Ties that bind, lines that divide: Bangladeshi labour migrants, Malaysian spouses, and the new contours of racialization

Abstract

We investigate the racialization of a migrant “other” centred, not on phenotype, but on nationality, in the context of Malaysia, an ethnically diverse host society. Our case study comprises Bangladeshi male labour migrants who, as transient low-skilled workers, face restrictions in pursuing marriage and entrepreneurship. As Muslims, these Bangladeshi migrants draw on their co-religious congruence with the Malay-Muslim majority to traverse these restrictions, gaining a degree of success in marrying Malaysian women and becoming entrepreneurs. Drawing from narratives of the migrants and their citizen spouses, we examine how they take advantage of their intersectional positioning at the nexus of race, religion, and nationality to overwrite racialization and navigate national anxieties. Leveraging marriage and entrepreneurship, the migrants and spouses draw on and re-interpret existing racial discourses in their mutual pursuit of social mobility. While these partnerships may be socioculturally contentious, they are nevertheless economically interdependent, opening up space for countering racisms.