Family Frontiers continued to build the confidence of Malaysian mothers and their children to advocate for gender-equal citizenship rights. As momentum grew around the constitutional amendment, more mothers stepped forward, finding their voices and actively engaging in the campaign.

While our internal capacity-building efforts within the community remained a priority, we also sought to expand our outreach and connect with those beyond our existing network. To achieve this, we organized a webinar for Malaysians overseas, reaching impacted mothers abroad who had not yet engaged with us. Additionally, we facilitated a session with Russian spouses of Malaysians, providing guidance on navigating immigration procedures as foreign spouses.

Family Frontiers engaged with approximately: 

• 120 targeted policymakers (Ministers, Members of Parliament (MPs) and Senators) to raise the issue of gender-discriminatory citizenship laws and immigration policies impacting Malaysian binational families in Parliament.
• 80 questions were posed to the government on the timeline of the reform, data on citizenship applications, statelessness, and prospective reform efforts to existing immigration policies.

To grow our circle of allies and keep the momentum alive, Family Frontiers focuses on strengthening ties and building bridges with partners nationally and globally. Whether it was pushing for the long-awaited reform for Malaysian mothers or calling for fairer immigration policies, these collaborations brought heart, strategy, and solidarity to our work. Together, we kept the voices of Malaysian binational families loud and clear, reminding those in power that real change comes when people come together.

Additionally, we are working to build new allies and networks working on statelessness, especially focusing on youth. 

Family Frontiers fcouses on taking up spaces on regional and global platforms. Global outreach efforts have been pivotal in increasing the campaign’s visibility on the global front. These international engagements have played a crucial role in raising the visibility of Malaysia’s gender-unequal citizenship laws, allowing the campaign to resonate with broader human rights movements and build cross-border solidarity. By forging meaningful alliances with global actors, Family Frontiers has been able to elevate the urgency of reform at home, while simultaneously positioning the issue within a wider international context of gender justice and equal nationality rights. Our strategic engagement with United Nations (UN) bodies has continued to be a cornerstone of this advocacy. Through the use of UN treaty body mechanisms, complaint procedures, and shadow reporting processes, we have persistently brought attention to the lived realities of affected families, reminding the Government that the world is watching, and that reform is not only a domestic imperative, but a global expectation.

Family Frontiers 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.

Family Frontiers is now focusing on introducing marriage migration into global discourse through various regional and international outreach efforts. With this newfound recognition, Family Frontiers has been able to raise awareness on the problems faced by binational couples while positioning the issue within a wider internatuonal context of gender justice and the right to family life.

This has been done through strategic engagements with UN Women, the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM), and the Asia Pacific Feminist Forum.

Image credits: UN Women