“US” VERSUS “THEM”: (RE)VISITING THE DAILY LIFE STRUGGLE OF STATELESS COMMUNITY IN SABAH, MALAYSIA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21837/pm.v22i32.1512Keywords:
Statelessness, Plights, Policy FrameworkAbstract
The statelessness issue in Malaysia, particularly in Sabah state, began in the early 1970s due to the influx of Filipino refugees during the Mindanao insurgency and civil war. Scholars have documented that the stateless community in Sabah faces social discrimination and exploitation from various actors that cause them to live in vulnerability. Although previous research has written extensively about the plight of the stateless children in Sabah, there is limited research that talks about living conditions and the daily life struggles of the community itself. Therefore, using a qualitative approach, this study will explore the issues and challenges this community faces regarding their living conditions and access to essential services and amenities. In so doing, we conducted in-depth interviews with 30 stateless individuals living in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. This study found that the stateless community in Sabah is having difficulty in terms of status registration, limited access to employment, worse housing and living condition, and no access to healthcare and education. Therefore, this study may improve the understanding of the state of statelessness in Sabah and provide input in constructing policy and mechanism frameworks to reduce the statelessness issue.
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