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The number of Chinese citizens living in Malaysia has almost doubled over the past three years, driven by a jump in students and new investors, according to government officials, academics, schools, and business and community associations.
“Today, there are easily 150,000, and it could even be 200,000” Chinese citizens in Malaysia, said Ngeow Chow Bing, director at the Institute of China Studies at the University of Malaya, up from about 82,000 in 2022, which he called a “very conservative estimate”.
China’s slowing economic growth as well as a more heavy-handed approach to business have driven more of its citizens to seek new lives abroad. Wealthy Chinese citizens have flocked to destinations such as Singapore and Malta where they have acquired citizenship through investment, and they make up the largest source of golden visa applicants in Portugal and Greece. Chinese citizens also form one of the largest groups of illegal migrants attempting to enter the US from Latin America.
In Malaysia, the picture is different. The country is home to a centuries-old Chinese diaspora that makes up about 23 per cent of its 34mn citizens. Most new Chinese arrivals are middle class families who see south-east Asia as a more affordable destination, or students shying away from anti-China sentiment in the west, making Chinese people the largest group of foreign students and long-stay residents in Malaysia.
Universities and international schools in Malaysia are reporting soaring demand. The nation’s higher education institutions had 44,043 Chinese students enrolled last year, up 35 per cent from 2021, according to the education ministry. Financial Times research showed that the number of Chinese pupils in international schools more than doubled in the same timeframe from 2021 to 2023.
More than 56,000 Chinese immigrants now hold Malaysia My Second Home long-stay visas, more than double last year’s number.
Chinese investors are also contributing to the boom in expatriate numbers. There are about 45,000 owners, managers and workers of Chinese companies in Malaysia, up from an estimated 10,000 in 2021, according to a Chinese trade official.
“New people are arriving every week,” said a representative of the China Entrepreneurs Association in Malaysia, who pointed to electronics and electric vehicle industry suppliers seeking to increase capacity outside China to evade US tariffs. Another official at the group said there was also a jump in entrepreneurs cultivating durian for export to China.
Many Chinese students are attracted by lower fees and less competition for university places. “I didn’t do well in the university entrance exam back home. I could have only gotten into a mediocre school and it would have been more expensive,” said Xiaofei, a student at National University of Malaysia who asked to only go by his first name.
The growth is even steeper across secondary schools, albeit from a lower base. Officials at 15 international schools put the percentage of Chinese pupils in their respective student bodies between 10 and 30 per cent, adding up to 2,500 children — almost triple the number recorded in 2021.
Since Malaysia has more than 250 international schools, their total Chinese student population is likely much higher than that sample, said an official at a Chinese community association in Malaysia.
The rise in Chinese residents mirrors an earlier trend in Thailand. Sivarin Lertpusit at Thammasat University in Bangkok said the number of new Chinese immigrants in Thailand was “rapidly increasing”, reaching 110,000-130,000 living in the country in 2022, most of them entrepreneurs, employees, students and their family members as well as lifestyle migrants.
“The majority come from low- to middle-income families,” she said.
But the trend could have a bigger impact in Malaysia, whose population is half the size of its neighbour and where ethnic divisions are more sensitive.
Unlike in Thailand, Malaysia’s Chinese diaspora has not assimilated and the Muslim Malay majority is resistant to any increase in the influence of ethnic Chinese residents.
The inflow is set to continue. Over the first five months of 2024, the number of Chinese applicants to Malaysian universities increased 25 per cent compared with the same period last year, according to Education Malaysia Global Services, which markets Malaysia’s universities abroad.
“Many Chinese students no longer feel welcome in the US or Australia,” said an official at a Chinese community organisation in Malaysia. “Here, there is no China-bashing,” he added, making Malaysia a good option for students who “do not want to be singled out and demonised every day”.
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