Ghost Lives of the Pendatang

Ghost Lives of the Pendatang: Informality and Cosmopolitan Contaminations In Urban Malaysia is an ethnographic study of migrants, refugees, and 'temporary' people in Malaysia, incorporating narratives, personal stories, and observations of everyday life in Kuala Lumpur and Georgetown, Penang. Rather than focusing on specific migrant communities or refugee 'camps', the book takes subaltern cosmopolitanism as its central lens to examine how diverse communities of non-citizen 'pendatang' (aliens) co-habit, work, and live together in Malaysia. Urban centers in Malaysia offer space for informality that allows stateless and undocumented people to seek opportunities, while also finding ways to assimilate or even 'disappear' into society. The concept of 'contaminations' is emphasized over migration or migrants, highlighting how migrant life is critically intertwined with everyday urban life, influencing areas such as production, supply chains, food networks, cultural and religious practices, waste work, as well as private aspects like romantic relationships, family life, and sex work. The book explores hybridity, inter-mixing, and bastardization as integral parts of urbanism in Kuala Lumpur and Penang, challenging categories like the 'national,' insider/outsider distinctions, and divisions based on ethnicity and race. Based on detailed ethnographic narratives collected over a decade, it offers insights into the engagements and commitments involved in critical ethnographic research.