The far north and northeast are home to about 600,000 hill tribespeople with their own languages, and to permanently settled refugees from Laos, mostly of the Hmong tribal group. The large Chinese community is the most assimilated in southeast Asia. Sino-Thais are particularly dominant in agricultural marketing. Most of Thailand's one million Muslim Malays live in southern Thailand, bordering Malaysia. They feel stronger affinity with Muslims in Malaysia than with Thai culture, and this has given rise to a secessionist movement.
Women are important in business, but their involvement in national politics is limited.