Malaysia for me is...

Ein Film von Melanie Gärtner (2016) in Zusammenarbeit mit dem vom BMBF-geförderten Forschungsprojekt AFRASO –"Afrika's asiatische Optionen" (http://www.afraso.org)

2014 stellte die malaysische Einwanderungsbehörde über 27.000 Visa für afrikanische Studierende aus – und damit 25.000 Visa mehr als noch im Jahr 2006. Der Film „Malaysia for me is ...“ thematisiert den „Boom“ der Anzahl afrikanischer Studierender in Malaysia. Vier Protagonisten aus vier verschiedenen Ländern Afrikas erzählen was sie nach Malaysia führte, was sie sich von dem Studium versprechen und vor welche Herausforderungen sie das Leben in einer anderen Kultur stellt. Der Film bietet einen Einblick in ihren Alltag und in ihre – positiven wie negativen - Erfahrungen mit Malaysia.

Malaysia becomes an emerging supplier of higher education, aiming to turn into a global education hub with 10% of tertiary students coming from abroad by 2020. Having already established itself as a large supplier of higher education in South-East Asia and China, Malaysia has recently started to look out for new regions, which could serve as lucrative student providers. Africa with its rapid economic development, high population growth and the resulting increase of demand for quality higher education has become one of the new target regions for the Malaysian student recruitment.
In 2014, the Malaysian immigration office issued more than 27,000 student visas for African nationals, which are 25,000 visas more than in 2006. The documentary „Malaysia for me is...” explores the recent “boom” in the number of African students in Malaysia. The filmmaker Melanie Gärtner and Alexandra Samokhvalova, a researcher in the project “Africa’s Asian Options” – AFRASO – at Goethe University Frankfurt accompany the four protagonists to get a glimpse into their daily lives. The four students, who come from different African countries (Namibia, Tanzania, Guinea and Chad), talk about their experiences of studying and living in multi-ethnic and multi-cultural Malaysia. Having different backgrounds, they offer diverse perspectives on the “phenomenon” of recent increase in the number of African students in the country. They also share their personal reasons – the so called “push & pull factors”, which helped them to decide in favor of Malaysia as their study destination. Kaiho and Jenny, students from Namibia and Tanzania, mention affordable tuition fees and relatively low living costs; while Youssouf from Chad stresses the importance of welcoming policies of the government and an international image of Malaysia as a forward-looking and peaceful Islamic nation as important reasons for him to choose Malaysia. The students also talk about their future plans and opportunities back home, which a Malaysian degree could bring. Besides, the film touches upon the issue of discrimination and negative image of African students in Malaysia, which the protagonists describe as one of the main challenges of staying in the country. Thus Moustafa, a student of Guinean origin, who has lived in Malaysia his whole life, explains how he fits into the local society and tries to play the role of a “stereotype breaker” in attempt to change the attitude towards Africans in the country.
Despite stories about discrimination and other challenges of living in Malaysia, the students leave the impression of being satisfied with their living conditions and the quality of higher education. Moustafa even calls Malaysia his second home. Even though opinions about future growth of African students’ population in Malaysia differ among the protagonists, the film manages to show that Africans play a big role in the internationalization of higher education in Malaysia and will most likely continue to come in search for better chances in life at low cost.
“Malaysia for me is…” is a documentary film by Melanie Gärtner, which was produced in cooperation with Alexandra Samokhvalova, a researcher at the Frankfurt Inter-Center-Programme on new Asian-African interactions AFRASO (Africa’s Asian Options). With the support of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), AFRASO carries out research on various topics of African-Asian interactions, including migration of African students to Malaysia.