Voices from the Sulu Sea
A new book analyses migration issues in Sabah, focusing on how irregular migrants interact with the sea.
SINI. Urang sini. (Here. People from here.)
The question “Where are you from?” may have simple or complicated answers, or in the case of irregular migrants in Sabah, both.
Home to up to a third of the reported population in the Sandakan district alone, migrants in the north-east tip of Malaysia have complicated origins, histories and roots to the space they reside in.
Looking deeper into their everyday lives and the complicated issues that surround them comes a new book by Dr Vilashini Somiah, a senior lecturer of gender studies at Universiti Malaya in Kuala Lumpur.
Who are these irregular migrants? How do they live? And perhaps more importantly, why do they return again and again despite hardships, deportation, confinement and constant discrimination are questions asked about the community who plainly say they are people who are from here.
Of land and sea
As a solid mass, land is easy to get attached to, says Somiah.
“Apart from the personal and emotional connections we have to it, we also build physical infrastructures, like buildings, roads and borders. We often do not think of water with the same capabilities but I make a theoretical argument that the sea or water is a powerful element of empowerment for many oppressed communities.
“While the comparison between land and sea might not be uniform, irregular migrants and other littoral communities are able to imagine and recognise water as a valuable space with its own unique properties,” she says.
For those connected with the Sulu Sea that crashes along the north-eastern shores of Sabah and connects the region with the Philippines, the concept becomes even more tangible.
“When irregular migrants use the term sini (Bahasa Malaysia for “here”) it specifically refers to areas that combine both land and sea as a united territory.
“Being an irregular migrant often doesn’t give you access to documents or formal legal status and I found it fascinating that the term sini became a replacement for situating themselves as locals, which in many ways they are. While this term sounds vague to the unfamiliar ear, to those who use and identify with sini, their territory is fixed and visceral,” explains Somiah.
A Sabahan herself with an interesting migration history, the 38-year-old anthropologist was born in the state capital of Kota Kinabalu to a Sino Kadazan mother and Indian father.
In the mid-1990s when she was around 11, her family moved to Penang – across the sea and on the far opposite side of the country.
She lived on that island through her schooling years and later moved to Kuala Lumpur where she resides now, though there have been stints spent overseas and in Singapore where she obtained a PHD in South-east Asian Studies from the National University of Singapore.
“While I adapted very quickly to the bustling life of the peninsular, admittedly, I always found myself awkwardly surviving that part of the country only to feel more relaxed upon returning to Sabah.
“I have spent over a decade researching migrants there and Irregular Migrants And The Sea At The Borders Of Sabah, Malaysia isa product of 13 months of fieldwork in Sandakan for my PHD,” she says.
‘Irregular migrants’ has been used as an umbrella term for undocumented persons in the region, though this includes many grey areas for example those holding refugee cards, children born here to foreign nations, labourers whose work passes have expired and asylum seekers.”
We speak of naughty things
Being a lone female researcher, Somiah was warned of several things during her stay, from areas that were reportedly haunted to communities on the fringes of society who were described as unsafe.
“While I understand much of these are said out of concern, patriarchal thinking in research often assumes this for female researchers.
“Migrant communities are also often seen as threatening and should be engaged at an arm’s length due to their illicit status.
Sometimes, language like this reflects upon the anxieties from other local communities and their experiences with non-citizens but throughout my year in Sandakan, I have been incredibly lucky and was embraced and welcomed into many homes, coffeeshop sessions and religious gatherings of irregular migrant families.
“I found my status as a female researcher gave me access to often ‘neglected’ conversations thought by my respondents as unimportant and useless, but these were the very issues that became central in this book,” she says.
Of them are the bilang yang nakal-nakal (naughty things we speak of ) by women whose husbands and partners had been arrested and deported.
Labelled as tinggalan (left behind) by the surrounding community, these women often banded together for both emotional and physical support.
“These women were my first friends there and informants in the field.
“What I found compelling was how they reappropriated being ‘left behind’, which differed from being a widow or a divorcee, and while there was an unsaid stigma about being the wife of a deported partner, they persevered and found coping mechanisms from their surroundings to help make more empowered decisions for themselves and their children, even when they did not feel supported by those around them,” says Somiah.
In the face of illegality, immigration raids, poverty and a patriarchal-leaning society, these women still managed to claim empowerment through their interactions with each other.
While gossip sessions would cover the usual happenings in the village – who had started a business, whose child had lice, who took a new wife and who was on drugs ..., the tinggalan women also ventured into more taboo topics like romance and sex often frowned upon by others in their community, adds the author.
“The women were loquacious, honest and insightful and each possessed a boldness that they admitted was a new-found form of confidence.
Their stories go on to positively impact each other’s confidence in day-to-day life, yet what is equally important to grasp is that they were also a product of a much larger dynamic at play, one between these women and the sea,” she writes in the book.
There and back again
Much of the lives of irregular migrants are centred upon their illegality; affecting the jobs they are able to obtain, limited schooling options for their children and a constant sense of worry and fear of being liable to raids and arrest within their homes.
As so, a large portion of Irregular Migrants And The Sea At The Borders Of Sabah, Malaysia looks at the issue of detention, deportation and in many cases, illicit returns.
Sandakan plays host to Sabah’s largest holding centre, the Sibuga Temporary Detention Centre or better known as Rumah Merah (Red House) due to the colour of its walls and roof.
Here, irregular migrants are held from months to years awaiting deportation to the Philippines, usually to ports like Zamboanga or Tawi-tawi.
Somiah says contrary to what is expected, deportation often comes with excitement and relief at finally being freed from detention.
Quoting a detainee who had received his deportation date, Somiah recalls his response: “... I’m quite happy. When we’re able to board it, we’d know what the journey might look like, how to return, what the winds and the current are like, right? But (if ) they have kept us here for too long, we are spent.”
While returning to Sabah is often not an immediate prospect (it being costly and dangerous), deportation is seen as a possibility of freedom and the beginning of a return to their families.
“Ultimately, deported irregular migrants return because they feel that Sabah is their home, and with the years passing, it has become difficult to dispute this.
“Aiding this is their unique relationship with the Sulu Sea, one that most land-dwellers might find very difficult to recognise or comprehend,” she expounds.
In fact, many who cross the tides to come back to Sabah look at the sea as almost an accomplice that aids their returns.
“Unlike land, where many of their experiences are primarily tied to hardship and survival, the sea is a site of many other more complex and deeper emotions, both positive and negative. Their relationship with the sea is multifaceted and layered, so while it isn’t always an easy relationship, it is a long and loyal one.
“It is a rhythm of living with water bodies that irregular migrants and other coastal communities in Sabah have internalised generations; this system has yet to abandon them, shaping their identity and directing them home,” she adds.
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