Indonesian Migrant Workers in Malaysia: Constructing Hybrid Transnational Communities

This dissertation interrogates the transnational lives of Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia by examining the multitudes of social fields that emerged between Malaysia and Indonesia. While migrant workers in Malaysia have been depicted as weak and precariat, migrant workers do not necessarily lose their agency. Building upon the literature on transnationalism, transnational social protection, and transnational advocacy networks, this project argues that migrant workers have formed hybrid transnational communities that play an important role in shaping migrant’s agency not only as an economic migrant but also what I call ‘acti-preneur’. These hybrid transnational communities merged various social fields such as advocacy, culture, and politics. Through their engagement in these communities, migrants have created a self-help support system that facilitates their process of settling in Malaysia amidst their temporary status. In reaching such an argumentation, this project was done through a series of ethnographic fieldwork in Malaysia and Indonesia between 2015 and 2020. The researcher has continuously engaged with both migrating and non-migrating actors in the two locations to capture the transnational contacts between them.