Immigration to Malaysia

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Immigration to Malaysia is the process by which people migrate to Malaysia to reside in the country. The majority of these individuals become Malaysian citizens. After 1957, domestic immigration law and policy went through major changes, most notably with the Immigration Act 1959/63. Malaysian immigration policies are still evolving.

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In Malaysia there are four categories of immigrants: family class (closely related persons of Malaysian residents living in Malaysia), economic immigrants (skilled workers and business people), other (people accepted as immigrants for humanitarian or compassionate reasons) and refugees (people who are escaping persecution, torture or cruel and unusual punishment).

Currently, Malaysia is known as a country with a broad immigration policy which is reflected in Malaysia's ethnic diversity. According to the 2010 census by the Department of Statistics Malaysia, Malaysia has more than 50 ethnic groups with at least 40% of Malaysians being a first- or second-generation immigrant; also around 30% of Malaysian residents in late 2010s are not born on Malaysian soil.[ citation needed ]

History

Pre-colonial migration

For most of human history people were free to move between regions. Malaysia's first generation of migrants consisted of indigenous peoples, the Orang Asli , believed either to have been among the first wave of human migration from Africa around 50,000 years ago, or to belong to the more recent events of Asian human evolution. [1] [2]

The Malay Peninsula enjoyed a position of strategic importance, connecting Indochina and the Indonesian archipelago, on the trade routes from China to India. [2] As a result, it grew from port towns that thrived on trade, and hosted the next groups of migrants as merchants became domiciled in the ports, some settling permanently and assimilating into the local communities. [3] By the 5th century, networks of these towns had evolved into organised political spheres of influence that contemporary historians describe as mandalas, as each was defined by its centre rather than its borders. At the periphery, control is less certain, borders may become permeable, In fact, mandalas sometimes overlapped, where areas could be subject to several powers, or none. [4]

Langkasuka was among the earliest kingdoms founded on the Malay Peninsula, believed to have been founded in the 2nd century. By the 8th century it had come under the control of the powerful Srivijaya empire, that was based on the island of Sumatra (now part of Indonesia). In the 15th century, the centre of power shifted from Sumatra to the Malay Peninsula as the Malacca Sultanate succeeded Srivijaya as the region's dominant influence. In addition to being linked by political rule, Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula were also linked by intermarriage between Sumatran and Peninsular ruling elite, which led to migration of their followers.

Other significant early migrants are those now classified as Melayu Anak Dagang: non-Malays that migrated to the region and later assimilated into Malay culture (contrasted with Melayu Anak Jati: ethnic Malays that are native to the region): [5]

Researcher Anthony Reid draws another conclusion from this history - that Malaysia, like the US and Australia, is best viewed as an immigrant society: [6]

In Malaysia of course official ideology requires that 62% of the population be regarded as ‘sons of the soil’, defined in racial terms rather than place of birth. But there is also an older pre-nationalist tradition there of understanding Malaya as an immigrant society, and a tendency as in other immigrant societies for the relatively recent migrants in all communities to provide much of the innovative energy and leadership...

The colonial era

The next wave of migration, by Europeans, was particularly significant as it signaled the beginning of the colonial era. The Portuguese arrived first, setting up in Malacca in 1511, while the English East India Company began operation in 1600, and the Dutch East India Company in 1602. As these Europeans settled in this region, they also married locals and other non-Europeans. The inter-racial marriages account for a new set of people in Malaysia, called the Eurasians.[ citation needed ] Adding these new groups to the Arab, Chinese, Indian, and Southeast Asian traders who settled, resulted in the urban complexes of Malacca and Penang becoming extraordinarily plural places, with no dominant community up to the mid-19th Century. [6]

Although the colonial powers established ‘political’ boundaries to demarcate their respective territories, borders were kept open, mainly because of sparse population, and also to encourage immigration and the development of colonial territories. [7]

After the Dutch moved to Indonesia, and with the British acquisitions of Penang (1786), Singapore (1819), Malacca (1824), and British influence in Sarawak (1841) and Sabah (1882), the British became the dominant investor in the region that would become Malaysia.[ citation needed ]

British colonial immigration policy and goals can be divided into three phases. [7]

During the first phase, 1900–27, the country witnessed the expansion of the tin and rubber industries, along with construction of supporting infrastructure, and the entry of thousands of migrant workers to labor in these enterprises. The immigration rate (immigrants per 1,000 population) of Malaya (Peninsula Malaysia and Singapore) was the highest in the world throughout the period 1881-1939, more than ten times the rate of the United States. [6] For Chinese, Indian and Indonesian, entry was completely free and unrestricted. [7]

