Malaysian diaspora


The Malaysian diaspora are Malaysian emigrants from Malaysia and their descendants that reside in a foreign country. The population estimates close to two million, both descendants of early emigrants from Malaysia, as well as more recent emigrants from Malaysia. The largest of these foreign communities are in Singapore, Australia, Brunei and the United Kingdom.
Emigration from Malaysia is a complex demographic phenomenon existing for decades and having a number of reasons, with institutional racism being one of the major factors. The process is the reverse of the immigration to Malaysia. Malaysia does not keep track of emigration, and counts of Malaysians abroad are thus only available courtesy of statistics kept by the destination countries. As of 2025, according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the population of the Malaysian diaspora stands at 2,486,673.

Reasons of emigration

Brain drain

Due to the concept of Ketuanan Melayu, a citizen that is not considered to be of Bumiputera status face many roadblocks and discrimination in matters such as economic freedom, education, healthcare and housing. Opposition groups, government critics and human rights observers has labeled the Malaysian situation as being highly similar to apartheid policies due to their status as de facto second-class citizens. Such policies has also led to a significant brain drain from the country.

Citizenship

Malaysians can acquire their citizenship in several ways. Anyone born to at least one Malaysian parent on Malaysian soil is considered to be a Malaysian citizen at birth. For persons born outside Malaysia, they will automatically become Malaysian citizen if they were born to a Malaysian father and their births were registered with Malaysian diplomatic missions within one year. However, a 2024 constitutional amendment has made it eligible for both overseas Malaysian father or mother to pass down their Malaysian citizenship to their overseas-born child, but this amendment has yet to officially come into force.
Malaysian citizens may lose their citizenship in two ways, either by voluntary renunciation, or deprivation by the Malaysian governtment if they were found to have voluntarily acquired foreign citizenship, voted in a foreign election, or acquired a foreign passport.
A person who acquired his Malaysian citizenship by naturalization may also be deprived of his citizenship if he:
  1. is residing in a foreign country and has, for a period of five years, failed to register annually with Malaysian diplomatic missions of his intention to keep his Malaysian citizenship; or
  2. has committed disloyalty or treasonous acts against Malaysia.

Electoral rights

Malaysians residing overseas who have not registered as a Normal Elector before or who wish to be registered as an Absent Voter to participate in any Malaysian election may register with the respective consulate generals, embassies or high commissioners. As of 2013, only 8,756 Malaysians out of over 700,000 Malaysians living abroad have registered as postal voters. 6,092 of the 8,756 registered citizens overseas or 69.82% had cast their votes at 100 Malaysian missions worldwide for the Malaysian general election, 2013.

Population by continent

The list below is of the countries with significant Malaysian populations. Those shown first with exact counts are enumerations of Malaysians who have immigrated to those countries and are legally resident there, does not include those who were born there to one or two Malaysian parents, does not necessarily include those born in Malaysia to parents temporarily in Malaysia and moved with parents by right of citizenship rather than immigration, and does not necessarily include temporary expatriates.
Continent / CountryArticlesOverseas Malaysian Population
Africa13,726
Libya