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Xin Yimin in Malaysia: Trends, Organizations, Implications

Organizer:  ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute

Description:

In the past ten years, the Malaysian society has increasingly witnessed the phenomenon of xin yimin (China’s new migrants), where citizens of the PRC have become long-term residents in the country. Technically and legally, the vast majority of these PRC citizens are not “migrants” in the sense of having been naturalized into Malaysian citizenship, as Malaysia maintains a very strict and even prohibitive naturalization process. However, through various other arrangements or schemes, the number of PRC citizens staying in Malaysia for a sustained period of time has substantially increased. They include applicants of the Malaysia My Second Home scheme, students, investors, laborers, spouses, and others. There are at least two major organizations established to provide networking platforms for these PRC citizens: China Students Association of Malaysia (CSAM) and China Enterprises Chamber of Commerce in Malaysia (CECCIM). This webinar will try to look at the numbers and trends from various sources, to provide some descriptive discussions on CSAM and CECCIM, and to ponder the social, political, cultural, and economic implications of this phenomenon. Professor Leo Suryadinata will be joining this webinar as a discussant.

Speaker:

Dr Ngeow Chow-Bing is Director of the Institute of China Studies at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur. He received his PhD in Public and International Affairs from Northeastern University, Boston, United States. Dr Ngeow’s research interests include China’s political development and China-Southeast Asia relations. He has published articles in a number of peer-reviewed journals including The China Review, Ocean Development and International Law, China Report, Asian Politics and Policy, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Journal of Contemporary China, Contemporary Southeast Asia, East Asia: An International Quarterly, China: An International Journal, Issues and Studies, and Problems of Post-Communism. His is editor of Researching China in Southeast Asia (Routledge, 2019) and co-editor of Populism, Nationalism and South China Sea Dispute: Chinese and Southeast Asian Perspectives (Springer, 2022).

Discussant:

Professor Leo Suryadinata is currently Visiting Senior Fellow at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute. He was formerly Professor in the Department of Political Science at the National University of Singapore. He has published extensively on Southeast Asian politics, ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia and China-ASEAN relations. His latest book is Peranakan Chinese Identities in the Globalizing Malay Archipelago (ISEAS Publications, 2022).

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