While Chinese, Indian, and Javanese migrants were often fleeing destitution caused by overpopulation, landlessness, or political turmoil, the indigenous people and Malays generally were not subject to these hardships. Thus, they were not receptive to working as wage labourers for the British colonizers. This meant the colonizers could not meet their aggressive goals of resource exploitation with existing stock of labour, leading them to invite/attract more migrant workers. [7] [8] Under the British colonial administration a divide and rule policy kept the immigrant workers apart from each other, and from the indigenous population, with the local Malays and the Indonesians confined to the rural areas as peasant farmers, the Indians mainly employed as wage labour in the plantations and in the infrastructure construction sectors, while the Chinese worked in the tin mines and in trade and commerce in the urban areas. This pattern of economic and geographical segregation continued to linger on in post-colonial Malaysia, as a legacy of colonial rule. [8]

The second phase, during 1928–46, began when the colonial government enacted its first piece of restrictive legislation: the Immigration Restriction Ordinance. This legislation enabled the government to establish a basic framework for border controls, and empowered it with the means to control the entry of labor deemed surplus to the requirements of the country. The Great Depression brought rising unemployment and depressed economic conditions, forcing the closure of some mines and rubber estates. This prompted the government to impose a monthly quota on adult Chinese male immigration from August 1930. In January 1933 the Immigration Restriction Ordinance was replaced by the Aliens Ordinance. The Aliens Ordinance provided the colonial state with a mechanism for registering aliens resident in Malaya and represented an important stage in the development of statutes and measures to monitor immigrants in Malaya. [7]

During the third phase, 1947–57, the Aliens Ordinance was replaced by the Immigration Ordinance of 1953. This Ordinance, coinciding with rising Malay nationalist sentiment, resulted in even more stringent border controls and laid down for the first time the specific composition of migrants allowed entry into Malaya, restricting by nationality and occupation, and thus placed greater emphasis on the skills of the migrants. New stipulations required potential immigrants to have job contracts of at least two years with Malayan firms and set a minimum earnings requirement. [7]

Finally, the Malayan Emergency (1948–60) resulted in the introduction of the Internal Security Act (ISA), and a compulsory system of identification cards for all residents aged twelve years and over. The identity cards categorized people on the basis of their nationality and residential/occupational status and, in effect, created the ‘outsider’. This an enduring legacy of colonial rule, adapted to the needs of the national state. [7]

Post-colonial migration

Illegal immigration in Malaysia

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Malaysia</span>

Malaysia is a modern concept, created in the second half of the 20th century. However, contemporary Malaysia regards the entire history of Malaya and Borneo, spanning thousands of years back to prehistoric times, as its own history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malays (ethnic group)</span> Austronesian ethnic group

Malays are an Austronesian ethnoreligious group native to eastern Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula and coastal Borneo, as well as the smaller islands that lie between these locations. These locations are today part of the countries of Malaysia, Indonesia, the southern part of Thailand, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Srivijaya</span> Empire based on the island of Sumatra from 650 to around 1025

Srivijaya, also spelled Sri Vijaya, was a Buddhist thalassocratic empire based on the island of Sumatra that influenced much of Southeast Asia. Srivijaya was an important centre for the expansion of Buddhism from the 7th to 11th century AD. Srivijaya was the first polity to dominate much of western Maritime Southeast Asia. Due to its location, Srivijaya developed complex technology utilizing maritime resources. In addition, its economy became progressively reliant on the booming trade in the region, thus transforming it into a prestige goods-based economy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malaysian Chinese</span> Malaysian citizens of Han Chinese ancestry

Malaysian Chinese, Chinese Malaysians, or Sino-Malaysians are Malaysian citizens of Han Chinese ethnicity. They form the second-largest ethnic group in Malaysia, after the Malay majority, and constitute 22.8% of the Malaysian total population. Today, Malaysian Chinese form the second largest community of Overseas Chinese in the world, after the Thai Chinese. Malaysian Chinese maintain a significant and substantial presence in the business sector of the Malaysian economy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malay Singaporeans</span> Ethnic group of Singapore

Malay Singaporeans are Singaporeans with general ancestry from the Malay world. They constitute approximately 13.5% of the country's residents, making them the second largest ethnic group in Singapore. Under the Constitution of Singapore, they are recognised by the government as the indigenous people of the country, with Malay as the de jure national language of Singapore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orang Laut</span> Ethnic group of Southeast Asia

