ABSTRACT
Collectively the chapters in this volume draw our attention to at least five points worth emphasising. First, the chapters confirm what is already known regarding the complexity of human flows in the region, where people are crossing borders constantly – permanently and temporarily, legally and illegally, and in some cases in between. The reasons for these flows are disparate, ranging from the extremities of human rights abuses and trafficking on the one hand, to largescale regulated migration on the other. Categorisations such as ‘illegal migrants’, while legally sound in certain contexts, prove inadequate in capturing the fluidity with which human flows intersect both the physical and legal boundaries inscribed by the state. This goes some way to explain the diversity in securitisation: not all unregulated migration is connected to state security; movements between illegal and legal categories are common and not always clearly defined or reflected in reliable data; and the state itself is sometimes complicit and benefits from these categories remaining grey (such as Indonesian labourers in Malaysia and their benefit to the Malaysian economy).
