Our Work

Family Frontiers serves Malaysian bi-national families—Malaysians married to non-citizen spouses, their spouses and children. Family Frontiers focuses on the social, economic, cultural, civil and political context of issues concerning Malaysian bi-national families and addresses the biases in law, policy and practice.

Family Frontiers also applies a gendered angle to its work on bi-national families by addressing laws and policies that disproportionately impact women and children. In all aspects of its advocacy, Family Frontiers ensures that the voice and lived realities of the focus population is at the centre of advocacy, thereby ensuring representation and participation.

ONGOING

Malaysian Campaign for Equal Citizenship

The Malaysian Campaign for Equal Citizenship mobilises and advocates for equality in Malaysian citizenship provisions such that children born to either parent Malaysian have equal access to citizenship regardless of the gender and marital status of the Malaysian parent, and the place of birth of the child. The campaign aims to address the following issues:

1

Inability of children born overseas to a Malaysian mother and foreign father to obtain Malaysian citizenship by operation of law

2

Inability of children born out of a legally recognised civil marriage to a Malaysian father and foreign mother to obtain Malaysian citizenship by operation of law

3

Inability of Malaysian women to confer citizenship on their non-citizen spouse on an equal basis as Malaysian men

WORK DONE / PROGRAMMES

Services

Family Frontiers, through the Malaysian Campaign for Equal Citizenship, provides guidance and assistance to Malaysian bi-national families in their application for Malaysian legal status. Family Frontiers currently runs and manages a growing network of Malaysian mothers seeking citizenship for their overseas-born children which currently has 140 mothers. The network follows a peer-support model.

Services include inquiries, information and support for a wide range of issues, which includes but is not limited to, the application process for Malaysian legal status, access to education and healthcare and birth registration of children of Malaysians, and marriage registration.

Advocacy

Family Frontiers follows a multi-pronged approach in its advocacy for equal citizenship, with the main focus on engaging with the focus population to ensure representation of lived realities by amplifying the voices of those affected in the advocacy.

In its current advocacy for equal citizenship of children born overseas to a Malaysian mother and a non-citizen father, Family Frontiers engages with relevant actors nationally, regionally and globally, parliamentary machinery and the media. Through its outreach activities and engagement efforts—such as webinars, training, briefings, meetings and community engagement—Family Frontiers works on building awareness on Malaysian citizenship provisions and their impact on women and children.

ONGOING

Foreign Spouses Support Group (FSSG)

According to data from the Immigration Department of Malaysia, annually, there are approximately 150,000 Long-Term Social Visit Passes (LTSVP) issued for non-citizen spouses of Malaysian citizens. This does not include spouses of Malaysians on other visas such as student visas or other statutes such as the residence pass or permanent residence.

Non-citizen spouses of Malaysians face a myriad of socio-economic challenges. Oftentimes, this disproportionately affects women and children in Malaysian bi-national families, placing them in vulnerable situations. The COVID-19 pandemic has only further exacerbated the impacts on these families.

WORK DONE / PROGRAMMES

Services

The Foreign Spouses Support Group (FSSG) serves as a peer-support network for Malaysian bi-national families to obtain information on processes related to marriage migration to assist them in the process of establishing their family unit. FSSG also curates and manages several close-knit peer support networks, such as the ‘Spouses Stranded Overseas’ network established during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Services provided include daily inquiries, case management, necessary referrals and continuous updates of information on the Foreign Spouses Support Group (FSSG) online helpdesk and public service platform. Assistance and support provided by FSSG include access to legal status among spouses and children of Malaysians, access to education and healthcare, marriage and birth registration. FSSG’s service delivery utilises a self-sufficient peer support model where those impacted support one another while maintaining a sense of community.

Advocacy

FSSG also works consistently on building its network of Malaysian bi-national families and works directly with the focus population to gather information on the challenges faced on the ground. Apart from its daily inquiries and case management, FSSG receives its frontline knowledge on the challenges faced by the community through thematic surveys, data collection exercises and focus group discussions.

With the evidence gathered, Family Frontiers conducts public outreach activities to shed light on the impact on these families, particularly the disproportionate impact on women and children. This allows FSSG and Family Frontiers to understand lived realities and translate them to relevant actors such that these issues do not remain a blind spot in policymaking, and the best interest of children and family unity is taken into account while reviewing and reforming policies and practices.

25,000

followers benefitting from the Facebook public service platform

5

lose-knit peer support networks

300

& more members benefiting from close-knit peer support networks

ONGOING

Right to Belong Project

The ‘Right to Belong’ project by Family Frontiers is a youth-led collective for equal citizenship consisting of youth activists, advocates and campaigners for equal citizenship in Malaysia.

Setting up of the Right to Belong project

The ‘Right to Belong’ project kicked off in March 2021 following a global training of trainers organised by the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights (GCENR) and co-facilitated by Family Frontiers. Family Frontiers, along with the advocates that participated in the Global TOT replicated the workshop on a national level as part of the first cohort of the Right to Belong project—23 youth advocates participated in the capacity-building program, out of whom, 11 went on to lead projects as part of the national campaign for equal citizenship.

WORK DONE / PROGRAMMES

The ‘Right to Belong’ Project works on initiatives to raise awareness on the issue of equal citizenship among the youth population through partnership and collaboration, workshops, outreach activities and network building.

Join Us for a Volunteer

Family Frontiers and the ‘Right to Belong’ project is especially looking to engage with children who are directly or indirectly impacted by biased Malaysian citizenship laws to participate in our advocacy initiatives.

Join the Network