Paper short abstract:

Legally recognized as male, Kathoey, Thai transgenders MTF migrants risk constantly to be controlled in daily situations, therefore their transgender experience can also be exposed. This communication aims to show how kathoey negotiate their female identity in European countries of settlement.

Paper long abstract:

This presentation will expose how Kathoey, or Thai transgenders MTF migrants struggle for their life and their gender in European countries. Within transnational context, western societies, less familiar to transgender persons, offer kathoey a possibility to live as a woman. Their female identity is based on their physical appearance and their ability to pass as female. Nonetheless, kathoey still have to face some difficulties linked to their legal status. Legally considered as men in their homeland, some kathoey seek the way to conceal their legal identity in order to live and work normally in the countries of destination. Some of them manage to get false identity and documents, providing a possibility to work as a woman. Some of them decide to go underground, and become a "Robin Hood", a Thai term for illegal workers. These kathoey are subject to immigration control, police arrest and expulsion, as well as a disclosure of their male identity. Those who decide to keep their legal male identity are also exposed to the same risk. They have to face up different administrative controls in daily life, in which their transgender experiences can be exposed. In fact, kathoeys' female gender is at stack constantly. As a non-European migrant, they are target of the regime of control, which can destabilize or even interrupt their performance as female. Their female gender is uncertain, through lack of official recognition. The communication aims to display how kathoey migrants negotiate their female gender in these unstable situations and how their new social environment perceives their female identity.