session, if the whole hour is devoted
to pure Thai massage as is done in Thailand- cracking the knuckles and stepping on the backs,
Americans often perceive it as going too far and raise eyebrows. For a Thai massage to be authentic
in the U.S. context then is the right amount of Thai massage during the session. Most of the time,
the stretching part of Thai massage is welcomed. These two vignettes thus show that indeed there
is no “real authenticity.” Authenticity is socially constructed. While Thai business owners
construct what they perceive as “Thai,” so do their customers. The market, therefore, determines
“authenticity.” To be successful at selling one’s ethnic services one must understand what type of
authenticity is deemed appropriate.
Inventing Thainess
In Claire Jean Kim's important article (1999), “The Racial Triangulation of Asian
Americans,” she discusses how Asian Americans are racially triangulated in relation to Blacks and
Whites. Racial triangulation has two concurrent linked processes: 1) “relative valorization”- on
cultural and/or racial grounds, Whites valorize Asian Americans in comparison to Blacks (e.g. as
a model minority) to dominate both groups, especially Blacks; 2) “civic ostracism”- on cultural
and/or racial grounds, Whites construct Asian Americans as permanently foreign and
unassimilable to exclude them from civic membership and politic.
My chapter builds on Kim's discussion of "civic ostracism" (1999). As mentioned, Asian
Americans are viewed as “perpetual foreigners” and this racialization has negative effects. Not
only are Asian Americans excluded from civic membership and politic but they are also made to
feel foreign in their very own home. Wu (2003) discusses the negative effects Asian Americans
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face, which ranges from daily interactions, works to politics (Wu 2003). Asian Americans shared
countless stories of how they are treated as foreigners when in fact they are born in the United
States. Getting asked questions of where do they really come from, or getting complimented for
speaking English well when in fact they were born here are some examples that illustrate their
racialization as foreign (Shyong 2018; Wu 2003; Yang 2013; Zhou 2017). Many heartbreaking
stories of Asian Americans are shared of them being viewed as perpetual foreigners. For example,
Julie Chen, a news anchor, who used to work as a local news reporter decided to undergo a plastic
surgery to make her eyes bigger as she was told by her former news director that she could not be
on the anchor desk because of her Asian eyes (Fung 2013). Even though Chen was born and raised
in the United States, she was still made to feel foreign in her very own motherland by her looks.
Another case happened in 1998 when MSNBC.com announced Tara Lipinski's gold medal
win with the headline "American beats out Kwan." This announcement implied that Kwan was
un-American when in fact Michelle Kwan was born and raised in the United States (Shyong 2018).
And most recently in 2018, a New York Times opinion editor, Bari Weiss, posted a tweet,
“Immigrants: they get the job done” to praise Nagasu for her great performance at the 2018 Winter
Olympics, yet that tweet was inaccurate as Nagasu was born in California (Madani 2018). Stories
portraying Asian Americans as permanently foreign when they are native are not unique. They
show how Asian Americans are being excluded based on their race and ethnicity.
Thai business owners too are forever being perceived as foreign, despite their U.S.
citizenship or the length of time they have spent in the United States.
30
Interestingly, instead of
having their ethnicity used towards excluding them from the society, Thai business owners use it
30
Thai people can hold dual citizenship.
82
to their advantage by turning this negative around and using it to create a market. In this chapter,
I discuss how Thai businesses foreground their foreignness, embracing their status as “foreigners”
to succeed in the market by socially constructing and performing Thai authenticity. By
foregrounding their foreignness, Thai business owners perpetuate their ethnic and racial
differences for the reward of economic gain. They redefine Thai to please their mainstream
customer base. I make my point by looking at Thai restaurants and Thai massage businesses.
This chapter shows that Thai business owners engage in the “inventing of Thainess.” First,
I discuss the nuances of selling culture. I illustrate that there are conflicts between what Thai
business owners and their consumers perceive as authentic. I then discuss the processes of
manufacturing culture. I will explain the processes by which Thai business owners try to bring out
the authentic experience and how their consumers partly determine this. Lastly, with the attempt
to be authentic I show that in fact “authenticity” is impossible.
1. The Nuances of Selling Culture
Culture can be defined as “the values, norms, and material goods characteristic of a given
group” (Giddens et al. 2013, p. A2). Thai business owners in Los Angeles uphold their cultural
differences from other immigrant groups and remain concentrated in Thai restaurants and Thai
massages, which sell Thai material culture. Thai business owners use their “foreignness” to market
their authentic ethnic goods and services. Thai services are cultural products and thus are valued
for their authenticity. Recognizing consumers’ desire for authentic Thai food and massage, Thai
business owners try to make their services as authentic as possible. Nevertheless, this poses a
problem as what is considered authentic for the owners and the consumers sometimes differs.
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Grazian (2003) explains authenticity as an idealized representation of reality; that is, the
expectations of how a thing should look, sound, and feel. Consumers carry with them a set of
stereotypical ideas of how certain product or service should look and feel (Grazian 2003).
Therefore, for goods and services to be authentic, it is not because they are inherently authentic
rather because they are constructed as such in terms of beliefs, perspectives, or powers (Wang
1999). Authenticity thus measures “the degree to which something is more or less what it ought to
be. It is thus a norm of some sort” (Appadurai 1986, p. 25). As authenticity is a social construction,
it is thus understandable why there is a conflict between what authentic is to Thai business owners
and their consumers.
A couple of Thai restaurant owners explained to me the backlash they experienced in
making their food authentically Thai. Take for instance, this 37-year-old restaurant owner (in the
United States 19 years): “So I used to live in Redondo Beach which is on the other side. So Thai
restaurant in this area (Pasadena), the food taste kind of the same. So I try to bring the food taste
from that area here which is more authentically Thai. My workers agree that my food tastes more
authentic than other Thai places in the area. So I try to make it more authentic but sometimes the
customers don't like it. They like the American style and they don't really understand what real
Thai food is."
While customers at Thai restaurants want to taste authentic Thai food, there is clearly a
mismatch of what “authentic” means between the owners and the customers. The owner has a clear
idea of authenticity as the food tasting like the one she had when she grew up in Thailand. Yet for
her customers, most of whom have been in the area longer than her, authentic Thai food is the one
they had previously tried at their local Thai restaurants. Therefore if the food tastes different from
their expectations, it is to their dislike.
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The mismatch of authenticity also occurs in Thai massage businesses. Many Thai massage
business owners expressed to me their frustration when encountering customers who do not
understand what an “authentic Thai massage” is. This 34-year-old (in the United States 11 years)
explains:
“Some customers they will say they want “traditional Thai.” But when I give them the
“traditional Thai”…so this is from my direct experience. The customer didn't know what
"traditional Thai" was… the customer said this is not the Thai massage that I got, the one
that I got has oil. I'm like okay…what version is that? I'm confused so after that I have to
communicate with the customers and I created the "Thai combination" if it uses oil. So
don't call it just Thai. I need to communicate to the customers, they don't know what "Thai
massage" is so I need to inform them. Because a customer said he got a Thai massage
elsewhere and they all put oil on. I told him that's not right and so we need to help make it
"clear-cut" what Thai massage is as it is often misunderstood. So when I check-in
customers I ask them details about what they want and whether they have Thai massage
before. If they said they got a Thai massage in Thailand then it's "clear-cut" that they want
the original Thai massage. If they didn’t get the massage in Thailand I can say with almost
100 percent certainty that it’s Thai massage with oil on the back.”
Again, the consumers are stuck to a certain image of what a Thai massage is yet the owners
have a different perception. Because there is a mismatch of what “authentic” is in Thai services,
to successfully prosper, many Thai business owners must acknowledge the different measures of
authenticity for customers. Thai business owners do so by negotiating the authenticity of their
places. This leads to what I call “limited authenticity.”
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Some restaurant owners admit to having their food tasting non-authentic to their standards
but authentic in their customers’ perspective. Take for instance a 62-year-old restaurant owner
who has lived in the United States for 19 years: “It's to the like of farang. The food flavor is not as
intense as the food for Thai because foreigners don't like it. When I cook something for them, the
first thing they do is put in the soy sauce even though I already seasoned everything. I told them
no need for the soy sauce but they still put it in. They put soy sauce even in pad thai. I told them
that it changed the food flavor, they said they didn’t care because that’s how they liked it.”
Thai massage business owners in Los Angeles County too face limitation in presenting
Thai authenticity. A 46-year-old massage business owner (in the United States 7 years) explains it
simply as: “It’s adapted because real-Thai massage is painful (laughs). The customer can’t stand
it, so we need to adapt.” Further, apart from performing what customers enjoy, Thai massage
business owners choose to limit their massage authenticity because they want to avoid a possible
lawsuit. A female massage business owner (age 34, in the United States 10 years) states: “So at
my place, we have a Thai massage, but we don’t emphasize it much because foreigners don’t really
like it when you “crack” their bones. Thai massage here emphasizes flexing the body so it’s more
like yoga. Foreigners, Americans, they protect the consumers and if we massage them and they
have pain they can sue us. So what we do is we prevent ourselves from doing things that can lead
them to sue us. So then we emphasize massaging to their like which is a combination- Thai and
oil.”
A mismatch in the understanding of authenticity between Thai business owners and the
consumers is unavoidable as each individual experience and expectation shape what one constructs
and considers as authentic. To succeed Thai business owners, therefore, must negotiate that
mismatch and bring out the authentic experience as anticipated by customers.
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2. The Processes of Culture’s Manufacturing
Now that I have clearly established that customers influence the presentation of the
authenticity of Thai businesses, I will now discuss the processes in which Thai business owners
try to bring out the authentic experience while acknowledging the customers’ desires. I argue that
Thai business owners market their businesses’ authenticity primarily via three channels: 1)
promoting service authenticity 2) hiring coethnics and 3) using Thai décor at their establishments.
2.1 Promoting Service Authenticity
As Americans, in general, hold certain perceptions of what is considered authentic Thai
food and Thai massage, Thai business owners acknowledge it and carry it out in their attempts to
present and promote their service authenticity. Food menu and the service brochure is one of the
channels through which they do so.
When dining at a Thai restaurant in Los Angeles, one can almost predict in advance what
is on the menu. In general, you will find listed pad thai, tom yum, tom kha kai, pad see ew, pad
kra pow, green curry, and panang.
31
While Thai food is much more diverse, this is almost the
standard for a typical menu for a Thai restaurant that is considered authentic by U.S. consumers.
Because consumers have a say in what is considered authentic and acceptable to American palates,
Thai business owners acknowledge it and present it accordingly. They know that if they present
authenticity in the way that the customers’ imagination, they would have an easier path to success.
A 42-year-old Thai restaurant owner (in the United States 36 years) explains: “Thai people are not
going to be mean about it but typical Thai will open up and do the exact same menu. If you notice
in Thai town, they all have on the menu, the same thing- pad Thai, tom kha, all the same menu…it’s
31
This list is not exhaustive.
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all the same thing and it’s been like that since the 70s. So we were the first five who started it and
once people saw the opportunity to make money they did the exact same thing. They copy and
they open one in Hollywood, and one in different areas. So every Thai restaurant has the same
menu. Have you notice that?”
That later cohorts of Thai business owners imitated the pioneers is no exaggeration. During
my fieldwork, I have compiled menus from restaurants that I interviewed and/or have dined at and
there seems to be a clear pattern of what is displayed on the menu, especially among Thai
restaurants that target non-Thai customers. Rarely do I find what is considered typical Thai dishes
for Thai, such as tom klong, tom som, hor mok, kaeng kee lek and the various kinds of nam prik
(e.g. long reu, kapi, and mangda) and hundreds of yum (e.g. yum pradook fu, yum ma keu, and
yum ma muang). These dishes, while abundant in Thailand, are almost nonexistence on Thai
restaurants' menu in Los Angeles. Yet, only if with some version of pad thai, tom yum, tom kha
kai, pad see ew, pad kra pow, green curry, and panang, would many Americans view a menu as
meeting the guarantee of a restaurant’s authenticity.
Thai massages are no different, when one enters the lobby, one expects to see the service
list which is quite standardized. It often includes Thai massage, Thai combo/Thai combination
(Thai massage and Swedish massage), Swedish, and deep tissue.
32
Yet, ironically, the most famous
service at Thai massage places is Thai combination.
32
The following definitions are based on the interviews with Thai massage business owners. Thai
massage, the customers remain clothed during the treatment, no lotion or oil is required. Body
contact does occur but instead of rubbing on muscles, the body is stretched, compressed, pulled,
and rocked. Cracking knuckles, walking on the recipient's back, moving the customer's body into
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Authenticity as mentioned earlier mean different things to different people. Another group
of consumers, often those who claim to be avid Thai food diners and know Thai places that are a
hole-in-a-wall, often extends their evaluation of business authenticity beyond the restaurant menu
and judges the place authenticity based on the food taste. Some Thai restaurant owners recognize
this changing trend of non-Thai consumers and use it as their selling point.
These Thai restaurant owners often claim their authenticity by staunchly abiding by a
traditional practice and upholding their food taste as authentically Thai. Authentic Thai food to
them is the non-adaptation of the food, that is, serving the food as it is served in Thailand. For
example, serving the whole fish instead of a fillet and making the food spicy as it is in Thailand.
This 62-year-old Thai restaurant owner (in the United States 18 years) who specializes in Southern
Thai cuisine explains: “In the beginning, in 2006, Americans didn’t know about southern Thai
food. Because there were no restaurants that specialize in this. Restaurants that sell pad-sator,
southern curry, kua-kling, no one sold these in the United States then…I don’t change anything.
See the whole fish (pointing to a picture) …so I want to sell my homemade food…food that my
grandparents, my parents made for me since I was a little kid...This is a family recipe. So home
different positions and pulling fingers and toes is common. It is believed to offer deep relaxation
as it focuses on the musculoskeletal system and increases flexibility. Swedish massage (oil
massage), on the other hand, uses oil and the massage occurs in a light massage that relaxes the
body. It improves the circulation of blood and lymph and relaxes muscles. Deep tissue, is heavy
massage, it requires firm pressure on muscles to relieve chronic tension. It focuses on connective
tissue, and it aims to produce changes in movement and posture. Deep tissue is commonly
requested by customers who are under stress and/or athletes with a muscular build.
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cooking, home food, the authentic, the original…So those that come and eat at Pimtra, they will
go and write on their Facebook and other means like LINE, that today I came to Pimtra, I ate
kaenglueng, kaeng tai pla, pad sator, fried cumin fish,…so they see, oh, why other restaurants
don’t have these dishes but Pimtra has them. So people come to Pimtra and said that today I came
here and it’s so delicious, it’s so spicy, it’s too spicy…we don’t adapt the taste, we sell the original,
authentic food.”
Thai massage business owners are no different they go to great length in trying to persuade
their places as authentic. To show their business authenticity, some massage business owners
perceive first interaction as important. These owners will have their massage therapists "wai"
33
customers and some also have their massage therapists say "sawasdee" instead of hello. Other
massage business owners view the use of "authentic" Thai massage positions as key. For example,
walking on the customers' back. A 59-year-old massage business owner (in the United States 17
years) explains: “Here, the massage therapists walk on the customers’ body…So we step on them,
we stretch them and so farangs are afraid. They even ask if they will be ok because their knuckles
crack, and so forth. But for those who have been to Thailand and got the massage there, they will
like it.”
