International migration in Southeast Asia: Continuities and discontinuities

Abstract

This book is a collection of work by migration scholars and researchers who are actively conducting fieldwork in Southeast Asia. It presents a wide variety of current research and approaches the field of international labor migration from a regional perspective, acknowledging that the migration process goes beyond local and national boundaries and is embedded in regional and global interconnections. The chapters capture the complexity and richness of the migration phenomenon and experience, which manifests itself in a multitude of ways in a region well known for its diversity. The collection highlights the continuities and discontinuities in the linkages that have been forged through the movement of people between sending and receiving societies. Such linkages are explained by distinguishing between migration that has been sustained by a colonial past and migration that has been precipitated by globalization in the last two decades. The diversity of issues in the region covered by this volume will encourage a rethink of some of the conventional views of migration scholarship and result in a more critical reflection of how we approach migration research. Preface; Contents; 1 Making Sense of Inter and Intraregional Mobility in Southeast Asia; Abstract; References; 2 Weaving Life Across Borders: The Cham Muslim Migrants Traversing Vietnam and Malaysia; Abstract; 2.1 Methodology; 2.2 Conceptual Concerns; 2.3 Labor Brokerage State in Global Capitalist System; Recruitment Mechanisms and Middlemen; 2.4 Sustaining Life in Motion and Gendered Division of Labor; Patterns of Migration; Gendered Division of Labor and Traditions on Trial; 2.5 Risks in the Twenty-first Century Migration; 2.6 Forms of Agency and Empowerment; Network, Trust, Childcare Keeping up with Traditions with CreativityA Success Story of Hard Work and Creativity; Indebtedness of the Labor Export Policy; Refusing to Pay the Loans to Work in Malaysia; Structural Empowerment: Daily Wage Strike; 2.7 Role of Religion; Religious/Islamic Studies: A Global Experience; Religious Practices in Home and Host Countries; 2.8 Conclusion; Acknowledgments; References; 3 Middle Class Filipinos and the Formation of Diasporic National Communities in the United Arab Emirates; Abstract; 3.1 Introduction; 3.2 The Filipino Middle Class in the UAE; 3.3 Filipino Associations in the UAE 3.4 Racial Discrimination and the `Diverting Attention' Strategy3.5 In-Between Temporariness and Settling; 3.6 Seeking Identification in Diasporic National Communities; 3.7 Conclusion; Acknowledgements; References; 4 `Balik Kampung': The Practice of Transborder Retirement Migration in Johor, Malaysia; Abstract; 4.1 Introduction; 4.2 Literature Review: Retirement Migration; 4.3 Integration for Retired Migrants; 4.4 The Main Cast; 4.5 How We Do It; 4.6 Motivations for Retirement Migration; 4.7 Networks in Retirement Migration; 4.8 The Locals in Migration; 4.9 To Kenal Everyone 4.10 Social Capital in the Kampung4.11 Turning Relations into Actions; 4.12 Conclusion; References; 5 Contextualising Geographies of Education-Induced Skilled Migration: How Mobile Malaysians End up in Singapore, London, and Kuala Lumpur; Abstract; 5.1 Introduction; 5.2 Contextualising Geographies of Education-Induced Migration; Skilled and Transnational Migration; International Student Migration (ISM) and the Internationalisation of Higher Education; An Integrated Reading; 5.3 Empirical Background: Malaysia; British Colonial Influence; Ethnic-Stratified Education System 5.4 Bumiputera DifferentiationEducation-Induced Migration; 5.5 Mobile Malaysians' Migration Geographies; JB-Singapore Commuters; MICSS Students; Twinning Programmes; 5.6 Discussion and Conclusion; References; 6 Postcolonial Indian Labour Migration to Malaysia: Trajectories, Trends and Tensions; Abstract; 6.1 Changing Contours of Malaysian Foreign Labour Policy; 6.2 Indian Migration in Historical Perspective; 6.3 Contemporary Indian Migration; Postcolonial Malaysian Economy and Indian Labourers; 6.4 Profile of Indian Migrants to Malaysia; 6.5 Indian Skilled Migration