Thai communities in Vienna

Abstract

'This article provides a short overview on Thais in Vienna, offering some selected impressions of the second largest South-East Asian community in Austria. For a long time immigrants have mainly been portrayed as cheap labor force and low-skilled workers who were recruited in order to counter the problem of labor shortage in Austria (Castles & Miller, 2003; Mayer, 2010). Indeed, immigrants from all over the world have shaped the appearance and development of Vienna for centuries. In this context, not much is known about South-East Asian communities in Vienna. Official data of Statistik Austria (2010a) registered 22,551 South-East Asians in Austria, with more than half of them living in Vienna. This number includes persons who hold a South-East Asian citizenship (whether they were born in Austria or abroad) as well as persons who were born in South-East Asia but now hold Austrian citizenship.' (extract)