Further, the emphasis on "no oil" is widespread among owners who emphasize Thai
authenticity. “If customers want a Thai massage, they will come to a Thai place. So I have a Thai
massage, which is the original, so no oil. But we also have the combination which is Thai massage
mixed with oil.” (age 49, in the United States 10 years)
33
Thai greeting, usually done with a slight bow of head down and palms put together as in a prayer.
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Because oil is not used during a Thai massage session, Thai massage business owners
differentiate Thai massage from other massages and view Thai massage as a massage to "cure"
and not for "relaxation." As this 69-year-old owner who lived in the United States for 28 years
explains: “Our massage is very Thai, we massage to cure. The reason that customers come here a
lot is because we cure. We don't massage for relaxation, but we massage to cure those who are
sick and those who have been working hard.”
2.2 Hiring Coethnics
Coethnic businesses are prone to fierce competition because entrepreneurial niches of the
same nationality immigrants cluster in the same occupations and industries rather than spreading
out in search of the best opportunities individually. Further, because most ethnic entrepreneurs rely
on the same supplies, capital labors, and consumer markets. Some entrepreneurs avoid hiring
coethnics to limit training future competitors. Yet some entrepreneurs admit to employing
coethnics as a communal obligation, but while they do so they often complain that workers from
the general labor market have more desirable skills and characteristics (Light and Gold 2000).
While I agree that coethnic businesses are susceptible to fierce competition, my study shows that
Thai workers are in fact a preferred source of labor as they are not merely a cheap source of labor
but are also used as a presentation of authenticity.
34
34
Nevertheless, many owners admit that many of their previous workers went out and opened their
own businesses. Most owners are happy that their workers are progressing up the economic ladder;
yet, another group of owners, in which their former employees chose to open their business within
a block or two from their businesses, feels that the workers are not considerate and should go open
the businesses further away.
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The emphasis on authenticity is crucial in ethnic businesses such as Thai restaurants and
Thai massages as the owners are “culture entrepreneurs” who use their ethnicity as an important
part of their business operation.
35
Thai restaurant and Thai massage business owners claim their
service authenticity by hiring coethnics. Both Thai restaurants and Thai massage places hire a
significant number of Thai workers. The large Thai population in Los Angeles makes this possible.
Thai Restaurants
Thai restaurant owners prefer Thai workers. Thai workers are often hired as chefs and
waiters. On average Thai restaurant owners hire Thai staff 72 percent of the time. This is especially
true in the front arena. Doing so is beneficial as it leads to easy communication within the business
as they share the same language. Thai waiters can inform the orders to the chefs in Thai which
proves to be extremely crucial as most Thai chefs are older Thais who know little English.
“I prefer Thai people as waiters because it’s easier in terms of communication. They can
communicate with people in the kitchen. If it’s a foreigner, to communicate all the details
35
My use of the term, “culture entrepreneur” is similar to Palmer (1984), not DiMaggio (1982).
Palmer (1984) introduces the concept, “culture entrepreneur,” as when one employs his/her
ethnicity, or culture as an important part of his/her trade- to launch, sustain and expand on his/her
business enterprises. DiMaggio (1982) uses “cultural capitalists” to describe the capitalists whose
wealth and profits came from their industrial enterprises. They are cultural capitalists because they
invested some of these profits in founding and maintaining cultural enterprises. Further, cultural
capitalists possess what Bourdieu calls “cultural capital,” that is, the knowledge and familiarity
with genres and styles that are socially valued. This bestows prestige to those who mastered them.
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would be difficult. Like spiciness level- very, medium, mild. Korean places, they also have
Koreans do the waitressing. Mexican places also have Mexican servers. So mine is a Thai
restaurant, so customers who come here also expect the server to be Thai. That’s the
mentality.” (age 63, in the United States 30 years)
Further, as the social world is divided into front and back regions. Front regions are where
social actors perform in front of the audience. Back regions, on the other hand, are prohibited to
outsiders as back regions are where social actors prepare their performances and relax in between
performances (Goffman 1959). This then explains why Thai waiters are preferred because they are
part of the authentic performance. By having Thai waiters in the front arena, it appears more
trustworthy to customers who dine in and get answers of the ingredients that are used within each
dish by native Thais. The backstage of most Thai restaurants, on the other hand, go unrecognized
by the customers hence other nationalities e.g. Mexicans, Filipinos, and Americans can be hired
as it does not diminish the restaurant’s authenticity. Non-Thai workers are usually Mexicans who
often are positioned to do backstage work such as dishwashing and cleaning. The majority of Thai
restaurant owners however still reserve the chef positions for coethnics so as to maintain the
authentic taste. Few owners hire foreigners to cook. This then leads to my next discussion of
boundary drawing between Thai restaurant owners who hire only Thai chefs against owners who
hire non-Thai chefs.
Non-Thai Chef: A Challenge to the Business Authenticity
Despite the abundance of Thai restaurants throughout Los Angeles County not all Thai
restaurants are able to secure Thai people as their chefs. The shortage of Thai chefs is prominently
discussed among Thai restaurant owners, a couple of reasons contribute to this labor shortage.
First, many Thai chefs choose to go and work as massage therapists due to the better money and
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the easier work.
36
Second, some chefs once they accumulated enough money go out and open their
own restaurants. This 71-year-old Thai restaurant owner (in the United States 38 years) explains
the situation as: “Yes because when we cook Thai food we need Thai people, they know what they
are doing. But in the future maybe we need to hire foreigners because now there're less Thai people
who are interested in working as chefs. They switch to other jobs. Many go to work at massage
places now probably because the work is easier.”
Chefs, while an important factor in determining the food authentic taste, spend most of
their hours working in the kitchen out of the customers' sight. By being in the backstage, some
Thai restaurant owners do not feel that hiring non-Thai chefs undermine their business authenticity
as long as those chefs are willing to learn. Mexicans chefs are often hired at these Thai restaurants.
This 52-year-old restaurant owner (in the U.S 15 years) clarifies: “Everybody needs a Thai chef. I
have Thai chefs before, 100 percent Thai chef…Now when I recruit chefs I just have to make sure
they love to cook. If they love to cook, then they can cook anything. Everything is possible. Right
now, the chefs, the two Mexican chefs, I test them over and over and they love to cook so I hired
them.”
Nevertheless, many Thai restaurant owners truly believe that only Thai chefs can cook
authentic Thai dishes hence they refuse to hire non-Thai chefs. This group of restaurant owners
creates an “authentic Thai self” for business advancement by drawing a clear boundary between
themselves and Thai restaurant owners who hire non-Thai chefs. These Thai restaurant owners
engage in “boundary work”- a process of developing a sense of group membership by which
people foster differences among groups through inclusion and exclusion. During this process,
36
This is based on the interviews and not my personal judgment.
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similarities and differences within and between groups are constructed or drawn (Lamont and
Molnár 2002). Doing so, one group distinguishes oneself from others (Bartkowski and Read 2003;
Lamont 1992; Lamont and Fournier 1992). Groups are thus socially constructed in relation to one
another (Barth 1998; Jenkins 2008; Verkuyten 2005). These boundaries are sometimes permeable,
yet other times rigid (Eriksen 2010). For most Thai business owners that uphold Thai cultural
authenticity, the boundary is clear and the hiring of non-Thai chefs is not acceptable. This 52-year-
old owner (in the United States 28 years) explains: “The chefs need to be Thai otherwise we can’t
communicate and they can’t read the order... The dishwasher doesn’t need to be Thai. We don’t
use pre-made sauce e.g. pad thai sauce and yum sauce, at those restaurants anyone can cook. That
you can use Mexicans to cook the food.”
This owner, as many others, who insist on hiring only Thai-chef, views that hiring non-
Thai chefs is an insult to Thai food as those restaurants rely on pre-made sauce which implies that
the chefs need not be skillful and at the same time suggesting the food is not freshly prepared. In
some instance, the owners compare such methods to frozen food. That, according to them, is no
culinary art, it is just mass production. There is no personal touch as the food taste is standardized,
standardized to the point that customers’ requests (e.g. make it less sweet/salty, and leave out the
MSG) are not possible.
Thai restaurant owners who hire only Thai chefs also suggest that hiring non-Thai chefs is
risky as it can lead to the loss of customers who seek authentic food. These restaurant owners
believe that non-Thai chefs can never truly cook authentic Thai food. This 54-year-old (in the
United States 1 year) tells me about his friend’s Thai restaurant that used to be famous but is now
going downhill. He contributes this to the change from Thai chefs to non-Thai chefs: “That
restaurant owner changed from Thai chefs to Mexican chefs because they are cheaper. Previously
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they also had Mexican workers did the stir-fry but there were a Thai head chef and other Thai
chefs to control the taste. Later they have none. So if a Thai person didn't cook the food it's not
delicious. Because if you don't know the original taste of Thai food you can't cook it. So the food
started to taste weird.”
Therefore, for Thai restaurant owners who rely only on Thai chefs, Thai chefs’ shortage is
a catastrophe. Owners that abide by “Thai-chefs only” sometimes decide to import Thai chefs from
Thailand. This 47-year-old restaurant owner (in the United States 16 years) explains how his
brother did so: “With the investor visa you apply for a dependent visa for the chefs. So there's a
contract that they come and work for a year or two and then they go back to Thailand. They can
extend it too. And with this, if they've been here for a long time and has already extended it couple
times, we can apply the green card for them… So to come here, the prospective chef pays… I think
around 150,000-200,000 baht
37
and we pay $3000. So we pay the processing fee. The amount
depends on the agency in Thailand.”
Therefore, to process for a visa for a Thai chef to come abroad, both the owner and the
Thai chef must have the financial capital to do so. While most Thai restaurant owners do have such
resources, the process is rather time-consuming. Talented chefs in Thailand may not be able to
come and perform their culinary talents in the United States as they lack the money for the
processing fee. This partly reflects the insufficiency of the government policy. The government
37
Approximately $4,770 to $6,360.
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spends too much time surveilling Thai businesses (see chapter 5: Managing Surveillance) yet lack
necessary policies and resources to aid Thai business owners in bringing over Thai chefs.
38
Thai Massages
While hiring coethnics is prominent in Thai restaurants, hiring Thai is even more
pronounced in Thai massage businesses. Thai massage business owners hire on average 97 percent
Thai workers. This perhaps is because there is no true backstage in this business. Once customers
come into a massage place, in the lobby, they can expect to be greeted by a manager, or a massage
therapist, who was appointed to that duty. Once customers select a service they will then be led to
one of the massage rooms in the back area. Yet, the back area is also a front stage as that is where
the massage therapists perform their (authentic) massages. Every aspect of the interaction thus
occurs in the front stage.
A 32-year-old Thai massage business owner (in the United States 7 years) explains why
she prefers Thai massage therapists: “If possible, I prefer Thai people. It's easier to communicate.
I once accepted a Chinese massage therapists at my other place she was difficult to communicate
with…Thai people help each other do the laundry but she asked why she has to do it, it's a side
job. So it's problematic…Also, Thai people are more docile, Chinese are loud. She also talked
impolitely to customers. Like OK? (in a yelling voice) So it's Chinese personalities. She won't say,
38
Many Thai restaurant owners view that the Thai government too are at fault for failing to support
Thai chefs to come abroad. Many believe that if the Thai government coordinates directly with the
U.S. government and comes up with a chef visa for Thai restaurants it would help with the Thai
chef shortage phenomenon and at the same time the U.S. government can earn money from the
processing fees.
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"Are you ok?" in a sweet low voice like us. So the customer may be shocked. The customers expect
a Thai service because they come to a Thai place. So, customers expect the humbleness.”
This reflects that the massage business owner is aware of her customers’ expectation and
every aspect of the interaction is important in conveying the place authenticity, including the
mannerism of the massage therapist.
Further, some Thai massage business owners who used to hire non-Thai massage therapists
stop doing so as they believe the drawbacks outweigh the advantages. This 34-year-old Thai
massage business owner (in the United States 11 years), who used to hire 70 percent Thai workers
and 30 percent non-Thai (Latina and white massage therapists), explains how the non-compliance
of non-Thai massage therapists become problematic in presenting authenticity:
“I don’t let non-Thai do Thai massage because they can’t do it. I used to teach them but
then there’s a problem because they didn’t believe in what I taught them. So like when I
taught them the stretching, they didn’t “believe” in the knowledge of Thai massage. I taught
them exactly from what I learned from “Wat Po”
39
but then they said it’s not their duty.
Thai massage we do the stretch which they said is a “liability.” They said what we’re doing
is a duty of a “chiropractor” because when we do the stretch the bone cracks. They perceive
it as going beyond their profession. In the past, when they came and applied I accepted
them. I trained them as I did other Thai massage therapists and in less than 2 weeks I can
39
In 1955, Wat Pho Thai Traditional Medical and Massage School was opened. It is the first Thai
Medical School approved by the Thai Ministry of Education. The school offers four basic courses
of Thai Medicine including Thai massage, Thai medical practice, Thai midwife nurse and Thai
Pharmacy (Wat Pho 2018).
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feel that they were against it. But the thing is if you go to Thailand this is “everything that
you will get regular.” No matter where you go you will get all these stretches. So it’s the
“basic” in Thailand but they view it as going beyond their job…I can feel they are not
accepting of Thai massage way.”
As non-Thai massage therapists are non-compliant to Thai massage methods, they cannot
perform authentic Thai massage which depletes the business purposes. Further, even when non-
Thai massage therapists comply and try to perform Thai massages, many Thai massage business
owners claim that they cannot do so. These Thai massage business owners claim that only "Thai
people" can give “authentic Thai massage.” They draw a clear boundary against other ethnic
massage therapists in terms of their skills; believing that even though non-Thai massage therapists
try to perform authentic Thai massages they are unable to do so. A 50-year-old massage business
owner (in the United States 10 years) explains: “Foreigners can't give Thai massage…Thai
massage you need to use elbows, fingers, knees, feet, everything but non-Thai massage therapists
use just their hands.”
Another massage business owner (age 42, in the United States 11 years) agrees that
foreigners can never give an authentic Thai massage. Worst yet, even if non-Thai massage
therapists can perform Thai massage, customers may choose to deny those therapists based on
their ethnicity. She explains:
“I don't think farang massage therapists can survive here. First, even if they give a good
massage as Thai massage therapist, the customer may choose to skip them and ask for a
Thai person instead. Oh, there's a student from an American school for massage in Studio
City. She came for an intern here and she asked me and the other massage therapists to
train her. She also performed massages as well to collect her hours for her intern. Most
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customers said she's just okay, only a few said she was great...She's not as skillful as Thai
massage therapists even I trained her exactly the same because she couldn't do her hands
like us. Like this she couldn't do it, she can just pin down. If she did what we do it hurts
her fingers. And Thai massage you have to kneel, farang can’t do that well…Thai people,
we sit benjakkrapradit since primary school so our legs are more flexible.”
40
2.3 Using Thai Décor
The last method in which Thai business owners market their business authenticity is
through using Thai décor at their establishments. To respond to the consumers’ desire for
authenticity, cultural products are more than ever “staged” for tourists and decorated to look
authentic. While the decoration of both Thai restaurants and Thai massage places vary, some
common themes emerge.
