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List of contents
1. Introduction: theorizing different forms of belonging in a cosmopolitan Malaysia Gaik Cheng Khoo 2. Arabs in the urban social landscapes of Malaysia: historical connections and belonging Sumit K. Mandal 3. Ethnicity, citizenship and reproduction: Taiwanese wives making citizenship claims in Malaysia Heng Leng Chee, Melody C.W. Lu and Brenda S.A. Yeoh 4. Urban refugees in a graduated sovereignty: the experiences of the stateless Rohingya in the Klang Valley Avyanthi Azis 5. African international students in Klang Valley: colonial legacies, postcolonial racialization, and sub-citizenship Timothy P. Daniels 6. Place-making: Chin refugees, citizenship and the state in Malaysia Gerhard Hoffstaedter 7. Intimate encounters: the ambiguities of belonging in the transnational migration of Indonesian domestic workers to Malaysia Olivia Killias 8. Jom Bersih! Global Bersih and the enactment of Malaysian citizenship in Melbourne Julian C.H. Lee
About the author
Gaik Cheng Khoo teaches Film and Cultural Studies at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus. She publishes on Malaysian film, food and identity.
Julian C.H. Lee is a Senior Lecturer in Global Studies, and member of the Centre for Global Research, RMIT University. He publishes on Malaysian civil society, democracy and multiculturalism.
Summary
This book provides a picture of a globalized Malaysia where its conventionally-conceived multi-ethnic composition of Malays, Chinese, Indians and Others rub shoulders with or interact more intimately on a daily basis with transnational ethnoscapes of migrant workers, asylum seekers, international students, and foreign spouses. It asks how, as Malaysians become wedded to their citizenship, they extend the same awareness of rights and claims to non-citizens such as African international students, the Indonesian maids who look after their children, and the Chins and stateless Rohingyas who populate the landscape as refugees and undocumented workers. What are the possibilities of forming cosmopolitan solidarities with non-Malaysians? And what are the newcomers’ strategies for place-making and belonging? And to bring the discussions of citizenship in Malaysia into relief, it is also asked how Malaysians abroad seek to enact and make meaningful their Malaysian citizenship. A diversity of experiences shapes the narratives in the chapters: of racialization, rejection, boundary-making and exclusivity, resilience and adaptation.
This book was published as a special issue of Citizenship Studies.
