The construction of the myth of migration: labor migration from Bangladesh to Malaysia

Abstract

Der Forschungsbericht informiert aus entwicklungssoziologischer Sicht über die Beweggründe und den Verlauf der Arbeitsmigration von Bangladesch nach Malaysia im Kontext des Globalisierungsprozesses. Mit der empirischen Untersuchung verfolgt die Autorin das Ziel, den akademischen Diskurs und Diskussionen über die strukturellen Aspekte durch eine direkte Auseinandersetzung mit den Migranten und ihren Wahrnehmungen sowie Interpretationen der konkreten Situation zu ergänzen. Aus diesem Grund werden die Erzählungen von Bangladeschi, die als Arbeitsmigranten ihr Heimatland verlassen haben und in Malaysia leben, hinsichtlich ihrer Motive analysiert. Dies führt schließlich zu neuen Betrachtungen allgemeiner Stereotype von Migration, Migranten und ihren Gemeinschaften. Gemäß diesen Anspruchs gliedern sich die Ausführungen in die folgenden Punkte: (1) der regionale Kontext in Asien, (2) die Motive und der Ablauf der Arbeitsmigration, (3) die sozialen Netzwerke und die Ziele der Migranten, (4) die Konstruktion des muslimischen Bruderlandes, (5) die multiethnischen Interaktionen in Malaysia sowie (6) 'Vermittlungsagenturen' und Risiken der Migration. In einer Schlussbemerkung weist die Autorin zusammenfassend auf das komplexe System der Migration zwischen den beiden Ländern hin, das aus formellen und informellen Institutionen bzw. Netzwerken besteht und in ökonomische wie politische Strukturen eingebettet ist. (ICG2)

"In times of globalization international migration has become an important economic, political and social issue controversially discussed on various national and international political levels and in different scientific disciplines. This is not astonishing since worldwide more and more people are on the move. Although migration is as old as our historical memory and has since then affected nearly all regions in the world some new dimensions are characterizing the migration movements in the last decades. Besides the quantitative growth of migrants also the destinations and the areas of origin diversified. Furthermore, as Castles and Miller pointed out in 1993, a feminization as well as a differentiation of migration patterns can be observed. These changes are reflected in academic writing. A growing body of literature deals with the different forms and patterns of migration in different areas and the cultural and social processes these movements are initiating. Within this process classical theories of migration are getting questioned, for example the classical push and pull models or concepts of multiculturalism that deal with the processes migratory movements initiate in the host societies. New concepts like for example transnational migration (see Basch, Glick-Schiller and Blanc-Szanton 1997; Vertovec 1999; Pries 1999 or Faist 2000) or discourses on hybridity (see Yuval-Davis 1999 or Anthias 2001) are gaining ground. Metaphors like 'flows', 'borderland', 'imaginations' and 'journey' are used to highlight that processes of globalization in general and migration in particular are changing the way people rationalize their experiences and give new meanings to them. These metaphors and new concepts also indicate that the world can no longer be divided into fixed units of which each share a distinctive and exclusive culture or a definite approach to life (Rapport and Dawson 1998). Furthermore the organization and meaning of space and time and their routinization undergo changes in different disciplines, as does the notion of home. The aim of this paper is to contribute to these academic discourses and discussions with an empirical study on Bangladeshi migrants in Malaysia. The intention is to shift the focus from structural aspects, which are of course important and still dominate the current literature on migration, to the migrants themselves, their perceptions and interpretations of the situation they are confronted with and part of. Therefore the narratives of Bangladeshi migrant workers in Malaysia1 will be analyzed to learn more about the motives and rationalities (Schuetz 1971) which made them to leave their country. This will lead to new reconsiderations of common stereotypes about migration, migrants and their communities and add to the reflections on theoretical concepts and approaches trying to explain why people move." (extract)