Migration, Conflict and Illegitimacy: A Malaysian Case Study

Introduction

In 2002, the Malaysian flag was burned outside the Malaysian embassy in Jakarta by Indonesian demonstrators angered by changes to the foreign labor policy that had been recently announced by the Malaysian government, which were seen as directed against migrant workers from Indonesia. Leading Indonesian politicians called for ‘action’ to be taken against the ‘smaller country’. At the height of the bilateral tensions generated by this migration issue, the Malaysian government issued a call for its citizens to refrain from traveling to Indonesia.

Clearly, migration flows – and policy changes – have the potential for generating conflict (see the Introduction, page, for its definition, adopted here, as a disagreement involving a perceived threat), not merely within, but also between nation-states. What needs further exploration, however, is the role played by culture, and by globalization, in migration-generated conflict?

The present standard account of globalization, migration and cultural conflict stems from the West European experience of long-distance guest-worker, asylum and illegal migration of the past four decades. Global migration is here seen as the funnel through which cultural diversity is introduced into a previously homogeneous society, resulting in the formation of new ethnic minorities with different cultural values in conflict with those of the established majority. The actual instances of conflicts which have arisen, especially those with a threateningly violent character, such as the recent controversy over the publication of cartoons deemed to be blasphemous in a Danish newspaper, have tended to reinforce this interpretative template.

This case study examines the contemporary Malaysian experience of globalization, high levels of foreign labor recruitment, and conflict. Malaysia is itself a post-colonial state and multi-ethnic society with a history of migration. Indian and Chinese immigrants came largely during the colonial period, and acquired citizenship with the granting of independence. The indigenous Malays comprise a number of ethnic sub-groups, many of whom are descendants from migrants from present-day Indonesia. Violent internal ethnic conflict in 1969 preceded the new migration which this chapter discusses.

The Migration Landscape in Malaysia

In July 2004, the Malaysian Home Minister announced plans for yet another major deportation exercise (the last one had just been completed in 2002 and had led to the above-mentioned demonstrations in Indonesia) of'more than a million illegal immigrants'. In addition to this figure, there were some 1.3 million legally documented migrant contract workers in July 2004. UNHCR figures for 2003 show 78,682 persons of concern, of whom 7,424 [Page 273]were refugees and 9,205 were asylum seekers. Those without official refugee or asylum seeker status tend to be treated by the government as ‘illegal immigrants’ (Amnesty International 2004).

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