Thai arts are often displayed on the walls (e.g. painting of the Buddha, poster of Thai
cultures- tribal people of Thailand, floating market, Thai historical scene, and ancient sites) and
sacred statues that have important meaning in Thai culture (e.g. Buddha) stand prominently either
at the establishment entrance or inside the place. These statues vary in their make, some are
carefully handcrafted woods, stone carving, and others are brass sculptures. The details will vary,
some places are more particulate and have even Thai arches to fit into corners of their places, and
40
Benjakkrapradit is a Thai salutation which is used to show the highest respect, for instance, used
when paying respect to the monk statue. It is a prostration in which one uses five parts of the body-
head, hands, and feet- to touch the ground.
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Thai patterns as the wallpaper. A Thai sign for business prosperity (ka kai rum ruay) is often
present in this type of businesses.
A Thai restaurant owner (age 71, in the United States 38 years) who attempted to make the
restaurant décor reflect Thainess explains: “Once you walk in here you will meet Luang Por Sod,
the King and Ror 5 (King Rama 5
th
) (referring to portraits hanged on the wall). I think that's unique.
We also have traditional Thai house (baan Thai/sala Thai). It was built 10 years ago.”
Thai fabrics (e.g. Thai silk and Thai handwoven fabric) are often an important part of the
décor in both Thai restaurants and Thai massage places. Some places will have workers wear
traditional Thai dressing and have workers “wai” customers as they come in. In Thai restaurants,
Thai fabrics are sometimes used as a placemat and in Thai massage places, they are incorporated
into the lobby decoration and the massage room by laying the Thai fabric across the mattress.
Some places will choose a pattern with an elephant print on them to emphasize Thainess as
elephant is the official national animal of Thailand.
The equipment used in each Thai establishment is also particularly chosen to reflect Thai
culture. Wooden benches which are often found in the lobby are carefully hand-crafted with Thai
designs and Thai triangle cushions embroiled with Thai patterns are used instead of the general
squared-cushion used elsewhere. Thai restaurants often have unique dining sets (e.g. Thai brass
bowls and utensils, Thai blue-white pattern plates, Thai rooster bowls, and handcrafted bamboos
to store the sticky rice). The fanciness of the dining sets differs by how upscale the establishment
is.
Thai massage places also emphasize how they display to their customers the things that
will be used throughout the massage. Often, there will be a wooden tray which will have hand-
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painted clay pots and wooden bowls that carry massage oil and herbs, and at some place, a Thai
herbal ball will also be present. Once the massage is completed, some Thai places will offer
customers drink in a Thai silver cup. All these décors and equipment are unique only to a Thai
place, by coming to a Thai massage, customers will be intrigued by the ambiance and all the details
that go into bringing out the Thai authentic experience.
Nevertheless, another group of Thai business owners feels that the modern décor without
a Thai touch is just as attractive to customers. Some Thai business owners view that the need to
overly decorate one place as "Thai" is outdated. This group of business owners views Thai
businesses in and of itself as authentic and no décor is needed to convey that to consumers. Thai
business owners with this point of view, simply decorate their places to look nice, clean, and
modern. Perhaps, this reflects that Thai restaurant and Thai massage business owners have already
established their business authenticity in other terms and thus pay less attention to the overall Thai
ambiance.
3) The Impossibility of Authenticity
As authenticity is highly valued by consumers, cultural producers utilize it to benefit
economically. Cultural producers consciously try to produce what they deem as authentic yet
authenticity in both Thai food and Thai massage are impossible because it never exists.
Authenticity in food and massage as in any other cultural products are simply idealized
representations of reality. Consumers with their belief, perspective, and experience construct what
they consider to be "Thai." Consumers hold certain expectations of how Thai food should look,
smell, and taste and how Thai massage should look and feel. Consumers therefore unconsciously
hold on to certain stereotypical ideas of how Thai services should be and with that, they use it as
their "reference" in viewing which place provides authentic services.
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In general, U.S. consumers view authentic Thai restaurant as one that has some version of
Thai food that they are accustomed to having, pad thai and green curry, for instance. As there are
many different Thai restaurants in Los Angeles County and some date back to the 1970s, some of
the customers grew up eating some version of a Thai dish which they have grown to believe is
authentic. Thai massage is no different. U.S. consumers have in mind what is deemed as an
authentic Thai massage. The place must have a Thai massage listed on the service list though the
actual massage session need not incorporate all the Thai massage techniques that are performed in
Thailand. Some go even further and expect the place to have some distinct scent; for some, that
distinct scent is lemongrass.
Yet because Thai business owners were born and/or raised in a different country and carry
with them different ideologies, they have a different perspective as to what is authentic Thai. For
Thai restaurant owners, a Thai restaurant’s authenticity goes beyond having a certain item in the
menu. The food itself must use the correct ingredients for that certain dish and must taste a certain
way. Therefore, it is inevitable for some customers to be doomed to disappointment when they eat
at some Thai restaurants where the food taste different from their expectations. That the food tastes
different could be because the owner’s reference to the authentic taste is different from that of the
customer. While the customer may judge the food taste to a local Thai restaurant that they had for
many years, Thai restaurant owners may cook the food to the taste they had when they grew up in
Thailand. Thai massage business owners too believe that to perform an authentic Thai massage it
must go beyond the acceptable body stretching. Authentic Thai massages for them involve
cracking the knuckles, stepping on the customers’ back and leaving out the oil throughout the
massage session. Yet that is not enjoyable for most Americans and for many Americans they have
come to think of Thai massage as some version of Thai massage with oil.
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As authenticity is merely a social construction and people with different backgrounds and
outlook have different ideas about how Thai food and Thai massage should be, customers are often
surprised when the reality fails to conform to their expectations. Thai business owners too are
confused as to why their customers are unhappy with the services that they provide, despite them
providing what they view as authentic. A mismatch in the understanding of authenticity between
Thai business owners and the consumers is unavoidable as each individual experience and
expectation shape how one constructs and what one considers as authentic. To succeed, Thai
business owners, therefore, must negotiate that mismatch and bring out the authentic experience
as is anticipated by the customers as I mentioned earlier. They must also try to enhance the
authenticity of their place by hiring coethnic and using Thai décor. Yet, despite all their efforts,
because authenticity is not empirically inherent in things, but is purely a shared set of beliefs about
how things should be. It is reasonable then to say that it is impossible to have authentic Thai food
and Thai massage as what is authentic for one person may be unauthentic for another.
Conclusion
This chapter responds to the call for more exchange between migration scholars and
cultural sociologists (Levitt 2005). It contributes to studies on ethno-racial boundaries and
immigration (Lan 2003; Smith 2005). I bridge immigration studies and cultural sociology by
illustrating how Thai business owners foreground their “foreignness” to market the ethnic product
of Thai food and Thai massage as authentically Thai.
This chapter has major implications for our current understanding of race, ethnicity, and
migration as it shows that ethnic groups can benefit from the idea of “foreignness” which is often
viewed negatively in association to an immigrant life, particularly in term of immigrant
assimilation. Instead, in this chapter, I show that Thai business owners intentionally “amplify”
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their differences to the U.S. society. Success in the market for Thai business owners is rooted in
the “foreignness” of their establishments. Many Thai business owners also insist that an authentic
Thai experience can only be provided by Thai nationals.
I began the chapter with two vignettes which show the paradox of attempting to achieve
authenticity, they face limits in their efforts as what they consider to be “authentic” often differs
from that of their customers. Therefore, to succeed in selling their ethnic services Thai business
owners must negotiate and present what is acceptable to their customers. Inadvertently, they
practice racial othering. Doing what Kim (1999) critiques as racialization.
Next, I illustrated how Thai business owners navigate this mismatch by engaging in the
“inventing of Thainess.” I began with the literature review on “perpetual foreigners” and how this
racialization usually has negative effects on Asian Americans; nevertheless, Thai business owners
use this to their advantage. They embrace their “foreign” status to succeed in the market by socially
constructing and performing Thai authenticity.
To establish how Thai business owners’ attempt to invent Thainess, I discussed 1) the
nuances of selling culture 2) the processes of manufacturing culture and 3) the impossibility of
authenticity.
First, I discussed the nuances of selling culture. Both Thai restaurant and Thai massage
business owners are aware of the value of authenticity that consumers give to both services. To
respond to the customers’ demand, Thai business owners promote authenticity. Thai restaurants
owners often cite the traditional practice of cooking and authentic taste, whereas Thai massage
business owners do so via the interactions the massage therapists have with the customers and the
authentic massage positions. Nevertheless, both Thai restaurant and Thai massage business owners
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soon find out that the authenticity the consumers search for is somewhat limited. That is when
certain services become "too authentic" there are some backlash. This is what I called "the
mismatch of authenticity." Therefore, to succeed in these ethnic businesses, the owners must
negotiate and present the right amount of authenticity.
I then examined the processes in which they do that by describing their manufacturing of
culture. I explained the processes by which Thai business owners try to bring out the authentic
experience and how their consumers partly determine this. Thai business owners market their
businesses' authenticity through three main ways: 1) promoting service authenticity 2) hiring
coethnics and 3) having décors that suggest Thainess.
Thai business owners promote their services as authentic through different means. The
food menu and the service brochure are two of the channels through which they do so. Thai
restaurant owners also emphasize the authentic food taste- the non-adaptation of the food. They
claim to serve the food as it is served in Thailand e.g. they do not downplay the spiciness of the
dish. Thai massage business owners give emphasis to the massage therapists’ interaction with the
customers. They convey the authenticity of the services via first interactions, having massage
therapists "wai" customers and say "sawasdee" instead of hello. Massage therapists also are to
perform authentic Thai massage positions e.g. cracking the knuckles and stepping on back and not
use oil.
Hiring coethnic is another strategy used by Thai business owners to present their
businesses' authenticity. Most Thai business owners when possible choose to hire their coethnics
yet the limited number of workers sometimes force them to hire non-Thai. Thai business owners
are conscious of the divide of the front and the back region and will seek to hire Thai for a front
region, waiters, for instance. Chefs, on the other hand, as they are located in the back region, are
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sometimes non-Thai. Still some insist on only hiring Thai chefs as a means of ensuring their
cultural authenticity. In contrast, Thai massage businesses are more challenging, as all regions of
the businesses are front regions. This then explains why ninety-seven percent of the workers are
Thai. Further, because all Thai massage business owners believe that only Thai massage therapists
can perform authentic Thai massages, this leave little room for non-Thai massage therapists.
Additionally, some Thai business owners use Thai décor to suggest their business
authenticity. Those that do, often use Thai cultural items such as Thai arts, Thai sacred statue and
Thai fabrics to persuade customers of the business authenticity. Yet another group of owners who
prefer modern décor believes that a Thai ambiance is not necessary as they have already
established their business authenticity in other terms.
I then finished the chapter with a discussion on why authenticity is impossible. While Thai
business owners try to present their businesses as truly authentic and while consumers are in a
search for authentic places, I show that in fact, authenticity is impossible. Authentic Thai food and
Thai massages are impossible to find because authenticity is based purely on each individual
expectation and that expectation is shaped by their personal beliefs, perspectives, and experiences.
Thus, a service could be deemed authentic for one person yet inauthentic for another.
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Chapter 5: Managing Surveillance
On August 2, 1995, before sunrise, U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)
officials staged a raid on a garment factory owned by Thai in El Monte, California (Bankston III
2015). Seventy-two Thai workers were kept captive until the authorities freed them (Liebhold and
Rubenstein 1999).
During the captivity, the workers were kept in a seven-unit apartment in El Monte
surrounded by a barbed wire fence that faced inwards (White 1995). The living conditions of the
workers were appalling. As many as ten workers were forced to sleep in bedrooms designed for
two (Su 1997). Further, workers were forced to work 18 hours workdays under 24 hours
surveillance by armed guards and were paid as little as $0.69 an hour. Worst yet, most money went
towards paying off their transportation costs
41
and because workers were not allowed to leave the
property, they were forced to buy food and other necessities from the company at an inflated price
(Feng and Ng 2006).
After the raid, the factory owners were taken into federal custody and were charged with
kidnapping, harboring illegal immigrants, encouraging illegal entering, violating passport and visa
laws, and violating the Thirteenth Amendment which prohibits peonage and involuntary servitude
(Kang 1995; Liebhold and Rubenstein 1999). In February 1996, the owners pleaded guilty to the
charges and were fined $250,000 and sentenced two to seven years in prison (Liebhold and
Rubenstein 1999). In the final settlement, workers received $10,000 to $80,000 each depending
on the duration of their work which totals up to $4 million (Wides 2005). This is the first
recognized case of modern-day slavery in the United States (Martorell and Morlan 2011).
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Workers paid $4000 to $5000 for fraudulent visas, passports, and flight tickets (Lu 1995).
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What this case did was bring attention to the problem of coethnic exploitation. It also put
a shadow in the Thai community. It arguably raised suspicion over Thai business practices,
resulting in the constant surveillance of Thai business owners, accordingly over their businesses.
Not coincidentally, the frequency of surveillance for Thai business owners is not unexpected given
that in California between 1998 and 2003 the largest number of foreign victims of trafficking, 136,
came from Thailand (Human Rights Center 2005).
Apart from the high-profile El Monte case, there are other cases of Thai mistreating
coethnics. For example, in 1999, Supawan Veerapool, the common law wife of Thailand’s
ambassador to Sweden, was sentenced to eight years in prison for confiscating passport of the
domestic worker she brought over from Thailand. The worker was forced to work 24-hour days,
six days a week, for nine years until the victim escaped in 1998 (Human Rights Center 2005).
Another case occurred in 2012 when the Department of Labor filed a lawsuit against the Chan
Dara restaurant owner as the owner failed to pay overtime and retaliated against employees who
exercised their legal rights (United States Department of Labor 2018).
Another reason that may contribute to the constant government surveillance could be that
the second largest business that Thai people operate in the United States are massage businesses.
Massage businesses, according to Bales (2012), are one of the many places in Thailand where sex
services are available. While most become “prostitutes” voluntarily, others are enslaved (Bales
2012). Kara (2009) also claims that Los Angeles has Asian massage places that are fronts for
prostitution. In fact, he claimed that he had met a sex trafficking victim in a Thai massage business.
Therefore, Thai massage businesses are perceived as a negative illegal space and a potential site
for human trafficking in the eyes of the U.S. government. This chapter examines how this cloud
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of legal suspicion shapes the operation of Thai businesses. Before going into the analysis of my
own data, I will first discuss the role of states in immigrant businesses.
State Roles in Immigrant Businesses
Currently, the literature on immigrant businesses make mention of the state in three ways:
1) states are described as a resource to ethnic businesses 2) states are seen by natives as acting
unfairly, thereby resulting in interethnic/racial conflicts and 3) states are recognized as a tool of
repression to ethnic businesses.
1. State as a Resource to Ethnic Businesses
The state can be viewed as a resource to ethnic businesses as the state grants visas to
immigrants. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the law that ended the national-origin
quota system which regulated non-European immigrants’ inflow into the United States. That
immigration law serves two central interests: 1) a humanitarian interest to reunify families and 2)
an economic interest to attract skilled and needed workers from foreign countries. This law allows
each sending country to be on a more equal footing with an annual limit of 20,000. One of the
impacts, for instance, was the increase of Chinese immigrants admitted. Between 1961 and 1970
the number of Chinese immigrants reached 109,771 which was four times greater than the previous
decade (Zhou 1992). This law proves to be an important source of support to the immigrant
business as it allows a family to reunite and in ethnic businesses the use of family labor is important
to the business success. Further, many professional immigrants also opened their businesses using
their specialized skills such as doctor clinics and law firms. This immigration law also made it
easier than ever before for ethnic businesses to recruit coethnic workers.
