Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are asking whether or not there might end up being a public backlash in Thailand regarding Immigration Policies. I'm doing a number of videos contemporaneously with this one where I am talking about this so-called long-stay Visa that was, we saw it sort of percolate up through the ether of Immigration within the past roughly I guess 8 weeks, maybe it's more like 10, 12 weeks, but we're sort of dealing with kind of the aftermath of it. I have commented on this before. I've done videos on this before, but this is kind of a general video. I'm doing this talking about one of the articles I'm going to cite here is from Bangkok Post presently, and it's a recent article. I don't know where I'm going to put this video out sort of within the tranche of videos that I'm making on this. 

I want to preface this video by saying I'd like this video to be viewed sort of separate and apart from maybe the other ones where I am talking about this stuff in a more technical sense, because I'm talking about a prevailing, if you will political, possible political trend, that could percolate up here in Thailand. Here's what I'm also not doing. I've been accused many times of being some kind of hater of the digital nomads or whatnot. I'm not, it's just, look I came up during a different time. I'm used to a different system; fair enough. I've been monitoring all the visas and immigration stuff for going on 10 years, well actually going on 20 years now if you go back into my old blogging days but I've been doing it in earnest on video for going on 10. I'm not making this video to try to cause anybody consternation although I'll probably get accused of it in the comments and whatnot, just like I got burned all the time for giving what I viewed as very pertinent, real time advice to the retirees over time about various things that had to do with the Retirement Visas and boy howdy, do I remember when I made something that said, "hey you want to watch out on the Income Affidavit stuff because that could be changing." Boy they burned me down, and I turned out to be right.

I'm only bringing this up because there may be something to this, what is going on both in the Bangkok Post article and then I'm going to go ahead and cite something from another source, and get into the analysis of comparing the two. But the point I'm trying to make here is look, and this is something especially new, if you want to say putative want to be whatever, expats should be aware of. If you're new here - and by new like less than 3 years - and I know some of you would, "oh, what are you talking about; it's been three years." Well yeah, it is what it is but three years, I mean it's post-COVID. It's a totally different immigration system from pre-COVID effectively, and frankly, it's not impossible we could revert back. The point I'm trying to make is for folks that have only been here a relatively short period of time, understand how trends kind of work, and cycles kind of work in Immigration. Also remember, policy makers here have a tendency from time to time to throw things against the wall and sort of see if it sticks, and then if it doesn't, things fall by the wayside. The point I'm trying to make here is, and the other thing, another big point is cycles. Thailand is not in the same if you will cycle as other jurisdictions economically, politically, even socially. Thailand has its own cadence, it has its own rhythm. What could be said a few years ago about the paradigm on immigration is not going to necessarily be true today and on top of that, what you may me thinking right at this moment may not be the way things play out over the next few months. And I have to say, at least following what appears to be April, I think we'll probably have a sitting Parliament by some time in April; I think we will definitely have it sometime in April. Exactly when between now and April that that could happen remains to be seen. I think there's a very good possibility as discussed in another video I made on this channel where the late great Barry Kenyon from down in Pattaya had said, he has speculated that in the aftermath of the new Parliament, we would be seeing a new Immigration Act. I thought that was unlikely at that time. In the interim I've come to the conclusion that he was probably right. That being said, the point I'm trying to make in prefacing this video is, don't hate on me; I'm not making this because I hate nomads. I'm making this because I'm trying to help you guys frankly. I am trying to give you some insight into how the thinking may go on this, to hopefully allow you to make decisions regarding your visas in a better way.

That being said, and the thumbnail is actually from one of the citations I'm going to get to here in a moment and it's not from Thailand; let me be clear. That's a thumbnail that's out of Mexico, and let me just jump in here though. I thought of making this video initially after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Phuket up in arms on long-stay Visa. Now again, I mentioned that I'm making this video, I'm making this one first. I'm going to make a number of videos contemporaneously with this one where I cite various things and talk about a lot of these similar topics, but this video itself is for use to provide some insight into the possible shift in paradigm.

By the way, if you're interested in further information about news and views on Thailand, please check us out over on the Integrity News Service channel - I will put the link in the description below to the new service channel - I've got new content going up on there if you are, at least for now, Checkpoint Benji which is sort of my new show specifically on there. So if you are interested in that, go check that out. Also while I'm plugging, probably worth pointing out my better half and I set up a restaurant here in downtown Bangkok. Pancake Palace, it's breakfast anytime as the name implies. It's not just American breakfast, we also have English breakfast, down there as well as American Diner style food. It is not just a breakfast place: we've also got hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chilli bowls, buffalo wings. So if you're interested, please come see us down there; links are in the description below. 

