Thai Malays

Thai Malays (Standard Malay: Orang Melayu Thailand/Siam, Thai: ไทยเชื้อสายมลายู: Jawi: ملايو تاي; Pattani Malay: Oré Nayu Siae, Bangso Yawi; Bangkok Malay: Oghae Nayu Thai), with officially recognised terms including 'Malayu-descended Thais' and 'Malay', is a term used to refer to ethnic Malay citizens of Thailand, the sixth largest ethnic group in Thailand. Thailand is home to the third largest ethnic Malay population after Malaysia and Indonesia. Most Malays live primarily in the four southernmost provinces of Yala, Narathiwat, Satun and Pattani. They live in one of the country’s poorest regions. They also live in Songkhla, Phuket and Ranong. Trang province, home to a sizeable Muslim population, also has many people who are of Malay descent. Some live in Thailand's capital, Bangkok. They are descended from migrants or deportees who were relocated from the South from the 13th century onwards. Separatist inclinations among ethnic Malays in Narathiwat, Pattani, Yala and Songkhla provinces, the cause of the Southern Thai insurgency, are due in part to cultural differences from the Thai people as well as past experiences of forced attempts to assimilate them into Thai mainstream culture after the annexation of the Sultanate of Patani by Siamese Rattanakosin Kingdom. In 1816, Siam divided the sultanate into seven provinces as part of a policy of 'divide and rule'.