MALAYSIA:::New communities create homes away from home in KL’s migrant hub

The narrow alleys that snake through the oldest streets of Kuala Lumpur were once the hub of business and trading activities of the city's first migrant communities. Areas such as Leboh Pasar, Medan Pasar, Jalan Yap Ah Loy, Jalan Petaling, Jalan Cheng Lock and Jalan Pudu were widely known as areas where Chinese and Indian businessmen first established themselves in the post-Malaya independence years. With their neo-classical designs, the old shophouses along Lebuh Ampang, Jalan Hang Kasturi and Jalan Tun H.S. Lee were dotted with businesses ranging from South Indian money lenders, to Chinese and Indian textile shops and restaurants serving familiar flavours of home for the early settlers


Today these areas are heritage sites, and serve as a nostalgic throwback to the energy and life that Malaya's earliest migrants brought to the capital city. While the streets continue to emanate colour and life, the landscape has begun to experience a dramatic change reflected in the different communities that are seeking to recreate a home away from home. The streets of KL city centre are slowly evolving to mirror the influx of Malaysia's new migrant communities from countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar. 

The entire area has seen a transformation over the last decade – the Bar Council headquarters, several banks, a popular beef noodle shop, and several watch shops are about all that remain from the early post-independence years. “This area is quite strategic because we travel in public transportation and we drop by this area, and things here are really cheap,” said Ahmad Mohammed Nur, a 28-year-old Myanmar who has been working in Malaysia for nine years. Some 200 shops, catering especially to the immigrant population, now fill the streets of the KL city centre, selling anything from food to mobile phones, textiles, videos and sundry goods. Signages, advertisement banners and restaurant menus are commonly found in the language of the shopowner's native country. These alleyways are home away from home for many of the migrants, 

where they get their local food and can effortlessly walk into a shop and speak their native tongue, apart from watching movies and music from their homeland. This is their refuge from their day-to-day work – and also, probably, the only place in Malaysia where one can find “paan" being sold on a small table by the pavement by young children who expertly fold the betel leaves with areca nut. R. Rakesh, 31, a migrant worker from Nepal, said that the area picked up pace as a hub for the migrant community due to the presence of many international banks. "As you can see, this area is filled with international banks. And normally the migrant workers need to come here to send money back home," he said. Rakesh, who has been here for a couple of years, is unsure how long he will stay in Malaysia.

 However, like most of the migrant workers met in this area, the final goal is to return to their families, whom they have left behind in a bid to support them by earning Malaysian ringgit. But as much as the environment mimics home, these new migrant communities are aware that Kuala Lumpur will remain a temporary living space, as their ultimate hope is to return home with enough savings to allow a comfortable life for their families. "Whatever it is, we still know we are migrants here. We are just here to make a living," Ahmad said. "We have to be careful still, because we are only foreign workers and not citizens. "We are just trying to create an environment for ourselves here." – December 6, 2015.

source:::http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

Some 200 shops, catering especially to the immigrant population, now fill the streets of the KL city centre, selling anything from food to mobile phones, textiles, videos and sundry goods. - See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/new-communities-create-homes-away-from-home-in-kls-migrant-hub#sthash.aBTALYQV.dpuf