That said, said quoting, Bangkok Post, Phuket up in arms on long-stay Visa: Quote: "In some countries booming tourism and short-term property rentals have led to protests by locals, who blame them for surging housing prices." And yeah, this is the end of that article. There's a lot more information in that article. I do a lot more analysis in videos I made contemporaneously with this one, but that said, this specific issue I've been kind of wondering about this and actually bear in mind, I thought about this for about 6 months. So you folks out there that want to hate on me for saying I've got some problem with the Nomads, I kind of held back on this because frankly I didn't really want to interject in unduly insofar as I wasn't quite sure where the thinking on this was possibly going until reading this article from Bangkok Post. But that's said, and we're citing actually where we got the thumbnail photo from, which is WeareMitu actually, wearemitu.com.  and it's under the title: Protests in Mexico Reveal Deep Frustration With Gentrification, Digital Nomads and Soaring Rents. Now if you go read that article in Bangkok Post, if you read the whole thing, that's the main gist of what this Phuket - I think this person was from either the Tourism Association or Hotels Association - was bringing up. And look, these are folks that are wanting to be encouraging of folks coming in but there are concerns from locals. That said, there are some echoes of this from Mexico, and also bear in mind this article is from July 8, 2025. So again, while Thailand isn't exactly on the same cycle as the rest of the world, things or developments in other places, do have a sort of tendency to echo here. That said, quoting directly: "It started with signs. Then chants. Then smashed storefronts. On July 4, hundreds of people took to the streets of Mexico City to protest the rising cost of living in neighbourhoods like Condesa and Roma. They called out mass tourism, the influx of digital nomads, and a housing crisis that has priced many locals out of their own homes." Look, I find it interesting, going back over here to Bangkok Post: "In some countries, booming tourism and short-term property rentals have led to protest by locals." That's all brought up in this article and look I think maybe what we are seeing, and I've discussed this before in other videos, how during the military government - say what you will about them, there's much to be said - but for example this country didn't deal with the World Economic Forum for nearly a decade. We didn't see all of this and there are those who would say "westernization", or even there are those that would look down on us out here and say, "civilization coming to you, or progress". I always love "progress", that term. What are we progressing toward exactly? “I'm a progressive”. Progressive to what? Lemmings can be progressive to going over a cliff; it's not always the greatest thing to be in motion. That being said, as I brought up, this country has been sort of hermetically sealed for quite a little while. I think it's definitely relevant to say that since the election Thailand has put very much behind her in terms of old political cleavages, things of that nature. I have no doubt, I made it clear on this channel, I'm very optimistic for Thailand's economic future. I think we are going to see boom times ahead in many different sectors in Thailand; I think Thailand, the only way we are going is up. 

That being said, these issues may percolate up over here and one of the big ones is Airbnb. I have talked to a lot of folks in a lot of places that are tourists, towns and areas, Aspen, Colorado is apparently super bad about this. A friend of mine, actually I haven't heard from in a while, but I met some time ago, Doug Casey talked about living in Aspen. And I've heard him talk in later podcasts about how Aspen - I remember them talking about one thing having to do with Airbnb.- and how Airbnb had basically priced out all the locals, the people who like work at the ski resorts and things, from being able to actually rent something that they can live in so that they can go to work, and that this was a big problem. These issues could sneak, they could seep in here if you will to Thailand, there could be ramifications for this. I find it very interesting that this is being brought up at this point, because this is pretty early days for not only this notion of Nomad Visas, but this Long-Stay Visa specifically which I get into in other videos, but we're coming off of a pretty good high season. Frankly I think it's better than it could have been especially considering all the circumstances that befell Thailand in 2025 going into high season, then coming out of it. I'm very optimistic again for the future. 

But that being said, look there could be a backlash to this because there could be certain negative ramifications to all these changes in the way people think of travel, in the way that they think of moving to a country. It's not the same paradigm as it once was where people came out here and looked to expatriate. It's this notion of, "well I'm a nomad", and then it becomes the whole thing where, are you really contributing to the country. Again, not getting into that whole debate, just saying I think we could be seeing a situation in Thailand building up where the whole issue itself of nomad travel if you will, may come to a head. That being said, do I think it's going to happen particularly quickly? Not really. I think this will happen over the coming months and maybe years, but I definitely think it will fuel analysis, especially by policy makers regarding Immigration Policy here in the Kingdom of Thailand.