Asean urged to recognise marriage migration

Summary

• Family Frontiers calls on Asean to formally recognise marriage migration, citing gaps in legal protection for non-citizen spouses and urging regional policy reform.

• The group says that in Malaysia, an estimated 180,000 non-citizen spouses - mostly women - face insecure residency, limited access to work and services, and heightened risk of abuse.

• Speakers at a roundtable highlight discriminatory policies, trafficking risks, and the lack of recognition for marriages involving groups like Orang Asli women, calling for human rights-based immigration reforms.

Family Frontiers has called on Asean member states to recognise marriage migration as a legitimate and growing form of cross-border movement.

The group asserted that marriage migration, defined as cross-border unions typically involving a citizen and a non-citizen, remains largely absent from mainstream migration discourse and legal protection across the region.

Highlighting the need for reforms to better protect non-citizen spouses and their families, Family Frontiers executive director Bina Ramanand said existing legal and policy frameworks inadequately address marriage migration as there is no collaborative regional approach.

“It is high time that national laws across Asean change significantly in regards to cross-border marriages, access to legal status and the protection of family life,” she said in a statement today.

Family Frontiers said that in Malaysia alone, there are about 180,000 non-citizen spouses, of whom 132,000 are women, with the largest groups coming from Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Non-citizen spouses vulnerable

The group asserted that many of these individuals face legal insecurity, limited access to work, healthcare, and other essential services - vulnerabilities that can be compounded by gender-based violence or family separation.

At a recent roundtable organised by Family Frontiers to discuss this matter, one speaker, a long-serving public university lecturer and non-citizen mother of three Malaysian children, shared her experience of domestic abuse and insecurity due to her immigration status.

“All I’m asking for is security and a long-term prospect to remain in the country without worrying about my next contract or the time when my youngest child will turn 18,” the anonymous speaker was quoted as saying.

Family Frontiers said the woman’s only path to legal residence in Malaysia is a work permit sponsored by her employer. Without the pass, she would be granted only a one-year custody visa with no right to work, leaving her and her young children without a stable livelihood or long-term security.

Cases of human trafficking under the guise of marriage were also highlighted during the session, with one speaker, an Indonesian woman, sharing how she was trafficked and abused for long periods before escaping and being repatriated.

Children suffer too

Discriminatory policies in Malaysia, including visa rules that favour couples with children, were similarly criticised including by Women’s Aid Organisation executive director Nazreen Nizam, herself a spouse in a cross-border marriage.

“This policy assumes that only couples with children are in genuine, long-term relationships. But that’s simply not true. Some couples choose to be child-free. Others may not have children due to medical or personal reasons.

“Our love and commitment shouldn’t be measured by whether we produce a human offspring,” Nazreen said.

An Orang Asli representative also pointed out that marriages between Orang Asli women and non-Malaysian men often go unrecognised, saying: “When these women marry non-citizens, they don’t get support from the society and government.

“Because of this, their children don’t really have access to education and acceptance by communities,” she added.

Suhakam’s Noor Aziah Awal noted that marriage migration is often lumped together with irregular migration and security concerns.

“The prevailing immigration framework treats migrants through a security or labour control lens, with limited recognition of their human rights or family life,” she said during the session, emphasising the necessity of advocating for the reform of discriminatory marriage laws.

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