Immigration to Malaysia

Immigration to Malaysia is the process by which people migrate to Malaysia to reside in the country. The majority of these individuals become Malaysian citizens. After 1957, domestic immigration law and policy went through major changes, most notably with the Immigration Act 1959/63. Malaysian immigration policies are still evolving.

In Malaysia there are four categories of immigrants: family class (closely related persons of Malaysian residents living in Malaysia), economic immigrants (skilled workers and business people), other (people accepted as immigrants for humanitarian or compassionate reasons) and refugees (people who are escaping persecution, torture or cruel and unusual punishment).

Currently, Malaysia is known as a country with a broad immigration policy which is reflected in Malaysia's ethnic diversity. According to the 2010 census by Department of Statistics Malaysia, Malaysia has more than 50 ethnic groups with at least 30% of current Malaysians are first- or second-generation immigrant, and 20 percent of Malaysian residents in the 2000s were not born in Malaysian soil.

For most of human history people were free to move between regions. Malaysia's first generation of migrants consisted of indigenous peoples, the Orang Asli, believed either to have been among the first wave of human migration from Africa around 50,000 years ago, or to belong to the more recent events of Asian human evolution.

The Malay Peninsula enjoyed a position of strategic importance, connecting Indochina and the Indonesian archipelago, on the trade routes from China to India. As a result, it grew from port towns that thrived on trade, and hosted the next groups of migrants as merchants became domiciled in the ports, some settling permanently and assimilating into the local communities. By the 5th century, networks of these towns had evolved into organised political spheres of influence that contemporary historians describe as mandalas, as each was defined by its centre rather than its borders. At the periphery, control is less certain, borders may become permeable, In fact, mandalas sometimes overlapped, where areas could be subject to several powers, or none.

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