Balik Kampung: Transborder Retirement Migration to Johor, Malaysia

• In Event: Intrepid Travellers: Mobility and Migration in Southeast Asian

Abstract

For a segment of elderly Singaporean Malays who find retiring in Singapore expensive, shifting to kampungs in Johor is a viable solution considering the low cost of living, cultural compatibility and the history of mobility for Malays in the region. But several questions then emerge out of this practice. What kind of lifestyle do they lead in such settings? What kind of support do they receive as migrants living in Johor? How do they secure emotional companionship and physical care far from their children in Singapore? The author embarks on a year-long ethnographic research in Kampung Makmur, Johor to elucidate several aspects of retirement migration – motivations, the workings of the migrant network, the everyday life of migrants and strategies undertaken to secure elder care in the kampung context. This research forwards the idea of ‘social capital projects’ undertaken by the elderly migrants to secure emotional and physical care in the kampung. In the process, the elderly Singaporeans inadvertently fulfill their desires for a nostalgic, communitarian lifestyle which they feel to be missing in Singapore.

Author

• Mohammad Kamsya, National University of Singapore