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Article published In: Diaspora and Asian Spaces in a Transnational World
Edited by Thom Huebner
[Linguistic Landscape 7:2] 2021
► pp. 151–174

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Regime changes and the impact of informal labor

The case of Thai workers in Southern Israel

ORCiD logo with link | Tel Aviv University
Published online: 19 February 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.20010.or
Abstract
In Israel, approximately 25,000 Thai laborers are contracted for agricultural work in all parts of the country, following a series of bilateral agreements between the governments of Israel and Thailand. Various NGOs and agencies have documented numerous violations of labor laws in many Israeli farms, including the lack of safety measures, poor working and living conditions, and extremely low salaries. Israeli discourse on the topic vacillates between the interests of farmers, workers, consumers, and the government (Or, I. G., & Shohamy, E. (2020). “Youth should be sent here to absorb Zionism”: Jewish farmers and Thai migrant workers in southern Israel. In M. Rheindorf, & R. Wodak (Eds.), Sociolinguistic perspectives on migration control: Language policy, identity and belonging (pp. 148–169). Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), and the occasional appearance of reports about the abuse of workers reignites the debate and tensions surrounding these issues. This longitudinal qualitative study, spanning from 2013 to 2019, focuses on the linguistic landscape (LL) of the Central Arava region – an arid, sparsely populated subdistrict in Southern Israel. What makes this region unique is that the number of Thai migrant workers there equals or slightly exceeds that of Hebrew-speaking Jews. Using an LL approach (Jaworski, A., & Thurlow, C. (Eds.). (2010). Semiotic landscapes: Language, image, space. London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Shohamy, E., & Gorter, D. (2009). Introduction. In E. Shohamy, & D. Gorter (Eds.), Linguistic landscape: Expanding the scenery (pp. 1–10). New York & Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; (2012). Linguistic landscapes and multilingualism. In M. Martin-Jones, A. Blackledge, & A. Creese (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of multilingualism (pp. 538–551). Abingdon & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), the 2013 study sought to explore the visibility and vitality of the Thai language as well as its interactions with other languages. The roles that Thai, Hebrew, English, Arabic, and other languages played in the public space clearly revealed the power relations between the speakers of these languages. The 2018–19 follow-up to the original 2013 findings seeks to track the impact on the public space of recent developments such as population changes, the advent of speakers of other languages to the region, the economic crisis, and the public controversy about the exploitation of workers. The study shows that the number of Thai signs has been significantly reduced in recent years, not only pointing to changes in the multilingual reality of the region, but also raising a series of questions about labor conditions, regulation, informal labor markets, and cases of potential mismatch between reality and perceptions.
บทคัดย่อ
ในประเทศอิสราเอล มีแรงงานไทยประมาณ 25,000 คนรับจ้างประกอบอาชีพเกษตรกรรมในทุกภาคส่วนของประเทศตามข้อตกลงทวิภาคีระหว่างรัฐบาลอิสราเอลและไทย ทว่า องค์การนอกภาครัฐและหน่วยงานต่าง ๆ ได้บันทึกถึงการละเมิดกฎหมายแรงงานจำนวนมากในฟาร์มอิสราเอลหลายแห่ง ซึ่งรวมถึงการขาดมาตรการด้านความปลอดภัย สภาพการทำงาน ความเป็นอยู่ที่ไม่ดี และเงินเดือนที่ต่ำมาก การอภิปรายในอิสราเอลเกี่ยวกับหัวข้อนี้ได้แสดงให้เห็นถึงการปะทะกันระหว่างผลประโยชน์ของเกษตรกร คนงาน ผู้บริโภค และรัฐบาล (Or, I. G., & Shohamy, E. (2020). “Youth should be sent here to absorb Zionism”: Jewish farmers and Thai migrant workers in southern Israel. In M. Rheindorf, & R. Wodak (Eds.), Sociolinguistic perspectives on migration control: Language policy, identity and belonging (pp. 148–169). Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) อีกทั้งรายงานเกี่ยวกับการละเมิดแรงงานที่ปรากฏเป็นครั้งคราวนั้นก็ได้ทำให้เกิดการถกเถียงและความตึงเครียดในประเด็นเหล่านี้
การวิจัยเชิงคุณภาพระยะยาวนี้ครอบคลุมตั้งแต่ปี ค.ศ. 2013 ถึง 2019 โดยมุ่งเน้นไปที่ภูมิทัศน์ทางภาษาของภูมิภาคที่เรียกว่าอาราวากลาง ซึ่งเป็นตำบลทางตอนใต้ของอิสราเอลที่แห้งแล้งและมีประชากรกระจัดกระจาย สิ่งที่ทำให้ภูมิภาคนี้มีความโดดเด่นคือจำนวนแรงงานไทยที่มีจำนวนเท่ากับชาวยิวที่พูดภาษาฮีบรูหรือมากกว่านั้นเล็กน้อย การวิจัยในปี ค.ศ. 2013 ได้ใช้วิธีการวิจัยในด้านภูมิทัศน์ทางภาษา (Jaworski, A., & Thurlow, C. (Eds.). (2010). Semiotic landscapes: Language, image, space. London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Shohamy, E., & Gorter, D. (2009). Introduction. In E. Shohamy, & D. Gorter (Eds.), Linguistic landscape: Expanding the scenery (pp. 1–10). New York & Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; (2012). Linguistic landscapes and multilingualism. In M. Martin-Jones, A. Blackledge, & A. Creese (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of multilingualism (pp. 538–551). Abingdon & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) และสำรวจทัศนวิสัยและสภาพในการอยู่รอดของภาษาไทยตลอดจนปฏิสัมพันธ์ของภาษาไทยกับภาษาอื่น ๆ บทบาทของภาษาไทย ฮีบรู อังกฤษ อาหรับ และภาษาอื่น ๆ ในพื้นที่สาธารณะนั้นได้เปิดเผยให้ทราบถึงความสัมพันธ์ทางอำนาจระหว่างผู้พูดภาษาเหล่านี้อย่างชัดเจน การวิจัยติดตามผลในปี ค.ศ. 2018-19 ได้ติดตามถึงผลกระทบของการพัฒนาล่าสุด เช่น การเปลี่ยนแปลงของประชากร การเข้ามาของผู้พูดภาษาอื่นในภูมิภาค วิกฤตเศรษฐกิจ และการโต้เถียงของสาธารณชนเกี่ยวกับการแสวงหาประโยชน์จากคนงาน การวิจัยนี้แสดงให้เห็นว่าจำนวนป้ายภาษาไทยลดลงอย่างมีนัยสำคัญในช่วงไม่กี่ปีที่ผ่านมาซึ่งแสดงให้เห็นถึงการเปลี่ยนแปลงในสภาพความเป็นอยู่แบบหลายภาษาของภูมิภาค อีกทั้งยังตั้งคำถามเกี่ยวกับสภาพแรงงาน กฎระเบียบในการทำงาน ตลาดแรงงานนอกระบบ และเหตุการณ์ที่อาจแสดงถึงการปะทะกันระหว่างการรับรู้และความเป็นจริง
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Methodology
  • The LL findings in 2013
  • The LL findings in 2018–19
  • Informal labor markets
  • Paradoxes of perception
  • Implications and future directions
  • Note
  • References
References (45)
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2025. Linguistic Landscape in Israel: Policy, Research, Practice. In The Handbook of Linguistic Landscapes and Multilingualism, ► pp. 255 ff. DOI logo

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