Developing Creative City through Networking Immigrants in Phuket Nicha Tovankasame* Faculty of International Studies, Prince of Songkla University, Phuket Campus, Thailand Corresponding author: E-mail: nicha.t@phuket.psu.ac.th Jakraphan Chaopreecha College of Computing, Prince of Songkla University, Phuket Campus, Thailand E-mail: jakraphan.t@phuket.psu.ac.th Abstract Since 2000s, there has been a development of creative economy concepts in which the new ideas and new business domains are supported. In this regard, such creative economy becomes the main mechanism driven a formation of creative city. Key discussions on the formation is the migration of flexible laborers and their enthusiasm in contributing ideas to the local economic sphere. In global societies, many creative cities are developed and interconnected in order to exchange resources – laborer, technology, and knowledge. It could be seen that the endorsement of creative economy requires two significant factors; the mobility of creative laborers and their opportunity to become parts of economic development. However, these factors can play the roles differently from one locality to another in social integration due to the cultural patterns and the government policies. In order to observe the factors in the locality of Thailand, this research has collected ethnographic data in Phuket, one of the UNESCO creative cities. Through anthropological views, the research reveals how creative people construct their networks in which the new ideas and knowledge have been exchanged and circulated. This exchange creates a network of immigrants which introduces the new creative arena to the locality as a result. Keywords: People Climate, Networking Immigrant, Creative City, Phuket Introduction In 2015, Phuket city has been registered as a creative city, gastronomic category 1 . The local culinary culture influenced by Hokkien Chinese immigrants becomes the main resource for the present business development. Many Phuket people have inherited recipes, terms, and techniques in cooking among family members who might start their own restaurants in accordance with the advent of tourism industry since the 1990s. Local scholars have strived to accumulate the information reveling the identities of Phuket recipe, and submitted it to the UNESCO in order to receive the status as a creative city. This permits Phuket locality to access the network of creative city and receive opportunity to be promoted among the network of global tourism industries. In order to maintain a status of creative city, the local government has to implement the policy to support the growth of creative economy. UNESCO likewise designates the criteria or checklist to indicating a status of the city which becomes a framework for the city development. However, the term ‘creative city’ has been variedly interpreted. There has been a discussion what creative city should really be. In 2010, the National Economics and Social Development Council (NESDC, Thai: สํานักงานสภาพัฒนาการเศรษฐกิจและสังคมแห่งชาติ ) had studied and summarized the 1 There are seven categories of the UNESCO creative city – crafts and folk art, design, film, gastronomy, literature, media arts, and music (UNESCO, n.d.).