“Migrant workers are not aliens. No matter how dirty, they do it for Thais,” sang Paradon. The Bangkok-based band’s was the opening performance in a month-long exhibition on migrant workers that opened in Bangkok in the third week of February. The lyrics—like the art works on show—aim to get Thais thinking about the more than two million migrants who are often deprived of key rights in the host society that benefits from their labour. Thailand—a magnet for migrants from neighbouring Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos—is in the midst of a controversial debate on migrant workers.
Liz Hilton, among the eight artists featured in the exhibition, explained people migrate to search for a better life.
Her installation ‘Reflecting on Today. Imagining Tomorrow’ uses toy figures of people to create a landscape that allows viewers a chance to recreate how they think migrants’ lives should be like.
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