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Currently, the state, as it has done in the past, facilitates the immigrants’ ability to migrate
via the visa channels. According to Seals (2015), immigrants that hope to establish a business in
the United States may try to do so through three visa categories: 1) the EB-5 visa 2) the EB-2 visa
and 3) the H-1B visa.
The EB-5 visa (The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa) is an employment-based fifth
preference visa program which was created by Congress in 1990 to stimulate the U.S. economy.
In general, immigrants are required to invest $1 million into a new commercial enterprise and to
create at least ten new full-time jobs for U.S. workers (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
2018a). Each year approximately 10,000 EB-5 visas are reserved for immigrant investors (United
States Code 2018).
The EB-2 visa, on the other hand, is an employment-based second preference visa program
which gives to immigrants who possess an advanced degree or have an exceptional ability in the
arts, sciences, or business (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services 2018b). This visa category
has significant implications on the immigrant’s ability to start a business (Seals 2015) as one of its
subcategory, EB-2 National Interest Waiver (EB-2 NIW), allows qualifying international citizens
to self-petition for a Green Card without the need for a U.S. employer, a job offer in the United
States or a labor certification. This channel leads to a faster process in obtaining permanent
residence in the United States (VisaPro Immigration Attorneys 2018a).
Lastly, the H-1B visa (the H-1B Temporary Specialty Occupation Visa) applies to people
who 1) work in a specialty occupation 2) have exceptional merit and ability relating to the
Department of Defense (DOD) cooperative research and development project or 3) work as a
fashion model with distinguished merit or ability. In general, people admitted on this visa may be
admitted for a period of up to three years, yet it can be extended to a total of six years. This visa
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category allows one to seek employment-based lawful permanent resident status which leads to a
much easier pathway to become a business owner (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
2018c).
2. State as a Source of Interethnic/Racial Conflict in Ethnic Businesses
The second set of literature describes how native-borns view the state negatively resulting
in interethnic/racial conflict. Many native-borns view the government as providing certain groups
of immigrants with an upper hand in their quest for mobility via different financial resources such
as small business loans, tax breaks, and welfare.
These beliefs are not without warrant. In the United States, some groups, refugees, for
instance, are granted special resettlement assistance. Some other groups can enter the country
legally and have access to the same general social programs as the native-born (Portes and Zhou
1995). First cohorts of Cuban refugees are an example of a group that was welcomed. They
received significant official support after the Kennedy administration enacted the Cuban Refugee
Act. This Act provided Cuban refugees access to many important services, such as healthcare,
occupational training, short-term financial assistance, and student loans. Southeast Asian refugees
too received an extensive package of benefits due to the Refugee Act of 1980 (Portes 1987).
This has led to contentions between African Americans and immigrants. African
Americans are convinced that they do not compete on a level playing field with other ethnic groups
for the reason that U.S. banks and the U.S. government supposedly provide loans to foreign-borns
to start businesses but not to native-born blacks. This common stock story is understood among
African Americans as to explain the low rate of blacks’ entrepreneurship (Lee 2002). Yet Lee
(2002) found in her study that none of the Jewish and Korean owners receive such help from either
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the bank or the government, and that blacks were in fact more likely to receive such help (20
percent of African American entrepreneurs in her sample). Portes (1987) too claims that official
aid played little role in the emergence of the first Cuban businesses in South Florida.
3. State as a Surveillance and a Tool of Repression to Ethnic Businesses
Lastly, the state is examined as a surveiller and a tool of repression to ethnic businesses.
Many scholars have touched on this issue from time to time. Min (1996), for instance, talks about
how Korean nail salons in New York was surveilled by the New York State when the city begins
to regulate nail salons in 1991. Estrada and Hondagneu-Sotelo (2011) discuss how street vendors,
which is illegal in Los Angeles, are in fear of police and city authorities. In some instances, the
vendors would run and hide when they spot official authorities. Dhingra (2012), then discusses
how Indian motel owners are a target of local government as authorities are suspicious that the
owners may allow for illegal activities on their premises such as drug dealing and prostitution.
This chapter contributes to this set of literature.
How Thai Business Owners Negotiate the Surveillance of the Government
Lee's study (2002) shows that immigrant shops fill a void established by the abandonment
of poor neighborhoods by chain corporations. Many businesses are not in ethnic enclaves (e.g.
Koreatown) but instead service larger urban clientele. Establishing a business in an urban area is
more affordable for prospective entrepreneurs than the suburbs. “Vacant niches” occur due to the
high levels of crime and poverty in many urban neighborhoods. Large corporations therefore avoid
investing in these high-risk areas (Lee 1999). As Jewish merchants become economically mobile
they move out of black neighborhoods and new immigrants such as Middle Easterners and Koreans
move in (Lee 2002). Korean took this opportunity to open businesses in these high-risk
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neighborhoods. They opened groceries, liquor stores, dry cleaning shops, gasoline stations and
retail shops of Asian manufactured goods (e.g. wigs, hair accessories and clothing) (Lee 2002;
Park 1997).
Immigrants often are in specialized niches, they capitalize on the limited choices available
to them, some of the most prominent ethnic businesses that immigrants create a niche for include
motel ownership for Indians (Dhingra 2012), gardening for Mexicans (Ramirez and Hondagneu-
Sotelo 2009) and nail salons for Vietnamese (Pham 2013). Massage businesses and restaurants
serve as another example in the case of Thais. Thai massage business owners turn Thai massages
into an affordable luxury to a wide range of consumers and Thai restaurants provide meals to
people of different socioeconomic status as they can be found not only in Beverly Hills but also in
East and South Los Angeles. While both services offered by Thai are well-known among the
Angelino, little is known about the struggle that Thai business owners face in operating their
businesses, particularly in relation to laws and regulations. In this chapter, I discuss how
government surveillance takes place in Thai businesses and how the Thai business owners
accordingly negotiate and continue their businesses under such strict surveillance. I describe how
the government surveils Thai businesses through three main channels: 1) federal and state laws 2)
labor law and regulations 3) business and professional licenses.
1. Federal and State Laws
The U.S. legal system consists of federal and state law. Federal laws are created by the
federal government and apply to the whole nation. State laws, on the other hand, are passed by the
state legislature and are only in effect within that particular state. Both laws exist in parallel and
sometimes conflict with each other. When there is a conflict, the federal law prevails. In this
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section, I will discuss federal and California State laws with two focuses: 1) cash payment to
employees and 2) the provision of Thai massage and sex.
1.1. Cash Payment to Employees
While neither federal law nor state law prevents employers from paying employees in cash,
when doing so the employers must make sure they do so correctly. First, despite the payment
methods, employers are required to pay payroll taxes; that is, employers are required to report all
wages, including cash wages to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Not doing so is illegal as the
employers will be considered paying the employees "under the table." Second, the employers must
keep an accurate record of the amount and the date in which they paid their employees. As
employers may be audited, they would incur penalties if neglecting to do so. They can also be
penalized if an employee decided to file for violation of compensation it can lead to lengthy
lawsuits (Employment Development Department 2018; SurePayroll 2016; Wood 2014).
A 58-year-old restaurant owner (in the United States 43 years) explains to me a lawsuit
against her which was a result of her paying cash to her former chef:
“So I thought she probably won’t sue me I’m such a good person. How can she sue me?
(Prior to the lawsuit, the owner helped this chef all along e.g. let her borrow money and
helped pay for her husband funeral) She got a high salary and she didn’t do much each day.
She would just sit all day, but it was partly my fault that I let her do that. But she really did
sue me, so I had to pay her…I was interviewed by the Department of Labor and so did the
other workers. The interviewer probably thought that it’s impossible that I didn’t pay her.
Everyone has working documents, and there was no issue with anyone else except her in
the restaurant. So they probably pitied me and helped me as the fine wasn’t too harsh…She
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was angry on the day that I asked her why she threw away all the food. Why did she order
the food the way she did? She said she had always done that. So it’s partly my fault because
I was not strict. I was too reliant on her.”
This owner became a victim of her own action as by paying her workers cash, she did not
have them on the payroll system which means she could not provide any evidence to the
government official when she was interrogated. Therefore, the best way to protect against a lawsuit
is to pay the employees via a payroll service (via check or a direct deposit) which will be on the
record. Nevertheless, some Thai business owners choose to forego payroll services and opt for
paying cash to employees.
First, Thai business owners do so to avoid paying tax and insurance expenses associated
with payroll. Some believe that the reduced expenses allow the business to be more profitable and
remain competitive. Further, some Thai business owners are motivated to do so as many receive
cash for the services they provide and underreport their business transaction to avoid paying taxes.
Paying their workers cash is one of the easiest ways to get rid of the cash they have on hand as
they are reluctant to deposit too much cash at a bank, worrying that they will be under the
government radar.
Yet, another group of owners understands their legal obligation and want to comply by
withholding payroll taxes and reporting their employees’ wages, but still they choose to pay “under
the table” cash wages when requested by workers. Thai workers in both restaurant and massage
businesses prefer to be paid in cash in order to avoid paying taxes while qualifying for medical
benefits from the government. This massage business owner (age 46, in the United States 7 years)
explains the scenario that is faced by most massage business owners:
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“Some massage therapists don’t want to pay tax so they want to get money under the table.
It’s problematic…It’s difficult, very difficult. Sometimes I follow their leads but if it’s too
much then I can’t. So having a massage place is not difficult apart from this aspect for
me…the massage therapists don’t want to inform their salary beyond the “low-income”
because if they do then they can’t get “Medi-Cal” from the government.
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So that’s the
problem. So I have many candidates coming in but once I tell them they need to pay tax,
they don’t come and work. They prefer cash…So everyone wants cash…it’s stressful. I
want to go back and be a massage therapist…The massage therapists are richer than the
owners.”
1.2 Thai Massage and Sex
In the United States, prostitution is illegal except for ten Nevada Counties (ProCon.org
2018). Yet, many legal businesses such as nightclubs and massages are often depicted by the public
and the media as places that offer sexual services. Thai massages, in particular, are often portrayed
as a place to get a “happy ending.” In Los Angeles, to prevent sexual solicitation within massage
businesses, it is stated clearly in the massage ordinance: “No storage or sale of sexually oriented
material and/or sexually oriented merchandise, as defined by LAMC 103.01, shall be permitted
within the Massage Establishment.” (The Los Angeles Police Department 2015, p.8). Due to the
suspicion that sex is inevitably provided in massage businesses, the police department also has
unannounced inspections. While most of the raids are targeted for identifying uncertified massage
therapists the raids also help the police get a sense of which places provide real massages and
42
In 2017, to qualify for Medi-Cal benefits for a family size of one, the income cannot exceed
$16,395 (California Department of Health Care Services 2017).
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which ones are cover-ups for a brothel. In some occasions, there would be undercover police who
pretend to be a customer seeking sex services. If the place is found to have sexual services, it will
be closed. The owners and massage therapists will also be legally prosecuted.
Aware of the legal prosecution associated with harboring sex services in one’s businesses,
along with the moral and ethic that Thai massage business owners hold of their profession, most
owners abide by the law and permit no sexual conduct on their premises. Nevertheless, the owners
face two main challenges: 1) the customers that come for sex services and 2) the massage therapists
that provide sex services.
The first challenge is from customers who seek sex services. Some male customers equate
Thai massage as a place for sex. These customers will either call in advance or walk-in and ask.
This 32-year-old massage business owner (in the United States 10 years) explains to me the
situation:
“Some customers will just ask it outright, like do you have “happy ending?” So this is the
vocabulary that people in the massage business know. Some customers will have ways of
finding out. For example, asking do you have “young pretty girl?” When I get that question
I will tell them that I recommend they call elsewhere as we don’t have that here. So if they
ask us outright we answer them frankly…Sometimes I get frustrated with the calls.
Sometimes I told them we don’t have it. The customer would say “Why not?” What if I
pay more? I give good tips. Why is there a why not? (sounding frustrated) If we don’t have
it they should not pursue. It’s annoying. It also depends on each person, some walk in to
ask. Some they don’t speak English at all and they saw a massage place and they think it’s
that (sex). Sometimes they made some gestures (referring to sexual acts) because they
couldn’t speak English. I was like “no, massage only.” Some “thanked” me and left. Some
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would get really shy, they would smile and leave…being in this profession I can say it
without shyness because there are a lot of them.”
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Massage business owners try their best to prevent customers who seek sex services by
screening them at the front before sending them into the room. They do so by observing the
customer’s speech and/or the way they act as this 46-year-old owner (in the United States 7 years)
explains her screening process in detail:
“I screen them at the lobby. So I meet lots of people, so the way they speak and their
behavior I can tell. Sometimes they will ask do you have “young girls?” If that’s the case,
then they are coming for sex because if you want a real massage you would just ask do we
have an opening for one customer. Or I want someone to give me a heavy massage. But
those who come for sexual services they would show some symptoms…Or they would just
stare into my face. You know, men staring at your face and ask do you have “young girls”
or can I check out the massage therapists? I will tell them my massage therapists work by
their turns. Or I would just ask who are you looking for? Is there a massage therapist that
you got the massage from before and you want to request her? Because I’m at the front I
can tell who’s a new customer and who’s a regular. So I will screen them at the front. I will
ask them where the pains are. They may respond, oh I have a backache. If they are of large
built, I will ask can massage therapist step on their back? So they will know from the queue
I give them that it’s real massage…Another thing is the pants. I will tell them they must
keep the pants on and to lay on their stomach. If the customer said is it clean? So they start
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The longer the businesses have been in operation the less often they will face these customers
as customers will know which place does what.
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having conditions. So that’s the next thing…If they don’t want to wear it I will say you
must keep your underwear on. So that’s the next step. If they say, “I feel uncomfortable” I
will say then we can’t give you the massage. So then the customer may say, if I can’t take
it off then I won’t get a massage. So that’s fine. So that’s how I screen the customer.”
Massage business owners said they prefer customers that express their desires for sex from
the beginning because it is easier for them to deny the service outright. Another group of
customers, however, will show no signs of seeking sexual services but will show their true desire
once in the room alone with a massage therapist.
“Some customers we really can’t tell. Like this morning it just happened. So this guy he
dressed up really nicely and looked clean but once he went in for the massage one of my
massage therapists said once he turned around, that was it…he tried to touch her. She said
no, why are you touching me? No, don’t touch me. So he said, I came here because I want
to “have fun.” (age 32, in the United States 10 years)
This type of customer according to the owner is harder to deal with because it is difficult
for them to control what goes on behind closed doors. If the massage therapists are honest to their
profession they will come out and inform the owners who will then go in to tell that customer to
get dressed and leave. Yet, some massage therapists, will secretly provide the requested services
for extra money without the consent of the owners.
Massage therapists that engage in sex services then is another challenge for massage
business owners. It is rather difficult to prevent massage therapists from providing sex services as
the owners cannot fully control what goes on behind the closed doors/curtains. This massage
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business owner (age 61, in the United States 36 years) admits to me how he made the effort to
control his massage business from sexual conduct even though the way he does it is off the book:
“I secretly put in a CCTV because I suspect there’s something going on. So the lady worked
here for just a month but then the customers queued up to the end of Wilshire (trying to
illustrate she had way too many regular customers) …Also her customers wouldn’t accept
anyone else even though she was busy. I offered another young beautiful woman who did
the same massage style but still no, they wanted just her. So I knew that must be it. I ordered
other massage therapists who worked in the room next to hers to listen and to peek through
the curtains. We have curtains and not doors here. I try to detect sooner and get rid of them.
