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Mulling over migrants in Malaysia
When foreigners arrive in a country, they enrich its cultural melting pot, inject fresh energy and broaden its economic potential
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When foreigners arrive in a country, they enrich its cultural melting pot, inject fresh energy and broaden its economic potential.
The customer was starved. Greedily anticipating her first taste of an authentic, classic parma ham with melon, she glanced towards the kitchen.
She was willing them to hurry. A few steps further down in the tiny, basement restaurant, a man stood focussed. Rushing to meet a hungry lunch crowd's demands, with practised precision, he was slicing luscious cantaloupes. Next to a tall stack of plates was a large dish, overflowing with strips of thin, smoky exquisite parma ham.
This was Florence, the man was from the Indian sub-continent. The customer turned away disappointed. Her enthusiasm for her meal waned slightly. Imagining that she was witnessing the end of true Italian taste, she ungraciously dismissed the hard-working man's efforts. 'They are b****y everywhere,' she remarked to her companion, 'There's no escaping them.'
The comment was made in jest to defuse the disappointment rather than the hunger pangs. Yet it was uncalled for. She knew nothing about the man or his circumstances, yet she readily ' like so many of us ' repudiated his chosen place in the world. He had probably paid a high price to get there, yet now worked harder than ever to support his family.
She should have known better, as she comes from similar stock.
As I do. About 75 years ago, my maternal grandfather got on a weave-sail boat, crossing treacherous oceans to arrive in Malaya. Together with other young men from his village, he had set out to seek a better life for himself. His eldest son-in-law, my father, followed the same route a decade and a half later.
Many Malaysians are cut from the same cloth of migrant origins. I often see my elders in the faces of the numerous young, earnest migrant workers that we now host. Their countenances echo the same fears, pain and disbelief. For example, a group of young men cluster around an ATM machine, unsure of how to use their newly-acquired debit cards. When I offer to help, they shrink away with shy, nervous smiles. I do not know what to say to a distraught domestic helper who has not heard from her family in the days following Typhoon Haiyan. An educated, friendly and diligent young man ' who sometimes slept in the cafe he worked at ' was emotionally stunned after being assaulted by his employer.
It's not only the service industry that has seen an influx of foreigners. Students, white-collar workers and retirees, too, seem to have found a haven beneath the bougainvillea-friendly sunshine on our shores. The fact is, there's a new face to Malaysia. If we were proud of our cultural melting pot once, then brace yourself. Into that merry melange, now add people, food and cultures from around the world.
French wraps made by a Tanzanian and served by an Algerian in Publika. In Setapak, multi-hued volunteers tutor Somali children in imagination and creativity. Vietnamese manicurists work their magic on finger nails with unmatched passion. We see mixed couples, mixed marriages and third-culture kids more than ever before.
So, what now? Is that bad or good? Most of the time, I like the new, cosmopolitan mix in our cities. The bar is raised, competition is rife and interaction adds depth to our humanity.
On the other hand, recent reports of shooting and kidnapping have been attributed to foreign workers currently living in our country. Almost RM20bil is remitted overseas annually. Illegal arrivals, vice activities and incidents of unwarranted viciousness highlight a distinctly unsavoury side. A darker version, the underbelly of migrant life in foreign countries, is now being chronicled.
A recent opinion piece in the International New York Times states that genuinely engaging with an urban space means encountering and making room for an assortment of lifestyles and social realities. These may be appealing, provocative or even repulsive. The writer, who lives in Pigalle, Paris, laments the loss of that area's seedy reputation with an increase in curating urban spaces with homogenous, squeaky-clean sensibilities.
In a press conference last month, the UN's Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson commented that evidence clearly shows that migration contributes significantly to development. On the eve of the UN General Assembly's High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development, Eliasson stated that migrant and diaspora communities bring about innovation, trade and investment. They contribute to economic development as entrepreneurs by creating business start-ups and employment, too.
According to UN figures, in 2013 international migrant figures stand at 232 million, compared to 175 million in 2000. Remittance flows, significantly, reached US$400 billion last year, improving access to health and education for migrant families. In highlighting migrants' plight, UN officials stress that countries should increase efforts to protect migrant rights while finding ways to integrate their contributions to society into the post-2015 development agenda.
After all, at the heart of migration are human beings with human rights who move. As Chairperson Abdelhamid El Jamri, on behalf of the UN's Committee on the Rights of Migrant Workers said: 'Migrants are not commodities. They not only contribute to the economic development of their own country and their host country, but keep host countries demographically young, enrich their cultures and add to their productive capacities.'
Days ago, in a radio interview, Managing Director and Chief Executive of CIMB Group, Nazir Razak stated that Malaysia has more than its fair share of regionally successful businesses. In an increasingly global market he attributes this triumph to the adaptability of Malaysians who are more used to growing up and mixing in different cultures than those from mono-cultural countries.
If we look far back at our own roots, Malaysia is a nation made up of migrants. Not all of us are 'pure' sons or daughters of this soil. I've always liked unpredictability: unexpected encounters, engaging conversations and curious episodes.
Like sharing a sundowner in Kathmandu with a Nepalese who had worked at a Sri Hartamas newsstand that I used to frequent in Kuala Lumpur. He just stopped me on the street, having recognised me. So we ended up relating our stories, accepting each other's chosen place in the world.
