To be or not to be Orang Siam among Patani Melayu migrant workers in Tom Yam Restaurants in Malaysia

Oghae Nayu (Malay Muslim people) who are Malay ethnic from the lower southern Thailand are also one of the unauthorized foreign workers in Malaysia. Tom Yam restaurants are Thai Halal food business which sells Thai national identity among Oghae Nayu. This paper seeks to explain the role of Thai national identities created and used by Nayu workers in Malaysia. Drawing up examples based on six months between 2008, November to 2009, April of qualitative approach fieldwork, participant observation and in-depth interviews of Nayu migrant workers from the lower southern provinces of Thailand employed at Tom Yam restaurants in Kuala Lumpur by use of snowballing technique. Tom Yam restaurants as a Thai Halal cuisine are popular among Malaysian Muslims scattered across Malaysia. However, there are no Tom Yam restaurants in lower southern Thailand similar to those in Malaysia. The first Tom yam restaurant run in Kuala Lumpur in the 1970s by Oghae Siye Islae who are Thai-speaking Muslim originally from Songkhla, Thailand and then the restaurants spread out through Oghae Nayu who are Malay-speaking Muslims from Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, Thailand. These businesses continue to employ Nayu migrant workers from their home who speak the same language as owners. The same ethnicity and culture are not only reason that why restaurant owners prefer to employ them and also using Nayu workers for Thai identity serve to sell Thai cuisine

Migrant networks of irregular Nayu workers in Malaysia – The case of the Tom Yum restaurants in Kuala Lumpur

The Nayu workers are unauthorised foreign workers from Thailand who may be found operating and serving at the many Thai Halal Tom Yum restaurants all over Malaysia. This paper examines how migrant networks form and develop among Nayu migrants, former migrants and non-migrants in Thailand and Malaysia using data from ethnographic fieldwork. It is shown that international migration has increased in current years and unauthorised Nayu worker flow has become more complex because of the role migrant networks play in shaping migration connections between Thailand and Malaysia. Since they go through their contacts without using a recruitment agency, these pioneering migrants constitute a very important source of information about the availability of job opportunities in Malaysia. Newly arrived migrants are also initially assisted and settled by the pioneer migrants. In conclusion, the findings contribute important insights into the connections between the labour demands of the Tom Yum restaurant business in Malaysia and the labour supply of Nayu workers in Thailand

Cell phone networks and migrant networks: The case of Nayu migrant workers in Malaysia

To be able to communicate as and when one wants to is to be empowered. The increasing use of cell phones has indeed become a significant part of the everyday life for migrant workers. The cell phones which already play such a vital role in enhancing migrant workers’ geographical mobility are now used for connection and to maintain social contacts.This paper examines the relationship between cell phone networks and the social networks amongThailand’s migrant Nayu workers and finds that the cell phone is used by them to maintain and reinforce existing networks and to create new social ties among fellow workers. The cell phone enables the migrant workers to stay connected at all time to their networks whether they are absent from home, at work or crossing the border both in Thailand and Malaysia

Migrant networks in Thailand and Malaysia: irregular Nayu workers in Tom Yam restaurants in Kuala Lumpur

The growing number of foreign workers is having a significant impact on the development of Malaysia’s economy. Nayu workers migrate to work through well-established networks. This study seeks to understand the migrant networks they create and use including their functions and outcomes before, during and after the migration processes. It draws on fieldwork carried out over six months between November 2008 and April 2009 which employed a qualitative approach involving participant observation and in-depth interviews of Nayu irregular migrant workers from the far Southern provinces of Thailand employed at Tom Yam restaurants in Kuala Lumpur. The study found that migrant networks are an essential element in the successful movement of Nayu non-migrants from the far Southern provinces of Thailand to Malaysia, and within Malaysia itself. Since the 1970s the migration process has become chain migration. The networks involving migrants, returned migrants, non-migrants, owners of Tom Yam restaurants and their families and relatives in the villages, play an essential role in the various stages of migration and involve economic, social and cultural aspects. The study shows that within the migration networks differences exist between men, women and Kathoey workers in terms of their positions in the networks, and their access to the networks which exist separately for men, women and Kathoeys. Gender structures not only the migrant networks but also the spatial patterns of men, women and Kathoey workers and their leisure time after work. This study is one of the few contemporary empirical studies of irregular migrants in Southeast Asia working in the informal service sector that deals with how the functions and outcomes of migrant networks contribute to migration processes