That’s why we are still here today because we are quick to observe, and I never leave my
business. I always come and check on my business. I observe those who dress sexily and
are constantly changing brand name purses. So you have to observe your business as there’s
a dark side to it.”
Once he found out that the lady did engage in sex services as he suspected he fired her. He
explains the patterns of massage therapists who provide sex services:
“This type of massage therapists they don’t stay for long, they will go elsewhere. So they
go and ruin another place reputation also…Sometimes they fly into Los Angeles and they
pretend to be a decent woman. They might not do anything on our property but they are
prostitutes. So they give their numbers and arrange to give the service afterward. They will
give their numbers to customers who touched them or seemed to want to touch them. And
customers who want to go on a date with them, once they went on a date these massage
therapists asked for expensive purses. It happens to many places...what can we do? We
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lose the reputation and we can’t do anything. It’s difficult…Any place can be affected
including mine.”
This interview reflects the difficulties of controlling sex services in massage places as
sometimes the business owners are not the one who allow it. The owners are in a limbo as they
cannot report the massage therapists to the police because if they did, the police will charge them
on violating the privacy of customers by using hidden cameras but without it, they would not have
known what went on and cannot fire the workers. Here, massage business owners claim that they
lack the protection from the government. Thai massage business owners thus are no different from
Indian motel owners in Dhingra’s (2012) study who claim to be the target of local governments
when they cannot control what customers do in the motel room e.g. prostitution and illegal
activities.
2. Labor Law and Regulations
The enforcement of labor law and regulations in Thai businesses, as in other ethnic
businesses, aims to make sure that Thai businesses are abiding by the state rules and laws. The law
and regulations are often implemented to protect the workers’ rights. Business owners that do not
comply are susceptible to fines. I categorize common unlawful hiring practices in Thai businesses
into four categories: 1) employment of undocumented workers 2) employee misclassification
(employee vs. independent contractor) 3) Wage theft and 4) violation of meal and rest period.
2.1 Employment of Undocumented workers
Thai businesses in and out of Thai town is well-known among recently arrived Thai
immigrants as a place for jobs, regardless of their legal and visa status and work experience. This
is especially true prior to 2010. For many Thais with limited English skills working in a coethnic
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business is the best way to make a living. In the past, working in a Thai restaurant is popular as
there is always an opening. Around the year 2000, once Thai massage businesses began to boom,
many Thai workers switched to working at a Thai massage place as it is considered to be an easier
job with better pay that allows for more free time. At that time, the loose enforcement of massage
professional permits made it even more attractive. Massage therapists were able to acquire the
necessary skills on the job without needing to receive formal training. The strong social networks
channeled Thais specifically into these two-dominant niches.
Many Thai business owners opt for "undocumented workers" despite knowing the criminal
and civil penalties for hiring, recruiting, or referring for a fee illegal immigrant. There are a couple
of reasons for doing so.
First, most owners claim to hire their undocumented coethnics as they pity them and want
to help. They pay all workers, regardless of legal status, the same amount. Some reflected that they
too used to be undocumented and were given a chance to work and they wanted to practice good
karma by helping others who have a similar experience as themselves. This 62-year-old restaurant
owner who has lived in the United States for 18 years explains:
“I employ them because I pity them. Like some came and didn’t have enough money for
their education. When I heard that I just felt sorry for them. I employ them part-time, so
they can have earnings and can survive. Sometimes I don’t want to employ them but I help
them because I see they are facing hardship… When they come and work for me I need to
pay them cash and we can’t deduct the tax. So really I want to employ only those with legal
documents but like I told you before I feel sorry for them. They are good workers and they
have no relatives here so I just want to help, that’s all. So I’m ok with losing money by
helping them make a living. Many people graduated working here with no legal docs.”
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Hiring undocumented workers as this owner explained have negative impacts on restaurant
owners, one being their inability to deduct taxes as they paid the undocumented workers cash under
the table. For this exact reason, many owners are more selective of whom they choose to help. One
42-year-old (in the United States 36 years) choose to hire undocumented workers only if they have
been working for her for an extended period. She clarifies her hiring practice: “Some people I
know for a long time, like one of my head chef, he’s been here a long time but the new people who
come in, I would prefer if they have their papers now because the new president (she is referring
to Donald Trump) and all the things that are going on…my head chef worked with my mom for
over 15 years…who’s going to leave him? He’s been with us so long, he’s like family now.”
Nevertheless, not all owners do so because of good faith. Some owners hire undocumented
workers because they know that they can take advantage of the workers by paying them a different
rate to that of the legal workers. This is very uncommon in my sample, yet one owner who holds
this stance elaborates: “If the workers are legal, I pay them by the hour and the OT (overtime),
everything according to the law. The undocumented workers, on the other hand, get a fixed rate.
But they get a lot.” (age 52, in the United States 15 years)
These employment practices among the Thai business owners allow Thai to easily secure
a job in coethnic businesses despite their legal work authorization. To illustrate I provide a
narrative of Kasem.
Kasem, a business owner, decided to come to the United States on a tourist visa almost two
decades ago to try out his luck as his business in Thailand failed. Despite his lack of work
authorization, he was able to land a job right away as a server. He was determined to succeed and
did so by working 7 days a week for a couple of years. He worked as a server for the first four
years before he switched to be a massage therapist where he had heard of it being easy work that
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pays well. He explains: “So you can’t expect to get three to four customers every day but you will
get $3,000 easily working here for a month. $3,000 working in a restaurant it’s much more tiring,
you work for the whole 12 hours. That’s why many massage therapists came from
restaurants…Working in restaurants sometimes they pay you $80-$100 and you work the whole
day. There’s no break to eat or you get to eat but you also do the order at the same time…So
massage work is much easier. Here you get $2,000-$3,000 easily but working in restaurants to get
the same amount of money it’s heavy work.”
He worked as a massage therapist for five years and once he saved enough money he
opened his own place. Now at age 50, he is a green card holder and owns a Thai massage business.
The story of Kasem is not unique. In fact, many Thai business owners I interviewed went through
a similar path.
Apart from tourists, students are another group of workers that benefit from the laxity of
work authorization enforcement among Thai business owners. This 34-year-old owner (in the
United States 11 years) was a student when he decided to become a massage therapist: “So a friend
invited me to join, first I was a server at a restaurant. She said that there are pros to working as a
massage therapist. I can work and study. When I worked as a server it was six hours straight so I
didn’t have time to study for my classes. At a massage place, if I massage the customer for an
hour, I can read books while I wait for another customer. I think it was better so I gave it a try.”
Here we can see work permits as not being relevant to one’s ability to find employment.
This is true in both Thai restaurants and Thai massage places. Nevertheless, this took a different
turn just a few years back when the government zeroed in on Thai businesses. Now many Thai
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businesses prefer "documented workers,"
44
especially after the raids of many Thai restaurants and
Thai massage businesses in Thai town. This 58-year-old restaurant owner (in the United States 43
years) explains: “Now I accept only workers with working documents. Everyone is on payroll and
I don’t have to worry about the problem with the government. I can’t just pity them and accept
them like in the past because if I do I’ll get in trouble later on.”
2.2 Employee Misclassification (Employee vs. Independent Contractor)
Another outstanding problem Thai business owners have with the government is the
incorrect categorization of workers. While Thai restaurant owners violate this from time to time,
the issue seems to be more prevalent among Thai massage business owners.
The government, or to be precise, the Employment Development Department (EED)
considers massage therapists to be permanent employees (W-2), yet the owners view them as
independent contractors/self-employed (1099). The owners prefer to categorize their massage
therapists as independent contractors because California's wage and hour laws (e.g. minimum
wage, overtime, rest and meal periods) and anti-discrimination and retaliation laws protect
employees but not independent contractors (State of California Department of Industrial Relations
2018b).
There are several reasons why the EED determines a massage therapist to be an employee
(W-2). First, they perform their work at the massage business owners’ place and do not pay for the
rent. Second, the owners handle the payment for the services and then redistribute the money to
the therapists. Hence, the flow of money is only from the owner to the therapists, not vice versa.
44
Those who are in the United States legally and have the permit to work.
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Third, the owners schedule the therapist’s shifts. Lastly, the owners provide the equipment (e.g.
towels, sheets, and oil). The owners thus hold the direction and control of the labor. Considering
the ways the massage business owners run their businesses, the EED confirms that the owners
cannot treat their massage therapists as independent contractors (1099) but employees (W-2). As
a result, many places complied and switched to the W-2; however, many places still maintained
the 1099 leading the EED to sue them. These massage places had to give back payment. This 42-
year-old owner who lived in the United States for 11 years summarizes why most massage business
owners, including herself, refused to switch to W-2: “W-2 is “permanent employee” so you need
to provide employees’ welfare. I’m not ready for that because there’re too many costs. I have to
deduct another 25 percent from the profits for that.”
Another group of owners avoids getting into trouble with the EED by changing the way
they manage their massage place. Instead of having massage therapists work for them, these
owners claim to rent out the rooms. So each time a massage therapist brings in a customer, the
owners will charge him/her for the use of the room. This 50-year-old (in the United States 17 years)
explains his practice: “Some massage therapists don’t work here anymore they just come here. I
charge them $20 for the room, so the massage therapist gets to keep $25. My place if the massage
therapist left it doesn’t matter. If they want to come back and rent the room it’s $20…I just charge
them $20 per hour for the room because some they don’t have a workplace.” Nevertheless, this
practice according to the EED is no different from an employer-employee relationship.
2.3 Wage theft
In the past, it is quite common for Thai workers to face wage theft prior to the government
becoming strict in the Thai community. Due to the different nature of wage theft in Thai restaurants
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and Thai massage places, in this section, I will discuss them separately. I will first discuss wage
theft in Thai restaurants.
One form of wage theft is the failure to pay workers the minimum wage. Thai restaurant
owners often give the workers a flat rate per day. This 32-year-old (in the United States 10 years)
now a massage business owner recalls her experience working in a Thai restaurant when she first
came to the United States: “I got $45 per day and no tips. I started working at 1 pm. And if it’s a
weekend I worked the whole day I got $55 and no tips.”
Another massage business owner (age 50, in the United States 17 years) who used to work
as a server in a Thai restaurant explains his experience on this issue: “Now they hire you by the
hour so it’s much better. When I worked as a waiter, they hired me for $45 or $50 per day and I
got the tips. In total I made around $100 per day. The tips were $2 to $3 then we pooled them
among the waiters and divided it. But now, the owners probably feel threatened so they pay by the
hour.”
Most Thai restaurant owners now pay the workers at least the minimum wage which is $10
an hour as more lawsuits have been brought towards them.
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The well-known lawsuit against two
Chan Dara Thai restaurants in Los Angeles by the U.S. Department of Labor in 2012 made Thai
restaurant owners become aware and afraid of the possibility of getting sued. The owner of Chan
Dara was ordered to pay $104,807 in back wages to 28 employees (United States Department of
Labor 2018).
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California minimum wage ($10 per hour) was effective beginning January 1, 2016 (State of
California Department of Industrial Relations 2018a).
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While some Thai restaurants still choose to pay their workers less than the minimum wage,
this is the case only in one of my interviews.
“Some were students and they came and worked in the kitchen. They didn’t have any skill
so I gave them $70 per day. I don’t want to say much otherwise the government will come
and said I did it illegally. But I also gave them free meals and American restaurants even
you work many hours they don’t give you free food. So that’s a lot of money. I think Thais
who come and work in Thai restaurants if they know how to spend their money they will
have savings. There’s no expense except for the rent. If you use your money wisely and
don’t have too much craving for other foods you will have savings. I think it’s the best
place to work when you are abroad because you can save a lot of money. The food here is
expensive when you go out and buy them.” (age 48, in the United States 2 years)
This owner justifies paying the workers lower than the minimum wage due to the illegal
working status of the students and the argument that she provided “free food.”
Wage theft, however, goes beyond not paying the minimum wage. A 44-year-old Thai
restaurant owner (in the United States 25 years) shares with me his experience of getting sued
because he did not understand the difference between “over-time” and “double-time.”
46
46
According to the State of California Department of Industrial Relations (2018d), eight hours of
labor constitutes a day's work. In any workday, employment beyond 8 hours, or any workweek
working more than 6 days, the employee will be compensated for the overtime at not less than: 1)
One and one-half times the employee's regular rate of pay for all hours worked beyond 8 hours up
to and including 12 hours in any workday, and for the first 8 hours worked on the seventh
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“I was sued once. It was last year, so the person worked seven days. So on the seventh day,
the last two hours I needed to pay her “double-time” but because I didn’t know I just paid
her “overtime.” …And it’s even worse because I wasn’t supposed to hire her seven days
per week. I can do it but I must pay her over time and double-time…So the seventh day
requires double-time. Each day I hired the worker for eight hours, so the 9
th
and 10th hour
was over time. And the 13th hour became double-time, so that’s according to the law…But
I was lucky that I paid her more than the law required but she didn’t know. So it happened
last January, so the minimum wage increased from $9 to $10 but I had been paying her $10
since 2014. So she thought that I took advantage of her when really she got more than the
law required. Anyway, I was wrong in that I didn’t pay her double-time which was the last
two hours of each week.”
Lastly, while most Thai restaurant owners now choose to comply with the government
regulation on minimum wage, many are still anxious about their past actions. Many owners are
worried that they may face lawsuits from workers whom they used to hire for less than the
minimum wage or “under the table.”
Wage theft too occurs in Thai massage businesses, yet the form it takes differ from that of
Thai restaurants. As I mentioned in the previous section (employee misclassification), Thai
massage business owners view their massage therapists as independent contractors rather than
employees and choose to pay them half the service price rather than by the hours. For example, if
consecutive day of work in a workweek or 2) Double the employee's regular rate of pay for all
hours worked beyond 12 hours in any workday and for all hours worked beyond 8 on the seventh
consecutive day of work in a workweek.
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the service price is $40 an hour the owner will keep $20 and give the massage therapist $20. Yet
some places do have different rates for different types of massage given as this 35-year-old
massage business owner (in the United States 8 years) explains: “So the combo it’s $40 I pay the
massage therapist $20. Swedish massage is $45 I also pay them $20. Deep tissue is $50 I pay them
$22. So I have a range of price given for each service. Deep tissue, the massage therapists use more
strength so I pay them more. And if it’s one and a half hour then I prorate it. One and a half hour
the massage therapist will get $33.”
This method according to the owners satisfies both the owners and the massage therapists
as the massage therapists can expect to get anywhere from $2000 to $6000 or more per month.
This depends purely on how many days and how many hours they work. A 59-year-old massage
business owner (in the United States 17 years) who used to work as a massage therapist explains
the lucrativeness of this profession:
“When I first worked as a massage therapist I got a $20 tip I was so happy. I got $100 to
$200 per day. I never get that much before. So each month I took in $5000 to $6000. It’s
almost unbelievable…now the income dropped a little bit but it is still good…It depends
too on your skill (getting booked) …but at least here they get $3,000 to $4,000 depending
on how much they work…So $3,000 to $4,000 here they need to work 4 to 5 days. So at
least 4 days. Working four days they get at least $3,000. Then they have another three days
which they can go and work elsewhere. So some get $4,000 to $5000 and some get even
more.”
