The article explores the interactions between transnational labour migration, multinational corporations’ (MNCs) location strategies, and public policies in the context of contemporary Malaysia. My main hypothesis is that the country’s position in global production networks is dependent on the presence of a large pool of foreign workers. To demonstrate this relationship, I develop the concept of ‘migration rent’ in order to account for the specific characteristics of migrant labour in Malaysia. By showing that this rent allows the optimisation of labour, as a production factor, beyond the sole issue of labour costs, the concept allows an explanation for why foreign direct investment does not move to lower-wage countries. By allowing and organising the recruitment of foreign workers on a large scale, the government has shaped territories where both capital and labour can be relocated to achieve effective production factor combinations. To understand this process, I articulate the concept of ‘combined relocation’, which describes transnational investment strategies where both capital and labour are moved to a third country—here Malaysia—under the former’s command. In so doing, the paper thus adds to the literature on MNCs’ spatial strategies, on transnational labour migration, and on Malaysia’s political economy.

中文翻译：

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整合跨国劳动力：马来西亚的移民租金、联合搬迁和离岸生产网络

本文探讨了当代马来西亚背景下跨国劳务移民、跨国公司 (MNC) 选址策略和公共政策之间的相互作用。我的主要假设是，该国在全球生产网络中的地位取决于大量外国工人的存在。为了证明这种关系，我提出了“移民租金”的概念，以说明马来西亚移民劳动力的具体特征。通过表明这种租金可以优化作为生产要素的劳动力，而不仅仅是劳动力成本问题，这个概念可以解释为什么外国直接投资不会转移到低工资国家。通过允许和组织大规模招聘外劳，政府塑造了资本和劳动力都可以重新安置的地区，以实现有效的生产要素组合。为了理解这个过程，我阐述了“联合搬迁”的概念，它描述了跨国投资战略，其中资本和劳动力都被转移到第三国——这里是马来西亚——在前者的指挥下。通过这样做，该论文因此增加了关于跨国公司空间战略、跨国劳务移民和马来西亚政治经济的文献。