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Paper short abstract

Drawing on discussions of sovereignty and political subjectivization I ask how the fact of birth is constituted at the margins of the state. I argue that enacting birth documents offers a chance for Shan migrant women in Chiang Mai to bridge the interstice between man and citizen.

Paper long abstract

For transnational migrant populations, securing birth documents of newly born children has crucial importance in avoiding statelessness for new generations. Drawing on discussions of sovereignty and political subjectivization I ask how the very fact of birth is constituted at the margins of the state. Based on ethnographic data collected from an antenatal clinic in Chiang Mai, I explore how Shan migrant women from Burma utilize reproductive health services as a way of assuring a safe birth while acquiring identification documents. Paying close attention to technologies of inscription adopted for maternal care and birth registration, I argue that enacting bureaucratic documents offers a chance for migrant women to bridge the interstice between man and citizen. Birth certificates for migrant children, while embodying legal ambiguity and uncertainty, epitomize non-citizen subjects' assertion of their political relationship with the state.