Abstract
For a segment of elderly Singaporean Malays who find growing old in Singapore costly, shifting to kampungs in Johor, Malaysia to retire is a viable solution, considering the low cost of living , accessible modern facilities, relatively developed infrastructure as well as its geographical proximity which allows for occasional return to Singapore . Some questions then emerge out of this practice. First, what is the kind of lifestyle that elderly, retired Singaporean Malays have to contend with in choosing to live in such settings? What kind of support do they receive as elderly migrants living away from home? The author embarked on a year-long ethnographic research in a particular Kampung Makmur , Johor to capture the dynamics of retirement migration for this particular group of elderly. The research elucidates several aspects of retirement migration—the working of the migrant network within the kampung organization, the everyday lived realities and practice of migrants to secure elder care and the process of migrant integration . Drawing on social capital and network , this research proposes that ‘social capital projects ’ are undertaken by the elderly retirees to secure emotional and physical care in the kampung.
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Notes
- 1.
The kampung commonly translates to ‘village’ in English.
- 2.
I base my evaluation here on the membership numbers for the association and the coverage it has received in the Singapore media. The organization is supported by the governments of both countries. Essentially, it aspires to achieve what the British Resident’s Association have done, but for Singaporeans in Johor.
- 3.
Generally, the Malay elderly too do not impose caregiving duties on their children or explicitly demand care and money. But they do hope that their children would take care of them (Blake 1992).
- 4.
Medisave could be used in 12 hospitals scattered across West Malaysia. These hospitals fall under the Parkway Holdings and Health Management International organizations which also operate in Singapore (Khalik 2010).
- 5.
This is also one of the reasons why I have avoided a more extensive discussion of transnationalism. While I do acknowledge that it is a useful concept, I feel that it often distracts from the practices of migrant integration within the new migrant locality, an important feature of this paper.
- 6.
The CPF is basically a compulsory savings system for Singaporeans, where a fixed percentage of one’s monthly salary is channelled into an account that can be used to purchase Housing Development Board Flats, pay for any medical expenses incurred or fund their children’s university education. As of June 2013, a person who has reached the age of 55 will be able to withdraw whatever amount that is excess of the required minimum which is $139,000 in the ordinary account and $38,500 in the medisave account.
- 7.
To qualify for the CPF LIFE scheme, you have to have at least $40,000 in your retirement account when you are 55 or at least $60,000 when you are in your draw down age. CPF LIFE is essentially an extension of the minimum sum scheme guaranteeing monthly hand-outs.
- 8.
Gotong Royong is the act of mutual assistance and is an important concept in the lives of kampung people. An example of gotong royong would be the collective effort of the kampung people in constructing a house.
- 9.
We may criticize the latter for instrumentalizing kampung to support the state’s anti-welfare agenda.
- 10.
I had checked with the locals and Singaporeans in Kampung Makmur and this has never happened before.
- 11.
Another forseeable problem was that if the Singaporean owners passed away, their children would not be able to claim the property as inheritance. The secretary general of the JSCA expressed concern at such risky dealings. He explained that in such scenarios, even sanctioned institutions like the JSCA would not be able to render any form of aid to the affected simply because the prior arrangements are illegal.
- 12.
There are other cliques such as the coffee shop clique and the administrative functionaries clique formed around the village head. The latter also form the backbone of the kampung organization or jawatankuasa.
- 13.
Failure to adhere to these norms would invite sanctions (as I had alluded to in the vignette detailing the relations of Jewish diamond traders), usually in the form of exclusion from group relations, cutting off any form of resource the relations may have potentially provided.
- 14.
Shamsul’s (1991) study also reports the significance of civic participation in the kampung context, although he was just as intent to illustrate how involvement in formal associations in the kampung usually had to do with obtaining political patronage within the larger framework of the highly politicized administrative kampung.
- 15.
My Singaporean informants explained that in all their years of staying and owning a house in the kampung, they have never had a problem where they had to relinquish their houses, neither have they ever heard of such a problem affecting other Singaporeans in the kampung.
- 16.
It is important to note here that social capital does not equate to resource (1998). Rather, social capital has the possibility of granting resource. A person may have very extensive networks compared to another but he might not get access of say a study loan compared to the student who has lesser networks but more avenues in the networks to get a study loan. Of course what constitutes as resource or the value of a particular resource is very subjective. This is linked to my discussion on the concept of the field by Bourdieu (2001).
- 17.
A smaller version of the Muslim mosque, usually in villages.
- 18.
Literally translates to show face, meaning to show up and be present at an event.
- 19.
To put things into perspective, even the supposed kampung youth delinquents attended the events at the surau, although they did make their way off with the surau donation box.
- 20.
Salmah and Tipah explained that usually, when someone passes away in the kampung, at least half of the kampung would make an effort to attend the funeral. This was seen as a very important gesture to my informants because first, it is believed that the more people attending one’s funeral, the more people who would pray for the departed. Second, having many people at your funeral is also indicative of the amount of respect the deceased is accorded in the village, a form of symbolic capital for a particular family or household.
- 21.
This extends to other areas of life such as political participation for instance.
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Mohammad Khamsya, B.K. (2016). ‘Balik Kampung’: The Practice of Transborder Retirement Migration in Johor, Malaysia. In: Lian, K., Rahman, M., Alas, Y. (eds) International Migration in Southeast Asia. Asia in Transition, vol 2. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-712-3_4
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