47
47
The massage therapists’ salary is an approximation as it depends on many factors: how many
hours/days they work, how often they are booked (depends on their skills), and the variation of the
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The government, however, views this payment method as problematic because the massage
therapists will get paid only for the hours that they service a customer but not for the hours that
they spent in the establishment waiting for the customers.
The “turn system” which is used universally in Thai massage places complicates the matter.
While massage business owners view massage therapists as independent contractors which means
that the massage therapists can come in and leave whenever they want, they however require
massage therapists to be on standby at the establishment. In “turn system” massage therapists must
be available for their turns, because otherwise they will be skipped.
The turn system is simple and is explained: “I do it by “turn” so if there are 4 people and
the first person is giving the massage, then the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th person gets to rest. So it’s like a
queue. Whoever comes and signs his/her name first on that day will go first, and then it goes from
there.” (age 34, in the United States 10 years)
tip. Massage therapists usually receive their tips directly from the customers for transparency
hence the owners do not know how much massage therapists get exactly in total. In this business,
massage therapists can expect an average of 20 percent tip, though some customers view it as
curing pain thus associating it with visiting a doctor hence no tip is given, and some simply do not
give tip. Yet other times they get more than 20 percent, some are even lucky to get 100 percent
tip, though that is rare. To ensure that massage therapists do get some tip, many massage places
now have a recommended tip sign in the lobby.
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Because of the “turn system”
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many massage therapists opt to come in to work early
voluntarily: “The massage therapists like to come in early because they want to get the customer.
As for the break, they don’t like to take the break because if they go off wandering and there’re
customers, their turns will be skipped. So they prefer to stay and wait. So the law and the actual
practice it contradicts…If I tell them to go home now they won’t because they think there may be
more opportunity to get more customers.” (age 46, in the United States 7 years)
In trying to make profits in this highly competitive market, many owners defend this system
as being fair. This 61-year-old massage business owner (in the United States 36 years) reflects the
view of many massage place owners:
“Massage places do have problems with the city and the Department of Labor because they
think we do it incorrectly. But if they don’t let us do it this way then thousands of massage
places will go out of business…So this system if you think of it as taking advantage of
massage therapists it is but if you think of it as not taking an advantage it’s also true. It’s
fair if we think that we are sharing the profits. I provide you the place and you give me
your labor. And if we don’t get the money we don’t get it together. Everyone needs to do
their parts. So you both feel the pressure. It’s a motivation. You need to be good at giving
a massage. If you are an employee and we pay you $15 per hour and 8 hours per day you
will just go in and sleep. That way the massage therapists will just wait for the hours to
pass. Right? So if we do it that way the business will not grow. But because it is the way it
48
The only way that the massage therapists can work before their turn is if the customers make an
appointment with them or request them directly. Skipping one’s turn can lead to fights among the
massage therapists.
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is, it leads to business expansion among Thai massage businesses. Because it is not an
employee system but an independent contractor system. This is the strong point of this
business.”
This is still an ongoing debate among the Thai massage business owners and the EED, in
which the Nuad Thai and SPA Association of America try to come in and help, yet the EED
confirms its stance of massage therapists being employees.
2.4 Violation of Meal and Rest Period
According to California labor law, for a work period of more than five hours per day an
employer must provide the employee with a meal period of not less than thirty minutes. However,
if the total work period per day is no more than six hours, the meal period may be waived with
mutual consent from both the employer and the employee. In the case that an employee works
more than ten hours per day, a second meal period of not less than thirty minutes is required. Yet,
if the total hours worked is no more than 12 hours, the second meal period may be waived if the
first meal period was not waived and only with mutual consent from both the employer and the
employee (State of California Department of Industrial Relations 2018c).
While most Thai restaurant owners abide by the meal period required by the government,
the informality of the business operation sometimes results in delayed meal periods, meaning that,
instead of having the meal at the specified time after certain hours of work, they have it much later.
For example, this happens when the restaurant is extremely busy. In other instances, the workers
forego their proper meal altogether. This 48-year-old restaurant owner (in the United States 2
years) explains the workers’ meal time: “So they have their meals here. They can eat as much as
they want. It does not need to be one or two meals but if there’s no time then they also don’t get
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to eat (laughs). So if it’s busy they will just stuff something in their mouth because sometimes
there’re incoming orders, especially on Saturday and Sunday.”
Here, while this Thai restaurant owner views that she is being generous with the amount
of food provided to the workers, and while her workers do take advantage of these benefits on
weekdays, she did not consider that she could be sued for neglecting to provide a proper meal
period of not less than thirty minutes on weekends.
Though most Thai restaurant owners let their workers have free food on the premises, some
places fail to provide a suitable place. According to the State of California Department of Industrial
Relations (2018c), “suitable” place refers to “a sheltered place with facilities available for securing
hot food and drink or for heating food or drink, and for consuming such food and drink.” Most
Thai restaurant owners will have designated tables, usually the tables closest to the kitchen and
furthest from the customers. However, in a few cases, workers are made to eat in the kitchen or at
the back of the restaurant where customers cannot see them. This 62-year-old owner (in the United
States 19 years) recalls her experience working as a helper in the kitchen of a popular Thai
restaurant in Hollywood:
“This restaurant is still operating now…the restaurant was very busy. There were four to
five drivers each day. It was so busy that there was no time to eat and the owner didn’t care
whether we get to eat or not… When we did get to eat, we sat on the floor and used those
big bamboo shoots’ tin container as a table. So we ate on the floor…The owner didn’t allow
us to sit and dine at the actual dining table. Also, there’s no break. I stayed there for a year
and a half. I couldn’t really stand it, but I tolerate. My husband had to tell me every day to
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put up with it. I almost reached a point where I couldn’t. It’s very tiring because I never
did it before.”
49
Like the meal period, the rest period is part of the law requirements. The employer must
provide a paid 10-minute rest break for every 4 hours of work (State of California Department of
Industrial Relations 2018e). In this case, her employer fails to provide her and her colleagues the
rest period and thus they may file a wage claim with the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement.
Many Thai restaurant owners view their business as a small family place and therefore do not
establish formal rest period according to the law. Instead, workers are to have their break when the
restaurant is empty yet on weekends sometimes the restaurant is crowded almost all day, this then
leads to rest period violation.
Meal and rest period violations also occur in Thai massage businesses. Within these
businesses, most owners believe that massage therapists get their rest, which includes a time to
eat, when it is not their turn to service. As it is harder to prove when the massage therapists get
their rest, no government agency has yet come in to change the current practice. One owner I talked
to did have a clear policy on rest period: “I have a policy if they already work three hours in a row
then they have to take a one-hour break… They won’t be able to do it anyway, it’s too tiring.” (age
34, in the United States 11 years)
49
While most of the discussion in this dissertation is one-sided because the data came solely from
the employers’ perspective, because the employers were once workers in their coethnic businesses
this presents another dimension to the discussion.
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This kind of policy however is uncommon in this business as most owners and massage
therapists themselves want to get as much money as possible. Sometimes, that means working
back to back for several hours with little or nothing to eat.
While I separate unlawful hiring practices in Thai businesses into different categories, often
time owners that violate one regulation are more likely to violate another, intentionally or not.
3. Business and Professional Licenses
While labor laws and regulations focus more on protecting the workers’ rights, the business
and professional licensing focus more on protecting the consumers. In this section, I will first
discuss business licensing and permits e.g. business permit, building safety permit and police
permit, then I will move on to discuss professional licensing.
3.1 Business Licensing
In general, to open a business in Los Angeles, one must comply with zoning laws, obtain
a business license and file for a fictitious business name (County of Los Angeles 2018). The
County of Los Angeles has a “small business concierge” which is a free service provided by the
Los Angeles County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs that assists prospective
business owners. Some of the counseling services they provide include the steps required to open
a small business, acquire tax ID number, and receive Los Angeles County licenses and permits
(Los Angeles County Consumer and Business Affairs 2018).
All Thai business owners in my study expressed wanting to open their business correctly
and according to state requirements. Many, despite their little English skills, went ahead and sought
help from the government. Take for instance, a 39-year-old (in the United States 16 years): “When
I decided to open a restaurant I don’t even know what I need to do. I was told then that I have to
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register my business at city hall and health department. So I automatically learned everything
myself. I did seek for advice once in Thai town, at a Thai community, but they didn’t give a clear
answer…they didn’t give the details as to how so I had to find out myself. So first I went to
Norwalk to register the business name and then the officers there told me what I had to do next.”
Apart from registering their business correctly, Thai business owners also emphasize the
need to meet the building safety requirement of the Department of Building and Safety. Take for
instance 32-year-old massage business owner (in the United States 10 years) who is in the process
of remodeling her place: “So my place the restroom is inaccessible for the disabled, those with a
wheelchair, so I have to change that. Right now, I am drafting a plan to submit to the inspector and
so I have to re-model couple things here. It will probably cost me 10,000s.”
Yet, in trying to comply with the city requirements, many Thai business owners find it
rather difficult to keep fully updated with all the changes in policies. A 34-year-old massage
business owner (in the United States 11 years) goes on to explain how the new requirement makes
his place all the sudden not fully legal:
“So my own case. I don’t want to talk about what happened at other places. So the permit
(police permit) that the government requires us to do now so they said before opening the
business you must have it. But when I opened my business two years ago they said I didn’t
need it if I have the state license. So, I opened my business. Many places opened at the
same time as mine and I also believe they didn’t have this permit. So last year the police
came by and told me that I didn’t have this permit. I asked the police how can they let me
open the business if I didn’t have it then. I speak the truth. So how can they let me open
the business? The police said he doesn’t know and that he is here because of his duty and
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that is to inspect if I have the permit. So I didn’t get fined or anything but he told me that I
have to get the permit…I don’t have the police permit now but I’m processing for it.”
3.2 Professional Licensing
Currently, the State of California does not license the massage profession. California
Massage Therapy Council (CAMTC) certification is the only credential that is recognized by state
law for massage professionals. While state law does not require CAMTC certification for massage
therapists to practice their profession in the state, many cities and counties have replaced a city
massage permit, generally issued by the sheriff or police's department, with a CAMTC certification
(California Massage Therapy Council 2018a). In 2015, Los Angeles County has replaced its city
massage permit with the CAMTC certification (The Los Angeles Police Department 2015). This
new requirement has proven to be extremely challenging to both Thai massage therapists and Thai
massage business owners.
First, to obtain CAMTC certification the massage therapist must complete a CAMTC
approved school by attending a minimum of 500 hours and pass one of the exams approved by the
CMATC: 1) Massage and Bodywork Licensing Exam (MBLEx) 2) Board Certification Exam in
Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (BCETMB) 3) National Certification Exam for Therapeutic
Massage and Bodywork (NCETMB) or 4) New York State Massage Therapy Examination
(California Massage Therapy Council 2018b).
While this seems straightforward, many massage therapists find the process rather
cumbersome. Some massage therapists that I talked to are having difficulties in obtaining the
certificate as the schools that they attended were not CAMTC approved schools or they once were
but no longer the case. This 49-year-old massage business owner (in the United States 10 years)
put the issue into perspective:
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“Now everyone must get a license from the state and the schools that are blacklisted or
pending they will not approve of the certificate. So they need to redo their classes. So the
law, the new law said that you must now take classes only at schools which the state
approved. Further, there is now a written exam (MBLEx)…And so they must graduate
from a school that is approved by the state. Getting into those approved school is hard
enough because that means you need to take classes with foreign teachers (non-Thai). Most
massage therapists who came here in the past and have worked here for a long time and
got the city license, this group of people are the pioneers and they don’t have much English
skill. It is difficult for them to understand the classes and it is even harder for them to take
and pass the written exam. So many massage therapists have given up their hope.”
While the CMATC requires the massage therapists to pass one of the exams approved by
its organization as mentioned earlier, yet it is almost universal that Thai massage therapists will
take the MBLEx exam. The exam is quite difficult according to many. A massage business owner
(age 32, in the United States 10 years) clarifies: “This exam is extremely difficult- you basically
study anatomy. So you study the tissue, the bone, it’s pretty much like what the doctor is studying.
So last year I had the city permit but they canceled the city permit as the state now take care of
massage businesses. The state has more power than the city…so once the state took over they
become strict. This is why I have to go and study anatomy, the muscle, and all that. I have to pass
the MBLEx exam.”
Further, because Thai massage therapists vary greatly in their educational background with
some having only a few years of education and others having a college degree and above. Those
with few years of education and lack the English skill to understand the material find it extremely
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difficult to pass the exam and to obtain the certificate. As a result, many fall into the trap of buying
fraud certificates for several thousand dollars only to realize later that it is useless.
In addition, to obtain the CMATC certification, apart from having the will to take classes
and the exam, one must have the resources to do so. A 64-year-old massage business owner (in
the United States 17 years) explains that the costs itself is not so bad but the time taken out of work
is: “The costs for a course is around $4000 which takes three to four months to complete. You can
pay in installments; the schools allow that. But you need to find a school that is approved by the
state…you need 500 hours of classes…The school fees are around $4000 and then there’re
miscellaneous expenses e.g. books and shirts. So that’s all it’s not that much but you won’t get to
work…So you’re missing out on some money but you need to comply because the law change. If
you don’t comply then they won’t let you work.”
This new legislation devastates the Thai community, especially females who are
concentrated in this niche. To get the CMATC certification one must have the time, the money,
and the skill to pass the examination in English. It is even more difficult for massage therapists
who have the obligations to send home money as it takes both time and money to enroll in school
and also difficult for the older generation whose English is not very proficient.
What Thai massage therapists in Los Angeles are facing is similar to what Korean nail
salon workers faced in New York almost three decades back. In 1991, the New York State
legislature began to regulate nail salons. To receive the nail specialty license, the law required six
hundred hours of education and a qualification examination. Nevertheless, the Korean Nail Salon
Association of New York were able to successfully lobby for a grandfather clause that allowed
those who could prove work experience of one or more years in nail salons to obtain licenses
without additional training classes or examinations (Kang 2010; Min 1996). Thai massage
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therapists, on the other hand, while they have “Nuad Thai and SPA Association of America,” to
advocate for their rights were less successful in getting a similar clause to exempt Thai from
attending classes and taking exams, regardless of their work experience.
This new requirement does not affect only Thai massage therapists but it also affects Thai
massage business owners. As getting certified has proven to be difficult for many massage
therapists, many have opted for another route, which is to remain uncertified. This has detrimental
effects on the massage business owners as they have difficulties finding certified therapists to
provide services to customers. A 49-year-old massage business owner (in the United States 10
years) explains the situation:
“They start to change the law and have restrictions on massage. They change the law on
how to get the massage permit. It becomes more difficult to get and they also canceled the
permit that was approved by the city. So they switch to the state license instead.
50
So those
who got the permit from the city and used to be able to work now can’t because they don’t
have the state license. The state license is really difficult to get. The problem now is that
we lack the massage therapists and so it forces many massage businesses to close and sell
off because we couldn’t find massage therapists with the state license. The massage
therapists also have problems in that they cannot work and so they sneak and do it but then
once the police raid they get a ticket and must pay a fine. So if they get fined couple times
it then affects their chances of getting the state license. This is a big problem right now for
those who are in the massage business and those who are in this profession.”
