Childhood in the migrant city: Statelessness, exclusion and modes of belonging amongst children of irregular migrants and refugees in East Malaysia

This research explores the everyday lives of the children of undocumented migrants and refugees in the city of Kota Kinabalu (KK), the capital of the East Malaysian state of Sabah. In KK, one in every four people is thought to be a migrant, mostly of Filipino or Indonesian origin. Moreover, despite Sabah's economic reliance on migrant workers, there is considerable public and political opposition to their presence, and workers are subject to detention and deportation during periodic crackdowns. This research focuses on children who, because of their parents' undocumented status or their own unregistered births, are at risk of statelessness. Through child-focused ethnographic fieldwork, it will investigate the prevalence of statelessness amongst such children, and the implications of this status for children's experiences of city life, work and education.

Malaysia is a particularly interesting place to study these issues, because it has one of the highest rates of undocumented workers in the world, and yet the everyday lives of these workers and their families are virtually unexamined in the literature. Moreover, Sabah has long been connected to regional trade and migration routes, and there are many mixed marriages between migrants and locals. The research will compare the children of Indonesian and Filipino migrants, in order to explore the extent of their practical and emotional connections with their parents' place of origin. It will investigate the ways in which children move around the region, and will explore how children respond to hearing stories of the detention or deportation of family members.

The research focuses on children not only to fill a gap in the adult-focused migration literature, but also to shed light on central questions in contemporary migration studies including issues surrounding immigrant rights. It will explore the specific ways in which illegal status is experienced amongst different families and communities in Kota Kinabalu, investigating the potentially illicit experience of everyday activities. It will examine children's reflections on their exclusions from schooling or healthcare, and will explore how children experience the Malaysian border in their daily lives. It will also analyse the ways in which migrant children, despite growing up in a context of anti-migrant sentiment and being excluded from Malaysian society, seek and engage in meaningful activities in the present.

The research will consist of 12 months fieldwork in KK, and 14 months of analysis and writing-up. The fieldwork will involve both traditional anthropological techniques of participant observation and unstructured interviews, as well as innovative, child-focused methods. These will include involving children as co-researchers by asking them to draw, take photographs or write about significant places and activities in their lives. A small group of children will also be given camcorders to record video diaries or documentaries of their lives. During the analysis and writing-up stage, three academic events will be organised to stimulate comparative analysis of child-focused methodologies, undocumented workers in Southeast Asia and the denial of citizenship to children.

The research will generate detailed qualitative data on the everyday, urban lives of undocumented children, and a new theoretical framework for understanding the ways in which children experience statelessness. Such a framework will be of relevance to anthropologists working on children and migration, as well as to research by political scientists, legal scholars and development experts. This research will also help Malaysian and International NGOs focused on migrant and child rights to more specifically target the help they provide to migrant workers. It will help to reframe debates about children and citizenship, both amongst advocacy groups and the general public.

This research will be of direct benefit to both international and Malaysia-based NGOs and charities, to UN bodies and to the general public.

In Malaysia, NGOs that will benefit from this research include:
- 'Voice of the Children', a child advocacy group with a developing interest in stateless children in Sabah
- 'Humana Child Aid Society', a charity providing basic education to the children of migrant workers on plantations in rural Sabah
- 'Tenaganita', who campaign for migrant, refugee and women's rights and who have previously organised a conference on the rights of migrant children in Sabah
- SUARAM, who campaign for the promotion and protection of human rights in Malaysia
- SUKA Society Malaysia, a children's NGO providing support programs to children at risk

Other regional NGOs and campaign networks that will benefit include:
- CARAM Asia, a regional network campaigning on migration and health issues
- Migrant CARE, an Indonesian association for migrant workers' sovereignty
- Migrante International, an international alliance of Filipino migrant organizations

The research will also benefit international organizations including:
- Refugees International, an advocacy organisation which campaigns for refugee rights and researches the impact of statelessness
- UNICEF, who have recently helped launch a school for the children of Filipino migrants
- UNHCR, who continue to classify Filipino refugees in Sabah as 'people of concern'
- International Crisis Group, the Asia Program of which is concerned to reduce conflicts associated with migration

All of these organisations will benefit from detailed research (communicated in part through briefing papers) about the contemporary living conditions and experiences of migrants in KK, and the specific consequences for children of their parents' migrations. My findings are likely to have an instrumental impact on the campaign strategies and provision of support and help by Malaysian NGOs, migrant worker organisations and UNICEF. This is because my findings are likely to highlight particular areas of concern for children themselves, whether specific problems encountered in moving around the city, finding work or accessing schooling. My findings are also likely to have a conceptual impact, reframing debates about child rights and migration amongst relevant advocacy groups, and (through media work in the final months of fieldwork) amongst the general public in Sabah.

By generating detailed data about the everyday lives of stateless children, this research will help NGOs to more specifically target practical help to improve stateless children's health and well-being, as well as providing illustrative material for policy campaigns against statelessness. This research will also contribute (in part through a website of stories and images) towards enhancing public understanding in the UK, Malaysia and beyond of the consequences of international migration for poor children in the global South.