Gender, "Aliens", and the National Imaginary in Contemporary Malaysia

Over the last few decades, Malaysia has welcomed foreign workers into those sectors of the economy that have suffered chronic low-skilled and semi-skilled labour shortages. Coming from Malaysia's poorer neighbours (particularly Indonesia, Bangladesh, and the Philippines), these migrants occupy...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sojourn (Singapore) 2000-10, Vol.15 (2), p.222-254, Article SJ15-2C
Main Author: HEALEY, Lucy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Child molestation
Domestic workers
Employment
Ethnonationalism
Foreign Workers
Gender
Government
Immigration
Intermarriage
Labor
Labor migration
Labour migration
Maids
Malaysia
Mothers
National Identity
Political Culture
Political debate
Racial prejudice
Semi-skilled workers
Sex
Sexuality
Social Class
Sovereignty
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Summary:Over the last few decades, Malaysia has welcomed foreign workers into those sectors of the economy that have suffered chronic low-skilled and semi-skilled labour shortages. Coming from Malaysia's poorer neighbours (particularly Indonesia, Bangladesh, and the Philippines), these migrants occupy an ambivalent place in Malaysia's national development. This paper argues that not only is contemporary Malaysia refashioning its national identity in response to "new outsiders", who are deemed the new "undesirable aliens", as argued by others recently, but this reconstituted national imaginary is profoundly ethno-nationalist, class-based, sexualized, and gendered.
ISSN:0217-9520
1793-2858
DOI:10.1355/SJ15-2C