Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the "Refugee influx" into Thailand. What are we talking about here? I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Phuket News, that is thephuketnews.com, the article is titled: Thailand braces for refugee influx. Quoting directly: "Thailand is prepared to accept 100,000 refugees fleeing fighting in Myanmar after rebel forces seized control of Myawaddy, a border town opposite Tak's Mae Sot District, according to Foreign Affairs Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara." 

So again, I urge those who are watching this video, go check out that article. It's got a lot of good insight, a lot of good details. I just wanted to make a quick video on this. I don't really want to get into talking about Myanmar and what's going on over there. Quite honestly, it's a human tragedy; it's a humanitarian crisis. I do think Thailand is taking the appropriate stance which is neutrality, but trying to help refugees as and where they can. 

Will this have an impact on Immigration for other foreigners, so-called expats, whatever you want to call it, Farang, foreigners here in Thailand? I could see it going either way and a lot of people have actually asked me this here recently; I could see it going either way. Yeah again, Immigration matters that at first seem to apply only to a narrow subset of people or one group, oftentimes have broader implications so maybe we will see some ramifications of this whole thing. But bear in mind it is just another indicator of the pressure that is on the Thai Immigration apparatus. Combine that with the fact that we have seen massive influx of foreigners coming in Visa-free; we have also seen a massive influx of foreigners that seem to be behaving badly and we also seem to be dealing with, especially down there in Phuket, an influx of foreigners who are working illegally, or operating illegal businesses and Thai Immigration is expending a great deal in terms of time and resources to go after those issues, to tackle those issues. So again this just sort of adds one more issue that Thai Immigration is going to have to deal with. Could it have ramifications broadly? Maybe, I kind of doubt it. This is kind of a narrow issue that pertains to one particular geographic area out here. But that being said, such things do have a tendency to spiral into bigger things, sort of mushroom out into more broadly or more broad programs which can then impact more foreigners here in Thailand. Whether or not that comes to pass remains to be seen, but we will certainly keep you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.