Indian Migrants in Brunei: The Role of Social Networks

Abstract

Indian immigrants have emerged as a dominant community in Brunei nowadays. Since the colonial period, there has been an influx of Indian migrants to Brunei. This research investigates the social networks that Indians used to get to Brunei. Evidently, there has been little research on these group of people in Brunei. This study employs a sample of 17 low, semi, and unskilled Indian migrants chosen on snow-ball basis. Face-to-face interviews were conducted. According to the findings of this study, social networks played a significant role in making the decision to migrate over to Brunei. We found that chain migration mechanism has been active in the India-Brunei migration domain since long. As a risk diversification approach, migration networks act as a web of interpersonal connections that connect migrants, former migrants, and non-migrants in their origin and destination countries via relationships of kinship, friendship, and common community origin.