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The Iranian diaspora in Malaysia: a socio-economic and political analysis
Abstract
This paper is a preliminary study on the Iranian diaspora in Malaysia. It explores the composition of the Iranian diaspora in Malaysia, and the push factors that have led to its migration to Malaysia. The paper also sheds light on different types of business operations the Iranians are engaged in Malaysia. Having done this, the paper analyses the socio-economic impacts of Iranians expatriates on their host society. It also examines the Iranian expatriates’ response to the political and social developments taking place in Iran. Finally, the paper deals with the Iranian government’s policy towards the Iranian diaspora in Malaysia. Based on fieldwork and purposive unstructured interviews with Iranian expatriates, as well as some other primary and secondary sources, the paper finds that the Iranian diaspora in Malaysia is a multi-layered community. Each layer has its own reasons for choosing Malaysia as a destination for its migration. Also, this paper finds that the majority of the Iranian expatriates in Malaysia view their migration to the country as a compulsion rather than an option. This is a major reason for the Iranian community’s disinterest in integrating with the local community. Finally, the paper discovers that that the Iranian government has serious concerns about the presence of Iranians in Malaysia.
... This study is unique because it represents an experience of immigration that is characterized by the two countries' (Iran and Malaysia) similar status levels which include lenient visa policies, similar religious backgrounds, and the availability of Iranian culture through local media and communities. There are also very few studies that focus on the lived experiences of Iranian immigrants in general (Bani Kamal, & Hossain, 2016;Author citation, 2016Author citation, , 2018. ...
... Historically, Iranians, especially international students, have a strong presence in Malaysia, shown for example, by the existence of more than 300 Persian words in Malay language (Author citation, 2018); this presence in recent years has been expressed more than any time before in history through Persian language magazines and the launch of Iranian oriented Internet TV. According to recent estimations, more than 100,000 Iranians are currently living in Malaysia (Bani Kamal & Hossain, 2016). ...
... Moreover, according to Bani Kamal and Hossain (2016), some of the Iranians living in Malaysia may experience a superiority complex both racially and in terms of their long imperial history. This may cause them to feel cognitive dissonance as they try to relate to a lower status culture. ...
The authors seek to extend acculturation research, which traditionally focuses on acculturation experiences in high-status countries, such as the USA. In contrast, we investigate migration between countries with similar social statuses using a unique sample of international students. Structural equation modeling was employed to investigate a complex mediation-moderation model of acculturation. Participants were 154 students from Iran who attended various universities in Malaysia. The results indicated that (1) home cultural orientation positively predicted depression; (2) perceived social support in the host culture negatively predicted depression; (3) perceived social support from the home culture positively predicted home cultural orientation; (4) acculturative stress mediated the association between home cultural identification and depression; and (5) perceived social support, either from the home or host culture, did not buffer the acculturation-depression relationship. Moreover, the moderating role of acculturative stress indicated that immigrants are predisposed to negative health outcomes when stressful events intensify. The results provide support for an alternation model of the acculturation-depression association, in which biculturalism is not the most effective orientation for adapting to the host culture.
... This is especially true for the Iranians, who face difficulty in traveling outside the country as only 40 countries allow them to get a visa on arrival, yet very few of these countries are significant destinations for them. A country such as Malaysia is a significant destination to Iranian travelers either as visitors, businesspeople, or students (Bani Kamal & Hossain, 2017). In 2011, when Malaysia was projected to become an international educational hub, Iranian students did not miss the opportunity to come to Malaysia to further their studies (Krich, 2011). ...
... The figures also suggest that Malaysia hosts the largest Iranian community in East and Southeast Asia. One might argue that the influx of Iranians into Malaysia was not motivated by the country's attractiveness but rather by the desire to escape from their disappointment with their local politics and their disagreement with the previous president, Ahmadinejad (Bani Kamal & Hossain, 2017). Thus, this could explain the lack of interest from the Iranians to closely engage with the local Malaysians. ...
The Middle East region, especially the oil-rich Arab economies, is regarded as one of Malaysia’s important economic and trading partners. Economic and political changes at the global and regional level have simultaneously shifted Malaysia’s interests in the region. At the same time, there has also been rising interest from countries in the region to expand their economic relationships with Malaysia. Apart from the United Arab Emirates, which is Malaysia’s largest trading partner in the Middle East region, Saudi Arabia and Iran are now becoming more visible for their contributions toward the Malaysian economy. Economic interest certainly is the main driving force behind the latter’s efforts to enhance its connection with these countries. Efforts to reap economic benefit from these countries and to attract petro-dollar investments would also have negative consequences on Malaysia’s domestic, social, and religious affairs due to an influx of Arab and Iranian people coming into the country. Religious extremism and sectarianism are among the challenges that Malaysia is encountering and the authorities are quite critical of those ideologies, and over the years, the teaching of Wahhabism and Shiism have been banned in the country. Could this affect Malaysia’s connection with those countries in the Persian Gulf? How has the government engaged with these local issues without jeopardizing its economic inter-connection with Saudi Arabia and Iran? Given that they are two contrasting countries, how has Malaysia balanced its relationships with these two states?
