Race, Education, and Citizenship: Mobile Malaysians, British Colonial Legacies, and a Culture of Migration (Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship)

Transnational skilled migrants are often thought of as privileged migrants with flexible citizenship. This book challenges this assumption by examining the diverse migration trajectories, experiences and dilemmas faced by tertiary-educated mobile Malaysian migrants through a postcolonial lens. It argues that mobile Malaysians’ culture of migration can be understood as an outcome and consequence of British colonial legacies – of race, education, and citizenship – inherited and exacerbated by the post-colonial Malaysian state. Drawing from archival research and interviews with respondents in Singapore, United Kingdom, and Malaysia, this book examines how mobile Malaysians make sense of their migration lives, and contextualizes their stories to the broader socio-political structures in colonial Malaya and post-colonial Malaysia. Showing how legacies of colonialism initiate, facilitate, and propagate migration in a multi-ethnic, post-colonial migrant-sending country beyond the end of colonial rule, this text is a key read for scholars of migration, citizenship, ethnicity, nationalism and postcolonialism. Transnational skilled migrants are often thought of as privileged migrants with flexible citizenship. This book challenges this assumption by examining the diverse migration trajectories, experiences and dilemmas faced by tertiary-educated mobile Malaysian migrants. It argues that mobile Malaysians' culture of migration can be understood as an outcome and consequence of British colonial legacies - of race, education, and citizenship - inherited and exacerbated by the post-colonial Malaysian state. Drawing from archival research and interviews with respondents in Singapore, United Kingdom, and Malaysia, this book examines how mobile Malaysians make sense of their migration lives, and contextualizes their stories to the broader socio-political structures in colonial Malaya and post-colonial Malaysia. Showing how legacies of colonialism initiate, facilitate, and propagate migration in a multi-ethnic, post-colonial migrant-sending country beyond the end of colonial rule, this text is a key read for scholars of migration, citizenship, ethnicity, nationalism and post-colonialism studies Front Matter....Pages i-xviii Introduction....Pages 1-47 British Colonial Legacies and the Making of Malay(si)a....Pages 49-105 A Culture of Migration....Pages 107-158 Education-Migration Pathways and the (Re)Production of Race....Pages 159-188 Interpreting and Practising Citizenship....Pages 189-222 Returning to Malaysia?....Pages 223-254 Conclusion: Postcolonialising a Culture of Migration....Pages 255-276 Back Matter....Pages 277-293 Machine Generated Contents Note: 1. Introduction -- 2. British Colonial Legacies And The Making Of Malay(si)a -- 3. A Culture Of Migration -- 4. Education-migration Pathways And The (re)production Of Race -- 5. Interpreting And Practising Citizenship -- 6. Returning To Malaysia? -- 7. Conclusion: Postcolonialising A Culture Of Migration. Sin Yee Koh. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.