ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that the discourse of 'motherhood' espoused by the foreign spouses' movement in Malaysia creates a fundamental imperative to redefine the state's marital regime. It examines the applicability of the concept of republican motherhood in Malaysia by looking at how migrant women's activism in Malaysia challenges the Malaysian marital citizenship regime. The chapter draws on the foreign spouses' movement in the Malaysian public sphere to show the value of evoking the motherhood rhetoric to effect immigration and citizenship reform. It examines the movement of mother-spouses for recognition as right-bearing subjects based on the case study of the Foreign Spouses' Support Group (FSSG). The chapter explains how foreign spouses act as agents in carving a niche to becoming new political subjects. It discusses the civic republican conceptualization of citizenship, followed by its approach towards incorporation of foreigners. The chapter adopts Bussemaker and Voet's feminist theory of citizenship, which embraces the civic republican citizenship tradition.
