One of the things that people like me, members of the expat community here in Thailand will constantly complain about is that the visa rules keep changing and sometimes it can be very difficult to get a visa at all. Thailand is always creating new rules to entice travelers but at the same time they almost seem to be actively working on getting the long-term expats to get the hell out of the country when we also spend money here.
I've kind of figured out why they are constantly chasing down people who live here long term though and that is because these people generally speaking have very little or no money and don't really benefit the economy very much. Thailand, like most countries, wants tourists, but they don't want the kind of people that just make the place crowded and don't spend anything while they are here.
The above image is from a series of articles that were circulating not long ago about a group of westerners that were unlovingly referred to as "begpackers" who would have the gall to sit in public places like markets with signs telling the truth that they were trying to finance their continued travels with donations from people. This was met with deserved criticism and relative rage by the online community because anyone that lives here knows that there are a lot of very very poor people living here as well as a bunch of homeless so to see someone sitting in a market where the average person probably makes $20 a day if they are lucky begging to be able to continue their relaxed life of traveling around the world, would definitely be infuriating to me as well.
I saw a cartoon recently about how the expat community like myself and others who work here legally, get probably more fed up with these people than the local population do
For me, I am the guy in the white shirt and tie in this pic. It is extremely time consuming for me to maintain my visa and work permit and it incorporates me going to work at a job that I don't necessarily like all that much. This is the price I pay to stay here so if I were to ever see some of these begpackers I would probably give them an earful.
This sort of thing is one of the many reasons why the Thai government is constantly changing visa rules to make it more difficult for people to stay here indefinitely. While a vast majority of the people who live here long-term are playing by the rules, working doing at least something to benefit society, there are also a minority that seem to think that this country is their playground that also just happens to have easy access to drugs. I know some of these people and I pity them and hate them at the same time. I've seen their housing situation and they live in squalor. They have a mattress that is probably second hand that is on the floor, they have a stolen water bottle crate as a chair, their places are always filthy and of course, they smoke a lot of pot which is where all of their money goes.
When the Thai officials become aware of people like this that are living long term in their country of course they are going to try to eliminate them from the mix. This country, like most countries has a big enough problem with poverty and drug use with their own people, they don't need foreigners in the mix as well.
There have been a ton of articles written about "begpackers" who were sat on the street with a $1200 iPhone while they beg for change from people who make $300 a month if that. How these people can live with themselves is beyond me.
In the meantime people with good intentions like myself and others are put under the microscope regularly because well, we are "farangs" as well. We are not the kind of farangs that would ever sit somewhere and beg for money but Immigration unfortunately treats us all as if we were and this is why visas become increasingly difficult to obtain year after year.
Get a grip people. If you honestly don't have any money why the hell are you traveling in the first place? There are people here that need those handouts in the streets just to get money for food to survive.