Opinion: We Left Ipoh to Build Our Futures. What Happens to the City We Leave Behind?

By By Dr Sharmila Thinagar
Department of Southeast Asian Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Science, Universiti Malaya

I grew up in Ipoh and completed my secondary education here. Like many young people growing up in Ipoh, I eventually left for higher education and, later, career opportunities elsewhere. At the time, I did not think of it as leaving Ipoh behind. I was simply doing what many young people are encouraged to do: study hard, get a good education and build a career. When the next opportunity came, I followed it.

Only much later did I begin to see my own journey differently.

What happened to me is part of a much larger pattern. Young people naturally move towards places where better jobs, higher salaries and stronger career opportunities are concentrated. It is, in many ways, a choice shaped by opportunity. But when thousands of young people make the same choice, the consequences are no longer individual. They begin to shape the city they leave behind.

When leaving becomes a pattern

For a young graduate from Ipoh, the choice can be quite straightforward. There may be a job in Ipoh that allows them to stay close to family. Then there is another job in Kuala Lumpur, Penang or Singapore that offers a higher salary, better training and greater opportunities for career progression.

The decision is not necessarily about loving one city more than another. Sometimes, it simply comes down to opportunity. According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia, the median monthly wage for formal-sector employees in Perak was RM2,300 in December 2025. In Kuala Lumpur, it was RM4,391. For someone starting a career, that difference is difficult to ignore.

A higher income can mean greater savings, faster career progression and better financial security. Once people establish their careers elsewhere, returning home can become increasingly difficult. This is how migration becomes more than a personal decision. It becomes a demographic and economic issue.

Who stays behind?

There is another side to this story that receives less attention. When young people leave, their parents often stay. A son works in Kuala Lumpur. A daughter moves to Singapore. Their parents remain in the family home in Ipoh. At first, distance may not feel like a problem. There are phone calls, WhatsApp messages and visits during holidays.

But parents grow older.

Eventually, someone may need to accompany them to a medical appointment, help with daily activities or simply be nearby when something goes wrong. This is where the story of Ipoh’s young people leaving intersects with another major change: population ageing. Perak is already experiencing rapid demographic ageing.

In 2025, people aged 60 and above made up 15.3 per cent of the state’s population. An ageing population is not simply about having more older people. It also means we need to think about who will provide care, who will work in the care sector and how families will manage when children live far away.

Ageing can also create opportunity

Older people are not simply dependents. They are consumers, homeowners, community members and, in many cases, active contributors to the economy. An ageing Ipoh could create greater demand for home-care services, rehabilitation, healthcare, accessible transport and age-friendly housing.

Consider a daughter working in Kuala Lumpur whose elderly mother lives alone in Ipoh. Her mother may not need a nursing home. She may simply need someone to accompany her to a clinic, help with groceries or check on her twice a week.

This is the care economy, and it could become an important source of local employment. Perhaps Ipoh should therefore ask not only how to retain young people, but also how to build an economy that can serve an older population well.

Can people come home?

This brings me back to my own experience.

When I left Ipoh, I was thinking about where my education and career could take me. I was not thinking about where I would eventually want to settle.

But life changes.

The things that matter at 23 may not be the same things that matter at 35 or 45. At one stage, a higher salary and career advancement may be the priority. Later, proximity to parents, a slower pace of life, affordable housing or raising a family closer to home may become more important.

The question is whether Ipoh can offer enough opportunities when that moment comes. Because asking young people not to leave is unrealistic. People will continue to move. Some will leave for Kuala Lumpur. Some for Penang, Johor, Singapore or overseas.

And that is not necessarily a bad thing.

The real challenge is ensuring that leaving does not become permanent simply because there is nothing to return to. Ipoh needs better jobs, stronger links between universities and industries, opportunities for entrepreneurs and an economy that can make use of the skills of people who grew up here. At the same time, it needs to prepare for an older population and the changing needs of families.

Perhaps the goal should not be to stop young people from leaving. It should be to make leaving a choice, not a necessity, and returning a possibility, not a sacrifice. I left Ipoh to build my future. I suspect many of us did. The question now is whether, when we are ready to come home, Ipoh will still have a place for us and whether we will have done enough for the people who stayed behind.