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13. People on the Move: Rural-Urban Interactions in Sarawak.
Soda, Ryoji. February, 2007．
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The Iban, the largest ethnic group in Sarawak, have been widely recognized as highly migratory people. Based on a decade of participant observation and interviews in both the rural village and the migrants’ community in urban Sibu, the author asserts that understanding Iban movement as migration is insufficient. Instead, it should be comprehended as part of an endeavor to expand their living space. This study, using the concept of “living strategy” or “human agency” that may go some way to transform the structure of migration, contributes to a new theoretical framework for understanding the dynamics of ruralurban interactions.