50
Most Thai massage business owners and therapists refer to the CAMTC certification as the “state
license.”
142
Because of this policy change, many Thai massage business owners turn to “uncertified
therapists.” A 64-year-old massage business owner (in the United States 17 years) states: “If the
massage therapists have the license it’s great but if they don’t I still need them. But now it’s strict,
the police are always inspecting and I’m afraid. In the past when they find unlicensed massage
therapists they would just fine the massage therapists. It could be $500. But now the massage
therapist get fined $500 so does the owner because we hire uncertified massage therapists. I’m
afraid but I have to take the risk.”
While in my sample, only one owner admitted getting fined for hiring uncertified therapists
many Thai massage business owners are stressed and told me that they feel like they are sitting on
a time bomb. Most owners claim that while they want to comply with the state regulation, they
find it unrealistic as there simply is not enough certified massage therapists to go around. To be
on good terms with the government and to give themselves a sense of security, most massage
business owners strategize by hiring both licensed and unlicensed massage therapists: “I do have
one or two massage therapists who don’t have the license but us three (older therapists) have the
license but the massage therapists who come on weekends are sometimes students. So it’s
impossible for everyone to have the license.” (age 33, in the United States 9 years)
Owners that do hire "uncertified" therapists are often supportive of their therapists to go
and get "certified." As one 64-year-old who has lived in the United States 17 years elaborates: “I
support the unlicensed massage therapists to go and take that three months courses because you
have to do this all your lives. So the law already came out and if you don’t have the license massage
business owners won’t dare hire you in the future. I recommend that they sacrifice some working
143
hours and take the courses for 2 to 3 days per week. Also, now we have the spa group which helps
Thai people. So there will be a Thai version of the MBLEx exam.”
51
Therefore, while professional licensing is enforced to protect consumers, it can at the same
time restrict and threaten Thai massage therapists and Thai small business owners.
Conclusion
This chapter discusses how Thai business owners maintain their businesses under strict
surveillance by the U.S. government. I begin the chapter with the El Monte Thai Garment Slavery
in 1995 and described how this case along with a few others led to the suspicion of Thai businesses,
resulting in strict government surveillance of the Thai community. This chapter is important
because the racial construction of Thais as legally suspect adds an extra challenge to those who
want to open a business. By being Thai, they are in an unequal playing field. The government is
more likely to be suspicious of their business from the very beginning. Therefore, racial bias is no
longer just a person to a person problem but an institutional one as shown by the struggles of Thai
businesses vis a vis U.S. government.
This chapter examined how government legal suspicion shapes the operation of Thai
businesses. I first discussed how the literature addressed the state.
Next, I discussed the struggles that Thai business owners face in trying to operate their
businesses. I argue that the government surveils Thai businesses mainly through: 1) federal and
state laws 2) labor law and regulations and 3) business and professional licenses. In discussing
51
As of April 2018, the MBLEx exam is still available only in English and Spanish (Federation of
State Massage Therapy Boards 2018).
144
each topic, I engage how Thai business owners view government surveillance and how they
respond to them.
145
Chapter 6: Conclusion
Currently, there is little literature on the Thai community in the United States compared to
other ethnic groups. This is also true for the literature on immigrant entrepreneurs. While Thai
food and Thai massages are important sites for producing and publicizing knowledge about Thai
people, Thai culture, and Thailand in the United States little is known about the actual business
operations and the struggles that Thai ethnic entrepreneurs face in bringing out their cultural
services. My dissertation aims to fill that gap by examining the business operation of Thai
immigrants, particularly Thai restaurants and Thai massage businesses.
I seek to understand the experience and the perceptions of Thai business owners in
operating their businesses. My dissertation specifically examines Thai business owners’ migration
histories, motivations for opening an ethnic business, business operations, employment processes,
perceptions of gender, race, and ethnicity in the workplace, strategies of market competitions, and
future plans.
Although the Thai population is very small in the United States they are an important group
to study. This is because different immigrant groups enter the United States with a different context
of reception from the host society. Thus, to fully understand the challenges that Thai immigrants
face in operating their ethnic businesses, Thais need to be studied as a standalone group and not
part of a broad Asian group.
My dissertation draws from seventy-eight semi-structured interviews (thirty Thai
restaurant owners, thirty Thai massage business owners, and eighteen other business owners) and
over five years of fieldwork at Thai businesses. I have sought to find answers to the following
questions: 1) How do Americans become familiar with Thai cuisines and Thai massages? 2) How
146
do Thai business owners explain their pathways to cultural business ownership? 3) How do Thai
business owners construct “Thainess” and “authenticity” for business advancement? 4) How do
Thai business owners negotiate the surveillance of the U.S. government regarding their business
operations?
In order to answer these questions, I broke the dissertation down into six chapters. The first
chapter is the introduction chapter which introduces my dissertation topic. I provide the literature
review, the data and method, and the organization of the dissertation.
Chapter 2, “Neo-Colonialism and Tourism,” provides background information of
Thailand- its location and its social and economic conditions. I then discuss the history of Thai
tourism and the United States influence on it. In particular, I discuss the two transformations that
affect Thailand during the 1950s and 1960s: 1) the rise of post-World War II tourism to the Asian-
Pacific region and 2) the massive expansion of Thailand’s tourism industry and tourist-based
infrastructure. The U.S. government roles in Thai history during the Cold War period plays an
important part in the tourism expansion in Thailand. During this time, Americans were exposed to
Thai culture and became more familiar with Thai cuisine and Thai massages. I show that tourists
to Thailand can be grouped into three main groups: 1) leisure tourists 2) business tourists and 3)
medical tourists. In this chapter, I establish how the U.S. government’s involvement in Thailand
during the Cold War era and after paved the way for Americans to become familiar with Thai
cuisines and Thai massages.
The influence of the U.S. government in Thailand during the Cold War along with
changing U.S. immigration policy led to more Thai people to migrate to the United States. Thai
immigrants can be categorized into three main groups: 1) students 2) professionals and 3) spouses.
Many Thai immigrants that decided to settle down in the United States soon realized that they
147
faced a limited labor market and in turn came to recognize the cultural recognition of Thai food
and Thai massage as a new market opportunity. I finish the chapter with the contemporary data on
Thai immigrants in the United States.
Chapter 3, “Cultural Funneling,” builds upon Waldinger’s work (1996) which explains
how ethnic groups based on their specializations, skills, and languages predispose them to
particular occupations and how they maintain those specializations over time. I find that Thai
immigrants engage in what I call “cultural funneling,” that is, they respond to the demand of the
market and use their networks to gain those necessary skills which not only allows them to work
in those fields but also to open a business in those fields once an opportunity arises. Thai
immigrants thus have a predisposition to be in a business that markets or sells Thai ethnic goods
and services such as Thai restaurants and Thai massage businesses. In this chapter, I investigate
Thai business owners’ pathway to becoming cultural business owners. Structural forces, social
networks, and one's work experience funnel Thais into ethnic businesses.
Later in the chapter, I discuss the gains and losses of cultural funneling. The gain is
obvious, by being funneled into Thai businesses, it leads to the creation of a Thai ethnic market in
the United States. Yet, cultural funneling also has its flaws. First, as Thais are highly immersed in
their own community, this limits their integration into the U.S. society. Second, many Thai
business owners are unable to utilize their skills and education credential from Thailand in the U.S.
labor market, compromising their social status. Further, work in a coethnic business has proven to
be laborious; many claim that it greatly compromises their health. Lastly, because many Thais had
previously work in white-collar jobs in Thailand they find their new job challenging.
The following chapter, chapter 4, “Inventing Thainess,” shows that Thai business owners
foreground their “foreignness” to market the ethnic product of Thai food and Thai massage as
148
authentically Thai. Success in the market for Thai business owners is rooted in the “foreignness”
of their establishments. To explain Thai business owners’ attempt to invent Thainess, I discuss 1)
the nuances of selling culture 2) the processes of manufacturing culture and 3) the impossibility of
authenticity.
First, I discuss the nuances of selling culture. Both Thai restaurant and Thai massage
business owners are aware of the value of authenticity that consumers give to both services. Thai
business owners accordingly promote authenticity. Yet, what Thai business owners and their
customers consider as authentic differ. This lead to what I term “the mismatch of authenticity.”
Thai business owners, therefore, must negotiate what "authentic" is and present what is acceptable
to their prospective customers in order to succeed in their business.
In this chapter, I also examine the process by which Thai business owners manufacture
culture. Thai business owners market their businesses' authenticity through three main ways: 1)
promoting service authenticity 2) hiring coethnics and 3) having particular décors that suggest
Thainess. I then close the chapter with a discussion on why authenticity is impractical. Authentic
Thai food and Thai massages are impossible to find as authenticity is based on each individual
expectation, which is shaped by their personal belief, perspective, and experience. Therefore, a
service may be considered authentic for one person yet inauthentic for another.
Chapter 5, “Managing Surveillance,” discusses how Thai business owners negotiate and
continue their businesses under strict surveillance by the U.S. government. This is an important
chapter as Angelinos are aware of Thai food and Thai massage yet little is known about the
struggles that Thai business owners face in trying to operate their businesses. The negotiating of
the government daily surveillance is one challenge. I argue that the government surveils Thai
businesses mainly through 1) federal and state laws 2) labor law and regulations and 3) business
149
and professional licenses. Thai business owners acknowledge the government surveillance and
respond either by complying fully or engaging in some sort of negotiation. For federal and state
laws, the focuses are on cash payment to employees and Thai massage businesses providing sex.
These laws aim to ensure that Thai business owners operate their businesses correctly and legally.
Labor laws and regulations, while also regulating Thai businesses, are aimed to protect workers’
rights. Thai business owners with/without intention often engage in four unlawful hiring practices:
1) employment of undocumented workers 2) employee misclassification (employee vs.
independent contractor) 3) wage theft and 4) violation of meal and rest period. Lastly, business
and professional licensing aim to protect the consumers’ rights and safety, for example ensuring
that the services are located in a safe building and that the services are provided by certified/legal
providers.
Policy Implication
My dissertation has several policy recommendations which can benefit the Thai
community as well as the U.S. government. I believe that the state should give Thai business
owners the benefit of the doubt. While it is true that some Thai business owners choose to use
loopholes to maximize profits, others break laws unintentionally. I will provide two examples.
First, concerns sex services in Thai massage places. This is one of the biggest challenges
for the owners as sometimes the massage therapists provide sexual services without the owners’
consent. Yet when the police raid and find that sexual services are offered, both the owners and
massage therapists are prosecuted. Most Thai massage business owners claim that they do their
best to prevent it from happening, for example by scanning both customers and therapists. Yet, the
screening sometimes fails. Second, concerns wage theft. While universally all Thai business
owners in my interview understand minimum wage and accordingly comply, not everyone
150
understands the difference between “over-time” and “double-time.” In both cases, I believe that
before coming to a conclusion that the business owners are intentionally evading the law, the
government should conduct a thorough investigation. It is undeniably Thai business owners' duty
to make sure they understand all the law and regulations and that they seek legal services when
appropriate, yet in some cases, the business owners’ limited English proficiency proves to be the
culprit. Some owners admit to certain crimes, even if not guilty because they did not understand
what the police or the government official said.
To resolve this issue, I believe that many cases of misconduct among Thai business owners
can be avoided if the government reach out more to this small community. First, as English is a
second language for Thai people, most do not understand official laws. Therefore, while Thai
business owners try to comply with city requirements, many find it rather difficult because of their
English inability. An interpreter, therefore, should be available without charge. Second, many Thai
business owners complain of the difficulties to keep fully updated with all the government
regulations. I believe that one way to help keep all business owners up to date is to have them go
in for an orientation annually and inform them in person and provide a translator to ensure that
they fully understand the new requirements. While it costs money to hold such a seminar, the
benefits outweigh the costs. It leads to safe services for customers and business compliance with
the law. Also, by having such compulsory orientation, no business owners can claim that they are
not informed. The proposed seminar is worth it as Thai businesses are flourishing and is expected
to continue to do so as more and more Americans are frequenting Thai service establishments.
Lastly, I believe that the government can further help Thai business owners in succeeding
by implementing two policies. The first policy focuses on the Thai chef shortage. Currently, in Los
Angeles, there are more than a thousand Thai restaurants yet the number of Thai chefs available
151
for these restaurants are rather limited. Many Thai restaurants believe that to provide authentic
Thai services, hiring a Thai chef is a must. I believe that if the United States and the Thai
government cooperate and come up with a program that targeted chefs, this can help ease the Thai
chef shortage. At present, while chefs and cooks can come to the United States via different visa
channels, for example, E-2, H-2B and J-1, yet the process is rather long and arduous. Often, these
visas are granted to foreign nationals that work in hotels and large restaurants but not to smaller
establishments (VisaPlaceNews 2018; VisaPro Immigration Attorneys 2018b). Therefore, such a
program will help ease the Thai chef shortage phenomenon as most Thai restaurants are small
businesses. At the same time the program will fund the U.S. government through program
processing fees.
The second policy is in helping Thai massage therapists to get certified. One criterion to
obtain the CAMTC certification is to pass one of the exams approved by the CMATC. Most Thai
massage therapists take the MBLEx exam yet MBLEx exam is still available only in English and
Spanish (Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards 2018). In the future, if possible, an exam in
Thai language will greatly help Thai massage therapists as many find the exam quite difficult to
pass. Certified therapists are beneficial not only to Thai massage business owners and the therapists
themselves but also to the consumers who can be confident that they receive the service from a
person with required knowledge.
Future Research
While this is one of the first studies on Thai business owners in Los Angeles that provide
many insights into the business operation of Thai ethnic services, there are still limitations. First,
this study is based on the perspectives of the employers and not the employees. A study on the
152
workers’ perceptions on these very same topics: cultural funneling, inventing Thainess, and
managing surveillance can shed light on these topics in a new way.
First, for cultural funneling, Thai business owners represent successful cases who were
able to accumulate enough skills and savings to open their own businesses. Yet it would also be
interesting to examine the workers’ experience who are still in the process and study the challenges
they face in trying to become a business owner. For inventing Thainess, while it is clear that the
owners were trying their best to present Thainess in order to attract customers, this study does not
permit us to understand the workers’ experience in being a part of the process of inventing
Thainess. Research can be conducted on the workers’ awareness in being a part of the authentic
presentation, for instance. Lastly, for managing surveillance, while this study allows us to hear the
Thai business owners’ perspective on how they deal daily with government surveillance, it does
not lend us to understand the workers’ experience in this aspect. A study on the workers’
perspective in getting a license and experiencing a raid while working can lead to some interesting
findings.
This research also provides a starting point for comparative research on whether the
immigrant integration policies of the host country has any effects on one ability to operate an ethnic
business, if so to what extent. This premise could be tested with fieldwork in other countries that
have different immigrant integration policies. For example, Thai business owners in France and
Germany– destinations with low integration policy planning.