... The current number of Iranians in Malaysia is estimated to be roughly around 200,000, which is the highest in any East Asian country. (9) The 1990s witnessed a mass wave of Iranians migrating abroad mainly due to the worsening economic situation in the country; this occurred around the same time when Malaysia adopted a state policy of projecting the country as an international education hub, and hence, due to lower tuition fees and living expenses compared to other countries attracted students from around the world, particularly the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This policy resulted in many Iranian students arriving in Malaysia to pursue their education in various universities. ...
T his study explores the dynamics of Iran-Malaysia relations during the recent decades. Historically, Malaysia has always employed the policy of neutrality in conflicts involving two or more Muslim countries. The country's geographic location has resulted in close commercial and military ties to the West-especially during Mahathir Mohamad's tenure, which contributed to advancing mutual interests. The study analyzes the dynamics of the various interests Tehran is pursuing in Malaysia, and the ways in which it enhances its goals, taking into consideration the limits and constraints hindering the development of its relationship with Malaysia through discussing five main topics: the factors impacting Iran's relations with Malaysia; Iran's soft power in Malaysia; dimensions and levels of Iran-Malaysia relations; Mahathir Mohamad's approach, and the challenges facing Iran-Malaysia relations.
... Nonetheless, as the nation currently undergoing a more serious political and economic turmoil, while migration for many young people remains a relevant idea to improve their lives (Kamal & Hossain, 2017), for others it is way to repudiate the legitimacy of the Islamic regime's rule (Larsson, 2018). In consequence, then, it can be said that similar to their desire to join the world, as their responses to the previous topic suggested, the youth's reflection on migration presented just another dimension of these young people's cosmopolitan aspiration; the tendency to go beyond the restricted view on reality of life and as part of their commitment to move towards an imagined global culture. ...
Constituting more than one-third of the country's population, young generation in Iran are also a subnational group who have their own unique experiences of living in Iran and distinct way of defining themselves as Iranian. This has given rise to Iranian youth's identity politics, evinced by nationwide student-led uprisings and social movements throughout the past decade. Identity politics in this sense is specified as the ways in which the young Iranians reflect on their everyday experiences in order to make sense of their belongingness to the nation. The aim of this study, however, is to elucidate the ambiguities surrounding the youth's identities through conducting a series of focus group discussions with the most mature segment of this age group who were selected from middle-class residents of Tehran. The findings ultimately unravelled cosmopolitan aspirations, self-reproach and some other identity-making aspects of these young people's lives.
... Iranian students in Malaysia reported being affected by the collapse of the rial, which has led to many students withdrawing from their studies and dropping out (Bani Kamal & Hossain, 2017). The decline of the Iranian currency has also impacted Iranian students in the United States. ...
This longitudinal qualitative research aimed to investigate the psychosocial adaptation trajectory of Iranian international students in Hungary and the challenges they encountered. Semi-structured interviews were conducted at seven-month to one-year intervals with 20 Iranian students; inductive content analysis was utilized to analyze the interview transcripts. Three topics were identified: (1) visa and banking challenges, (2) the impact of the currency crisis in Iran on mental health, and (3) positive and negative changes in psychological well-being over time. The results revealed that almost all students’ well-being improved over time, despite facing challenges related to visas, banking, and Iran’s recent economic crisis (specifically, the drastic plunge of the Iranian currency).
Keywords: banking, currency crisis, ecological context, international student, Iran, sanction, visa
... This has led to Iran counting for 20 per cent of Malaysia's total trade with Middle Eastern countries, the third largest share behind the UAE and Saudi Arabia (Idriss & Yusoff 2015). While Malaysia continues to crackdown on Shiitism, sources estimate there are between 100,000 and 200,000 Iranians studying or working in Malaysia (Idris & Yusoff 2015;Kamal & Hossain 2016;Sedgley 2012). Malaysia has been careful to not take too bold an action in terms of Iranian influence on Shia believers and Iran, for its part, has mostly ignored Malaysia's repression of the Shia population (Shanahan 2014; Idris and Yusoff 2015; Abu-Hussin, Idris & Salleh 2018). ...
