Page 5 - Q1 V1 RESEARCH@FASS

Highlights

• Migrant workers' social practices in which
diverse actors and factors interact, creates
emotions on both sides of the border.

• Social practices and the consequent
emotions can either conserve or transform
transnational affect.

• Ritual gatherings, living with fellow
workers from same district and engaging in
intense communication intensify
transnational affects.

Abstract • Social practices with a high degree of

This article, argues that migrant workers’ social practices within the local homeland orientation conserve transnational
contexts in which diverse actors (co-workers, relatives, employers, agents affect.
and officials) and factors (such as wages, victimisation, bereavement and
remittance) interact, creates emotions, and affects on both sides of the
border. The diverse social practices and consequent emotions can either Keywords
conserve or transform relationships with family, friends, and homeland
within the transnational social fields. Social practices of victimisation and
the precarious conditions in which they live make them feel insecure, Social
alienated, and emotionally tensed. Some friends and relatives who acted Emotions
as agents and sub-agents victimised them because such victimisers did practices
not fear ostracism in the transnational social field. Furthermore, when
victimised by agents, employers, and officials, they remain docile, which
indicates that their agency is incapacitated. In this situation, the migrant Transnational Emotions of
workers felt excluded and marginalised. Therefore, their social practices affect migration
were directed towards safe spaces such as ritual gatherings, living with
fellow workers from the same district and engaging in intense
communication with family members in Pakistan with a high degree of
Geographies Pakistani migrant
homeland orientation. In addition, remittances have affective resonance,
which conserves transnational affect. Data were obtained from 35 in- of emotions workers
depth informal interviews with Pakistani migrant workers in Malaysia.

Highlights

• The yearly average of PM10 exceeds all
health guidelines during haze in 2015

• CO has been established well to reflect the
intensity of the haze

• A covariation of BC flux with CO and PM10
concentrations was observed during haze

• Southern Malaysian Peninsula and Borneo
were impacted from fires in Kalimantan

Abstract Keywords

The Southeast Asian (SEA) region is no stranger to forest fires - the region has been suffering
from severe air pollution (known locally as ‘haze’) as a result of these fires, for decades. The fires in
Trace
SEA region are caused by a combination of natural (the El Niño weather pattern) and manmade Aerosol
(slash-and-burn and land clearing for plantations) factors. These fires cause the emissions of toxic gases
aerosols and pollutants that can affect millions of people in the region. Thus, this study aims to
identify the impact of the SEA haze on the Southern region of the Malaysian Peninsula and
Wild Forest
Borneo region of East Malaysia using the entire air quality observation data at surface level in Haze
2015. Overall, the concentration of PM10 was about two-fold higher during the haze period fires
compared to non-haze period. The concentrations of CO, flux of CO and flux of BC were aligned
with PM10 during the entire observation period. The wind field and cluster of trajectory indicated
Biomass Peatland
that the Southern Malaysian Peninsula and Borneo were influenced mainly from the wildfires and
the combustion of peat soil in the Indonesian Borneo. This study finds that wildfires from Borneo burning fires
impacted the Southern Malaysian Borneo more seriously than that from Sumatra region.

5 / R E S E A R C H @ F A S S