The Orang Laut are several seafaring ethnic groups and tribes living around Singapore, Peninsular Malaysia and the Indonesian Riau Islands. The Orang Laut are commonly identified as the Orang Seletar from the Straits of Johor, but the term may also refer to any Malayic-speaking people living on coastal islands, including those of the Mergui Archipelago in Myanmar and Thailand, commonly known as Moken.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malaysia</span> Country in Southeast Asia

Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of 13 states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two regions: Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo's East Malaysia. Peninsular Malaysia shares a land and maritime border with Thailand and maritime borders with Singapore, Vietnam, and Indonesia. East Malaysia shares land and maritime borders with Brunei and Indonesia, as well as a maritime border with the Philippines and Vietnam. Kuala Lumpur is the national capital, the country's largest city, and the seat of the legislative branch of the federal government. Putrajaya is the administrative centre, which represents the seat of both the executive branch and the judicial branch of the federal government. With a population of over 34 million, the country is the world's 43rd-most populous country. Malaysia is tropical and is one of 17 megadiverse countries; it is home to numerous endemic species. Tanjung Piai in the Malaysian state of Johor is the southernmost point of continental Eurasia.

Illegal immigration to Malaysia is the cross-border movement of people to Malaysia under conditions where official authorisation is lacking, breached, expired, fraudulent, or irregular. The cross-border movement of workers has become well-established in Southeast Asia, with Malaysia a major labour-receiving country and Indonesia and the Philippines the region's main labour-sending states. Managing cross-border migration has become an issue of increasing concern in Malaysia and its international relations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melayu Kingdom</span> Kingdom based in Sumatra (671–692; 1028–1347)

The Melayu Kingdom was a classical Buddhist kingdom located in what is now the Indonesian province of West Sumatra and Jambi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greater Indonesia</span> Geopolitical concept

Greater Indonesia was an irredentist political concept that sought to bring the so-called Malay race together, by uniting the territories of the Dutch East Indies with British Malaya and British Borneo. It was espoused by students and graduates of Sultan Idris Training College for Malay Teachers in the late 1920s, and individuals from Sumatra and Java, including Mohammad Natsir and Sukarno, on 28 September 1950. Indonesia Raya was adopted as the name of what later became the Indonesian national anthem in 1924.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malaysian Malays</span> Ethnic group in Malaysia

Malaysian Malays are Malaysians of Malay ethnicity whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in the Malay world. According to the 2023 population estimate, with a total population of 17.6 million, Malaysian Malays form 57.9% of Malaysia's demographics, the largest ethnic group in the country. They can be broadly classified into two main categories; Anak Jati and Anak Dagang.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malay Indonesians</span> Ethnic group in Indonesia

Malay Indonesians are ethnic Malays living throughout Indonesia. They are one of the indigenous peoples of the country. Indonesian, the national language of Indonesia, is a standardized form of Riau Malay. There were numerous kingdoms associated with the Indonesian Malays along with other ethnicities in what is now Indonesia, mainly on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. These included Srivijaya, the Melayu Kingdom, Dharmasraya, the Sultanate of Deli, the Sultanate of Siak Sri Indrapura, the Riau-Lingga Sultanate, the Sultanate of Bulungan, Pontianak Sultanate, and the Sultanate of Sambas. The 2010 census states that there are 8 million Malays in Indonesia; this number comes from the classification of Malays in East Sumatra and the coast of Kalimantan which is recognized by the Indonesian government. This classification is different from the Malaysia and Singapore census which includes all ethnic Muslims from the Indonesian archipelago as Malays.

The Duano' people, also called Desin Dolak or Desin Duano' are an indigenous people of Malaysia and Indonesia and can be found in islands along the northeastern region of Sumatra, Indonesia where most Duano' people have traditionally lived. They are one of the Proto-Malay group of cultures. Due to their nomadic boat lifestyle, based almost exclusively on fishing and collecting shellfish and crustaceans by using mud-boards, Duano' people are often categorized as Orang Laut, a group that includes the Urak Lawoi’ people and Moken people of the northern region of the Malacca Strait and the Andaman Sea. Although there are similarities in their way of life, they are a separate ethnic group. Citing their own language, culture, identity, and economic complexities, they deny being Orang Laut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peninsular Malaysia</span> Western, mainland Malaysia

