Abstract
This chapter discusses political transnationalism and other key terms and concepts such as migrants, refugees, the state and what is meant by politics – all of which are related to the subject matter of the book, namely the dialectic between the Malaysian state and the transnational politics of the Chin and Acehnese. It also provides background information on the Chin and Acehnese migrant population in Malaysia as well as an overview of the Malaysian state in terms of its history and political system.
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Notes
- 1.
In December 2006, Syed Shahir, the president of the Malaysian Trade Union Congress, in an interview with a human rights organisation, stated his belief that with 1.8 million documented migrants in Malaysia, there was likely to be at least the same number of undocumented or irregular migrants, with the actual number possibly as high as five million (International Federation for Human Rights 2008).
- 2.
Of the 214 million migrants worldwide in 2010, this International Organization for Migration report estimates that only about 10–15 per cent fall into the irregular category. Not significant in and of itself. However, the report notes that Asia’s irregular migrant population “may be among the largest overall contemporary flows, with the Bangladesh–India corridor alone involving up to 17 million people” (International Organization for Migration 2010: 167). In terms of refugees, in 2008 there were 15 million registered with the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. A higher incidence of natural disaster-related hazards in Asia meant that there was an increase in the number of refugees in the continent, from 2.9 million in 2005 to 3.9 million in 2010, “accounting for 14 per cent of all international migrants in the region and almost a quarter of the world’s refugees” (International Organization for Migration 2010: 168).
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Murugasu, S. (2017). Introduction: The Host State and Migrant Transnational Politics. In: The State and the Transnational Politics of Migrants: A Study of the Chins and the Acehnese in Malaysia. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-37061-7_1
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