Paper short abstract:

Living under precarious circumstances in protracted exile, displaced Rohingya in Malaysia develop resourceful strategies to strengthen their lives. The experiences of four Rohingya families from Kuala Lumpur’s suburbs illustrate how they build more secure lives for themselves.

Paper long abstract:

Rohingya in Malaysia live a life of precariousness. Fieldwork among Rohingya families living in the suburbs of Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur reveals they develop strategies to make their lives less precarious.

The UNHCR in Malaysia has been working towards integration for the Rohingya, who have been fleeing Myanmar for decades as a response to the ongoing conflict in its Rakhine state. However, successful integration of the Rohingya community in Malaysia faces a number of basic impediments. Without legal status, without being able to send their children to school, with difficulties obtaining health care and without work rights, Rohingya are essentially living a life of informality. Officially they cannot work, save money in a bank, rent an apartment, drive a car or even a motorcycle.

Yet, Rohingya have developed resourceful ways to overcome these obstacles and to make life more robust. What is more, as much as their undocumentedness limits the Rohingya, being undocumented also creates opportunities to carry out vital activities that take place outside official frameworks.

Based on extensive field research among four Rohingya families living in the suburbs of Kuala Lumpur this paper explores how these Rohingya families experience being undocumented in their daily lives as well as the ways in which Rohingya build more secure lives for themselves and their families.