Peninsular Malaysia, historically known as Malaya, also known as West Malaysia or the "Malaysian Peninsula", is the western part of Malaysia that comprises the southern part of the Malay Peninsula on Mainland Southeast Asia and the nearby islands. Its area totals approximately 132,490 km2 (51,150 sq mi), which is nearly 40% of the total area of the country; the other 60% is in East Malaysia on the island of Borneo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malaysian Indians</span> Malaysian citizens of Indian ancestry

Malaysian Indians or Indo-Malaysians are Malaysian citizens of Indian or South Asian ancestry. They now form the fourth-largest group in Malaysia, after the Malays, Chinese, and the indigenous groups of Malaysia. Most are descendants of those who migrated from India to British Malaya from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries. Most Malaysian Indians are ethnic Tamils; smaller groups include the Malayalees, Telugus and Punjabis. Malaysian Indians form the fifth-largest community of Overseas Indians in the world. In Malaysia, they represent the third-largest group, constituting 7% of the Malaysian population, after the ethnic Malays and the Chinese. They are usually referred to simply as "Indians" in English, Orang India in Malay, "Yin du ren" in Chinese.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indonesia–Malaysia relations</span> Bilateral relations

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Negeri Sembilan Malay is an Austronesian language spoken mainly in the Malaysian state of Negeri Sembilan, including Alor Gajah and parts of Jasin District in northern Malacca, and parts of Segamat District in the northernmost part of Johor. The language is spoken by the descendants of Minangkabau settlers from Sumatra, who have migrated to Negeri Sembilan since as early as the 14th century. It is often considered a variant or dialect of the Minangkabau language; lexical and phonological studies, however, indicate that it is more closely related to Standard Malay than it is to Minangkabau.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indonesian citizens in Malaysia</span> Indonesian citizens in Malaysia

Indonesian citizens in Malaysia are Indonesian citizens who live and work in Malaysia. Indonesians in Malaysia comprised a large numbers of labour and domestic workers. It is estimated that 83 percent of migrant workers in Malaysia are Indonesian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malaysians of Indonesian descent</span> Malaysian citizen of Indonesian descent

The Indonesian Malaysians are Malaysian citizens of Indonesian ancestry. Today, there are many Malaysian Malays who have lineage from the Indonesian archipelago and have played an important role in the history and contributed to the development of Malaysia, they have been assimilated with other Malay communities and are grouped as part of the foreign Malays or anak dagang in terms of race. The Malaysian census does not categorize ethnic groups from the Indonesian archipelago as a separate ethnic group, but rather as Malay or Bumiputera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Javanese diaspora</span> People of Javanese ethnicity residing outside Indonesia

The Javanese diaspora is the demographic group of descendants of ethnic Javanese who emigrated from the Indonesian island of Java to other parts of the world. The Javanese diaspora includes a significant population in Suriname, with over 13% of the country's population being of Javanese ancestry. Other major enclaves are found in Australia, French Guiana, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Caledonia, Singapore, South Africa, and Sri Lanka.

References

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  2. 1 2 Hatin WI, Nur-Shafawati AR, Zahri MK, Xu S, Jin L, Tan SG, et al. (2011). "Population Genetic Structure of Peninsular Malaysia Malay Sub-Ethnic Groups". PLOS ONE. 6 (4): 2. Bibcode:2011PLoSO...618312H. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0018312 . PMC   3071720 . PMID   21483678.
  3. ↑ Drabble, John (July 31, 2004). "Economic History of Malaysia". EH.Net Encyclopedia. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  4. ↑ Ferguson, R. James (1994). "Complexity in the centre: the new Southeast Asian mandala". Culture Mandala: The Bulletin of the Centre for East-West Cultural and Economic Studies. 1 (2): 3. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  5. ↑ Mohd Hazmi Mohd Rusli; Rahmat Mohamad (June 5, 2014). "Were the Malays immigrants?". Malay Mail Online. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Reid, Anthony (July 2010). "Malaysia/Singapore as Immigrant Societies". Asia Research Institute. ARI Working Paper, No. 141. p. 14. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Labor crossings in Southeast Asia: Linking historical and contemporary labor migration" (PDF). New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies. 11 (1): 276–303. June 2009. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
  8. 1 2 Asia Pacific Migration Research Network (APMRN). "Migration Issues in the Asia Pacific: Issues paper from Malaysia" (PDF). pp. 99–123. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
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