Written for the Al Jazeera Center for Studies, this paper analyses Iran's post-Islamic Revolution relationships with Indonesia, Malaysia and China, in order to provide a backdrop for the reactions of these countries to current Iran-US tensions following the assassination of Soleimani. It argues that despite Iran’s growing relationships with key East Asian states in recent decades, the measured reactions to Soleimani’s killing and the growing escalation with the US demonstrates its isolation. For East Asian states, the assassination highlights the challenges of trying to maintain a strong and resilient relationship with Iran in the face of US pressure and the desire to remain neutral in the tensions.
This is the second volume of a comprehensive exploration of Malaysian Studies within the Turkish context. Esteemed Turkish authors, equipped with first-hand field research encounters in Malaysia, have united to present their insights in this volume. The book delves into a multitude of thought-provoking themes, including the Shia presence in Malaysia, the Islamization process of the nation intertwined with the Dâru’l-Erkâm movement, the influential dynamics of Mamak restaurants on Malay social culture, the pervasive utilization of Superapps exemplified by Grab, the landscape of human rights within Malaysia, and the intricate tapestry of political factions shaping the nation. While the book is currently presented in Turkish, the authors have aspirations of future volumes translated into English and Bahasa Melayu to reach a wider audience.
İran-Malezya İlişkilerinin ekonomi, enerji, mezhepsel alanda incelenmesi. İkili ilişkilerde avantajlı ve dezavantajlı durumlar.
This article explores the diasporic subjectivities of Iranians in Malaysia, specifically how homeland and host country’s national domestic policies and bilateral state relations, in addition to international politics, mold Iranians’ diasporic discourses, organizations, and economics. Positioned within the broader scholarship, my ethnography in Kuala Lumpur identifies the specificity and diversity of Iranian diasporic subjects that embed three accompanying processes of (1) fragmentation along the overlapping lines of the socioeconomic, the political, the ethnic, and the gendered; (2) polarization denoting open opposition of political ideologies and allegiances, religious interpretations, as well as ethnic and gender identities; (3) and pluralization as consciousness accommodating free and equal interaction and communication among diverse groups. Exploring these processes, I argue that the Iranians who observed, discussed, and imagined their own fragmentation and polarization, also developed a pluralist consciousness informed by the host country’s diverse backdrop.
This study investigates the response of the Baloch Sunni
ethno-religious minorty towards the assimilationist approach of the Islamic
Republic of Iran. It argues that the Iranian theocratic political system uses an assimilationist approach and
tries to assimilate the Baloch-Sunni into Shia Persain dominated
ethno-religious group; but, this policy has been resisted by different
strata of the society. The study finds that although there is a general
consensus among the Baloch Sunnis to uphold their ethno-religious values, each
segment of the Baloch Sunni society is combatting the central government’s
ethno-religious policy on its own way depending on the means available, ranging from
cultural efforts to political and military activities.
Diaspora and transnationalism are widely used concepts in academic as well as political discourses. Although originally referring to quite different phenomena, they increasingly overlap today. Such inflation of meanings goes hand in hand with a danger of essentialising collective identities. This book therefore analyses diaspora and transnationalism as research perspectives rather than as characteristics of particular social groups. The contributions focus on conceptual uses, theoretical challenges and methodological innovations in the study of social ties that transcend nation and state boundaries. This volume brings together authors from a wide range of fields and approaches in the social sciences, as studying border-crossing affiliations also requires a crossing of disciplinary boundaries
Young people play an important role in shaping Iran's politics but have only a marginal role in its economy. Youth (ages 15-29) are more than one-third of the country's population and are better educated than the generation they are replacing, while accounting for more than two-thirds of the unemployed. Demographics have thrown the marriage market out of balance, with a "shortage of men" of about 25 percent, while economic pressures have reduced the ability of youth to get married and form families. The higher education system has expanded to absorb ever greater numbers of youth but because education quality is low this has not helped in reducing unemployment. The demographic pressures have amplified since 2008 when the economy entered a period of stagnation. The economic crisis has hit Iran's youth particularly hard, especially those from lower economic backgrounds because the country's rigid formal labor market preserves jobs for older workers. The record number of youth entering the labor market has to wait longer for a regular job or has to take up part-time and informal jobs. In either case, their difficulties in marriage and family formation are intensified.
This article attempts a brief overview of the recent debate on diasporas. It selectively focuses on aspects of the exchanges among theorists from the early 1990s onwards and seeks to identify ways in which our understanding of the concept has evolved and attempts to offer a critical evaluation of these.
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