Book Review: Irregular migrants and the sea at the borders of Sabah, Malaysia: Pelagic Alliance

Abstract

Irregular migrants in Sabah live in economic precarity and face irreversible consequences when confronted with immigration laws and policies that criminalize their irregularity. The strict enforcement of these laws and policies would often result in raid, arrest, detention, and forced repatriation. In light of this harsh reality, the introductory chapter (chapter 1) of Irregular Migrants and the Sea at the Borders of Sabah, Malaysia: Pelagic Alliance begins by posing a basic question: “Why do deported irregular migrants return, time and again, despite the serious risks of being caught?” (p. 1). The book’s main focus is on irregular migrants from southern Mindanao who selfidentify as Suluk (Tausug), Bajau (Samal), Visayan, Illongo and Cebuano. Despite this main focus, most of the irregular migrants that the author interviewed express mixed maritime heritages, which is indicative of their diverse backgrounds. This diversity is made clear by the author when identifying them in the book. In shedding light on the notion of home, which these irregular migrants found compelling when making the decision to return to Sabah, the introductory chapter notes how it seeks to incorporate “important elements of migrant life amidst ongoing state scrutiny: alliances and networks, both human and non-human, and the ways in which these motivate” them to make that decision (p. 1). The book attempts to demonstrate how the sea, the Sulu Sea, in particular, being an “underappreciated agent” (p. 2), provides refuge and strength to irregular migrants in Sandakan, Sabah who are forced to navigate perilous implications engendered by their irregularity. The author uses the term “pelagic alliances” to refer to the relationship that this group of people has with the Sulu Sea. This approach, which, as the author highlights, “hopes to illuminate the powerful nature of human-nonhuman relations in order to change the way we perceive human mobility amid structural constraints,” is necessary given the heavy emphasis of the existing literature on either the push and pull factors of irregular migration in Sabah or the socio-political implications of such migration (p. 5). The voices of irregular migrants centered in the introductory chapter demonstrates the unique connection that the community has to the sea, which they describe as persekutuan (a country and an ally) (p. 3), while encountering immigration and border policing and its consequences. The introductory chapter of the book, which also situates the migration crisis in Sabah, is followed by four other chapters which embody separate case studies involving various groups of people within the irregular migrant community living in Sandakan, Sabah such as men, women, and youths. These case studies capture the different aspects of irregular Book Review