By conducting a comparative research on Thai ethnic businesses, similar topics in this
dissertation can be examined. This dissertation focuses only on Los Angeles County which is home
to the largest Thai population outside of Thailand. The amount of Thai population I believe affects
the cultural funneling process. For example, in Los Angeles County, there are many places in
153
which Thai immigrants can go and learn the trade prior to opening their own businesses. In other
countries which have a small amount of Thai population such as Spain Thai immigrants may have
difficulties in gaining access to jobs in coethnic businesses. Alternatively, the size of the Thai
population in the host country I believe can influence the way Thai business owners invent and
present Thainess. Perhaps, in countries where the Thai population is very small Thai business
owners may have to exaggerate the Thainess of their services as Thai culture is not as widely
recognized.
Lastly, with regard to laws and regulations and professional licensing, as different countries
have different laws, regulations, and professional license requirements from the United States, the
government surveillance may be different from that of the U.S. case. This then could affect how
Thai people in those countries respond to the government, resulting for instance in a different set
of challenges in operating their ethnic businesses.
154
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Appendix A
IRB Approval
177
178
Appendix B
Interview Protocol
Background (the migration histories of Thai business owners, social networks, family, and
government loans)
1) Which part of Thailand did you come from? What was your job prior to moving to the
United States? (List all the past jobs you have had)
2) When and why did you migrate to the United States? Why at this location? Is this your first
destination in the United States? (Type of visa hold, 1
st
or 2
nd
generation)
3) What was your first job in the United States? How did you get that job?
(Friend/family/formal)
4) When and why did you open this business?
5) How did you open this business? Did you received help from anyone? Does any of your
family/relative or friends have a similar business? If so, is it in this same town/state? Does
this help you in your business? Why?
6) From what resources did you draw on to open this business? E.g. personal/family savings,
loans, etc. Is there any government loan available that you know of to support the business
that you are in? If so, did you take benefits of such policy?
7) Is it difficult to open this kind of business in the United States? Are there legal barriers
enforced by national and local governments on foreigners in opening this kind of business?
8) How long has this business been in operation? Is this your first business? Is this your only
business? If not, where are the other businesses? What is the difference between this
business and the other businesses of yours? (Location, customers, etc.)
The Operation of the Business (functions of Thai business in ethnic community)
9) Can you describe the daily routine of your business? What time it opens/closes? What is
the peak hour?
10) How many days do you open a week? Are there certain days/holidays that you close your
business?
11) Who are the majority of your customers? (Thais/Americans, young/old, mixed)?
12) Is this a family business or are there shareholders? How do you divide the work in the
business, can you describe who does what in details? What are your main contributions to
this business?
13) How do you see your business as benefiting Thais or everyone else in the community?
14) For restaurants only: Where do you get all the food ingredients for your restaurant? E.g.
Thai/China Town. What do people usually order? (Popular dish of the restaurant) Do you
have to change the way you cook or serve certain food to a certain customer? E.g. serve
fillet instead of whole fish.
179
Employment and the Process of Employment (race, gender, and class constituted in the
operation of Thai businesses)
15) How many workers do you have? (Male, female) Can you specify their duties? E.g. Chef,
waitress, therapists, etc. Are they Thai or of another race/ethnicity? How long have you
employed them for?
16) How did you find your workers? Can you describe the process of hiring? (From Thailand
through petition or from locals through formal job openings or through referrals) Do they
work at your business full-time or part-time? Do you allow your workers to work at other
businesses or other jobs? Why?
17) What do you look for in your workers e.g. certain characteristics? Do you give priority to
certain characteristics when candidates come in for the job interview e.g. young, Thai,
certain gender, have legal documents, etc?
18) Can you address the cost of hiring each worker? Do you provide your workers any benefits?
If so, what kind of benefits? E.g. free lunch. Do all workers receive the same benefits?
19) Do you give your worker’s day off? Or rest period? Do all workers receive the same amount
of day off or rest period?
20) Do you monitor your worker’s work? Why? If you do monitor, how?
21) How do you evaluate your workers’ job performance?
22) Do you have to train your workers?
23) Are there certain restrictions on your workers? E.g. uniform, etc.
Competition (cultural construction of “Thai” as a commodity/ resources and policies enable the
operation of Thai businesses?)
24) Are there many competitors in this town/state? Are the competitors other Thai businesses
that offer similar services or any business that offers similar service?
25) How do you propagate your business? What makes your business unique than other Thai
businesses? E.g. price (how do you know which price to set for certain service?),
authenticity (taste, decoration, menu), etc.
Legal Criteria
26) Are you aware of the legal standards for hiring workers for your enterprise? If so, can you
elaborate? E.g. minimum wage, safety precautions, and tax.
27) Are you familiar with the changes in the law regarding your business? How do you keep
yourself updated with such law? How do you feel about the changes? Do you think it is
important to follow the law?
Future (transnationalism)
28) What are your aspirations for your business? Do you want to see any changes?
180
29) Do you plan on having your children or anyone else (e.g. relatives) to succeed this business
after your retired?
30) Do you plan to go home "for good" in Thailand? Do you still keep in touch with your
friends and family back home? If so, how and how often? E.g. phone or video calls, visits,
and remittances.
31) Are there anything else you would like to tell me about?
181
Appendix C
Survey
Thai Business Survey
Background Information
1. Age:
2. Gender: Male Female
3. Marital Status: Single Married Widow Divorced Separated
4. Highest Level of Education Primary school
Junior high
Senior high
Porworchor Other, please specify.
Porworsor
5. Race 6. Nationality
7. The province you are from:
8. You moved to the U.S. in:
9. Why did you migrated to the U.S.?
(You may choose more than one. Please circle your main decision in migrating to the U.S.)
Your family is in the U.S. Other, please specify.
You have friends in the U.S.
For business opportunities.
10. The first time you came to the U.S., which VISA did you hold?
Tourist
Student
Other, please specify.
Bachelor degree
Master degree
PhD
182
11. Currently, what VISA are you holding?
Tourist
Student
Other, please specify.
12. The first time you came to the U.S., what was your first job?
13. How did you find that job?
Through families.
Through friends.
Other, please specify.
Business Operation
14. Kind of Business:
Thai restaurant
Massage/Spa
Other, please specify.
15. Why did you choose to open this business?
(You may choose more than one. Please circle your main decision in opening this business.)
I used to run this kind of business in Thailand.
I have families in the U.S. who are in this business.
I have friends in the U.S. who are in this business.
It requires little investment compared to other businesses.
It yeilds high profit compared to other businesses.
Other, please specify.
16. How long have this business been in operation?
183
17. Why did you open this business in this city?
(You may choose more than one. Please circle your main decision in opening the business in this city.)
I have families who are in this business in this city.
I have friends who are in this business in this city.
There's a high chance of success due to:
Other, please specify.
18. When you initially opened the business, from which resources do you draw from?
Personal savings.
Loans from families.
Loans from friends.
Loans from other sources. Please specify.
19. When you first opened the business, how much did you invest? (USD)
20. When you first opened the business, did you received help from any organizations?
Yes.
No (please skip to question 23 ).
21. If you answered "Yes" that you did received help from an organization, please select which
organization you received help from.
(You may choose more than one organization. Please circle the organization that you mainly seek help from.
If you know the name of the organization, please specify.)
Thai Government.
The U.S. Government.
Private organization.
Other, please specify.
184
22. In what ways did that organization helped you?
(You may choose more than one. Please circle the major assistance you received.)
Money (no contract)
Money (loan)
Counseling Please specify type of counseling.
Other, please specify.
23. Your business:
Is a family business (please skip to question 25).
Has shareholders. Please specify amount of shareholders.
24. If your business has shareholders, the shareholders are:
Thais.
Foreigners. Please specify their nationalities.
25. The customer base of your business are:
(You may choose more than one. Please circle the main customers.)
Teenagers. Thais.
Working groups. Foreigners.
Families. Other, please specify.
26. What strategies do you utilize in attracting your customers?
(You may choose more than one. Please circle the main strategy.)
a. Restaurant business
Food Taste (deliciousness) Worthiness
Authenticity Decoration
Variety of food Service
Cleanliness Other, please specify.
Price
( other businesses please go to next page, page5)
185
b. Other businesses
Authenticity Decoration
Cleanliness Service
Price Other, please specify.
Worthiness
27. The popular dish/goods/service of your business is:
28. Your business opens and closes at:
29. The peak hours of your business are:
30. How many days per week does your business open? Please specify.
31. Are there certain days or holidays that you closes your business?
Christmas
New Year
Other, please specify.
32. Your estimated annual earnings from the business after deducting the expenses (USD).
33. You have:
1 branch (please skip to question 36 ).
2 branches
More than 2 branches, please specify the amount.
(The survey has not ended, please continue to page 6).
186
34. If you have more than 1 branch, how are the branches similar or different?
Similar Different
Location (city)
Customers
Types of goods/services
Strategies in attracting customers.
Open and close time.
Other, please specify.
35. In the previous question, if you said different in any headings, please clarify how they are different.
The Hiring Process of the Workers
36. How many workers do you have?
37. Please specify how many workers are: Male Female
a. Restaurant business
Managers
Chefs
Waiters
Cleaners
Other, please specify.
b. Other businesses
Managers
Cashiers
Cleaners
Other, please specify.
187
38. Please specify how many workers are: Thai Foreigner
a. Restaurant business (Please specify the worker's nationality)
Managers
Chefs
Waiters
Cleaners
Other, please specify.
b. Other businesses
Managers
Cashiers
Cleaners
Other, please specify.
39. Please specify how many workers are: Part-time Full-time
a. Restaurant business
Managers
Chefs
Waiters
Cleaners
Other, please specify.
b. Other businesses
Managers
Cashiers
Cleaners
Other, please specify.
(The survey has not ended, please continue to page 8).
188
The Salary and the Welfare of the Workers
40. Salary per month/Salary per hour (please specify amount)
a. Restaurant business
Managers
Chefs
Waiters
Cleaners
Other, please specify.
b. Other businesses
Managers
Cashiers
Cleaners
Other, please specify.
41. Apart from the salary, do workers receive any other benefits?
42. Do workers have a day off? Please specify in details.
a. Restaurant business
Managers
Chefs
Waiters
Cleaners
Other, please specify.
b. Other businesses
Managers
Cashiers
Cleaners
Other, please specify.
189
43. Do workers have a rest period? Please specify in details.
a. Restaurant business
Managers
Chefs
Waiters
Cleaners
Other, please specify.
b. Other businesses
Managers
Cashiers
Cleaners
Other, please specify.
44. Normally, through what channels do you find your workers?
(You may choose more than one. Please circle the main channel.)
Through newspaper advertisement.
Through referals.
The candidates come in themselves.
Other, please specify.
45. What do you consider in hiring a worker? List from 1 to 4.
(1) for the most important characteristic and (4) for the least important characteristic.
Please elaborate where applicable. If you did not consider such factor please put 0.
Age
Gender
Nationality
Legal working documents
Other, please specify.
190
46. Normally, do you allow your workers to work at other businesses? Why?
47. Normally,through which channels do you learn of the news regarding your business?
(You may choose more than one. Please circle the main channel.)
Self-study.
Thai Government.
The U.S. Government.
Private Organization.
Other, please specify.
Future Plans
48. After you retired, who would be taking over your business?
Family members.
Friends.
Sell the business over to those interested.
I have never thought of this.
Other, please specify.
49. Do you plan to return to Thailand permanently?
Yes. Please specify.
No, I will live in the U.S. permanently.
I have not decided.
(The survey has not ended, please continue to page 11).
191
50. What factors influence your decision to stay or leave the U.S.?
(You may choose more than one. Please circle the main factor for such decision.)
I want to be close to my family. They are in
I miss Thailand.
I do not want to abandon my business.
If I return to Thailand, I have an uncertain future.
Other, please specify.
51. Currently, do you keep in contact with your families and/or friends in Thailand?
I keep in touch with my family.
I keep in touch with my friends.
I keep in touch with both my family and my friends.
I don’t keep in touch with either my family or my friends (please skip to question 53) .
52. If you still keep in touch with your family and/or friends in Thailand, through which channels
do you contact them?
(You may choose more than one. Please circle the main channel for such contact.)
Letters.
Email.
Phone.
Social network e.g. facebook, skype.
Other, please specify.
53. Do you send remitances (money) to Thailand?
Yes. (Please specify how often and how much).
No.
The survey has ended. Thank you very much for your participation!
Abstract (if available)
Abstract
This study examines the business operations of Thai entrepreneurs in Los Angeles County. Los Angeles County is home to the largest Thai population outside of Thailand and is the only place with a designated Thai Town in the United States. While Thai entrepreneurs engage in different kinds of businesses, the two most prominent businesses are Thai restaurants and Thai massages. This dissertation focuses on the experience and the perspective of Thai business owners in operating their businesses. Most are first-generation Thai immigrants. The study examines Thai business owners' migration histories, motivations for opening an ethnic business, business operations, employment processes, perceptions of gender, race, and ethnicity in the workplace, strategies of market competitions, and future plans. ❧ This study relies primarily on seventy-eight semi-structured interviews with Thai business owners in Los Angeles County from 2015 to 2017. The data reveals that the Thai community engages in what I call “cultural funneling”—a predisposition of Thai immigrants to be in a business that markets or sells Thai ethnic goods and services. I discuss how structural forces, along with social networks and one’s work experience funnel Thais into ethnic businesses. I then discuss the gains and the losses of being in an ethnic business. My data also reveals how Thai business owners engage in the construction of “Thainess” for their business prosperity. Yet, as they operate their businesses they soon realize that there is a mismatch between perspectives of Thai business owners and the consumers on what is “authentic.” I then study how business owners try to resolve this misunderstanding. Another important finding is that all Thai business owners at one point or another discuss how they are constantly surveilled by the U.S. government and how that affects their business operation. Thai business owners, while trying to cut costs to increase their profit margins, must navigate their ways within the U.S. laws and regulations. These findings have significant implications for the sociological fields of immigration, culture, and race.
Linked assets
University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
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Coming of age through my eyes
Asset Metadata
Creator
Kantachote, Krittiya
(author)
Core Title
Thai entrepreneurs in Los Angeles
School
College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Degree Program
Sociology
Publication Date
10/17/2018
Defense Date
09/28/2018
Publisher
University of Southern California
(original),
University of Southern California. Libraries
(digital)
Tag
authenticity,cultural funneling,government surveillance,immigrant entrepreneurship,inventing Thainess,Los Angeles,OAI-PMH Harvest,Sociology,Thai entrepreneur,Thai immigrants,Thai massage,Thai restaurant,Thailand
Format
application/pdf
(imt)
Language
English
Contributor
Electronically uploaded by the author
(provenance)
Advisor
Parrenas, Rhacel Salazar (
committee chair
), Biblarz, Tim (
committee member
), Kurashige, Lon (
committee member
)
Creator Email
kantacho@usc.edu,kitkatmeow17@hotmail.com
Permanent Link (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c89-83194
Unique identifier
UC11676715
Identifier
etd-Kantachote-6873.pdf (filename),usctheses-c89-83194 (legacy record id)
Legacy Identifier
etd-Kantachote-6873.pdf
Dmrecord
83194
Document Type
Dissertation
Format
application/pdf (imt)
Rights
Kantachote, Krittiya
Type
texts
Source
University of Southern California
(contributing entity),
University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
(collection)
Access Conditions
The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...
Repository Name
University of Southern California Digital Library
Repository Location
USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA
Tags
authenticity
cultural funneling
government surveillance
immigrant entrepreneurship
inventing Thainess
Thai entrepreneur
Thai immigrants
Thai massage
Thai restaurant