But I’m struck, most of all, by one key difference between the migrants of then and now, which highlights how patterns of migration within Asia have changed over the last 100 years. Whereas almost all the Chinese and Indian immigrants to Malaysia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries settled in their adopted country, eventually establishing large communities that still thrive today, not one of the 16 Nepali workers who share Shyam’s cramped dormitory intends to put down roots in Malaysia, or even return to the country for another three-year contract once their present one runs out.

The reduction of the migrant experience to pure economics over the last two decades has irrevocably changed the nature of human movement in Asia. It also highlights the growing gulf in wealth between middle-class countries such as Malaysia and Singapore on one hand, and Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Cambodia on the other.

Moving across borders is no longer an act of hope, but one solely of necessity. Money has turned migration into something ephemeral, a passage to be endured rather than the permanently transformative experience it once was.

Shyam’s dilemma is common to most migrant workers I’ve spoken to in Malaysia: They are paid just enough for them to want to remain employed, but are trapped in an endless cycle of 12-hour shifts that makes it impossible for them to interact in any meaningful way with local life. They have no chance, or incentive, to become an integrated part of Malaysian society. Malaysia has been a rich melting pot since the 1500s, because of its favorable location on trading routes between India and China, as well as its colonial history of successive occupation by the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British. But its new migrants are treated merely as a resource, rather than as potential citizens who could contribute to and enrich Malaysian culture.

Malaysia’s impressive economic growth over the last 25 years — at an average annual rate of about 6 percent — has been sustained by a constant influx of workers from poorer neighboring countries. Recent estimates suggest that there are now about 2.5 million foreign workers, a vast majority of whom are in low-skilled or unskilled jobs.