Turn the Tide – Filipino Oil Palm Migrant Workers in Sabah

CASAS’ member Carlo Arceo has created a short animation based on his doctoral project.

Abstract: The research explores the intersection of agrarian squeeze, irregular migration, and labor and border regimes in two agrarian frontiers in Southeast Asia. The animation follows the journey of a six-member migrant household from Palawan, Philippines, who irregularly cross the maritime border to Sabah, Malaysia, in search of survival and livelihood within the oil palm plantation economy. Inspired by ethnographic encounters, the story illustrates how land dispossession, rural crisis, and limited state support in the area of origin push families into precarious migration routes. Their decision to migrate is not driven by economic imperatives alone, but by a profound moral obligation to ensure household survival, a form of resistance against systemic marginalization. Their migration journey unfolds across uncertain waters, exclusionary borders, and labor exploitation, but it is also a story of resilience, adaptation, and quiet defiance. By choosing to move, the family reclaims agency over their future, even within a system designed to render them invisible. The animation offers a grounded yet symbolic narrative of how migrant families “turn the tide” not just to escape structural exclusion and exploitation, but to reshape life itself. This is just one of the stories of the many migrant households whose presence in Sabah’s oil palm plantation is essential yet unrecognized.
Related research outputs: Arceo and Peters (2025). Palawan and Sabah in the oil palm frontier: undocumented Filipino migrant workers and the social reproduction of labour. Journal of Peasant Studies.
Arceo, Hambloch and Perez-Niño (2025). Rethinking exploitation and control in migrant labour regimes: The case of Filipino workers in a Malaysian oil palm plantation. Agriculture and Human Values

Watch it here: https://youtu.be/MbqYH8Vyp4w

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