[citation needed] The bulk of Malaysian Malayali migration began during the British Raj, when the British facilitated the migration of Indian workers to work in plantations, but unlike the majority Tamils, the vast majority of the Malayalis were recruited as supervisors (called mandur) in the oil palm estates that followed the kangani system, and some were into trading and small businesses with a significant proportion of them running groceries or restaurants.

The people of the Malay Peninsula begin receiving influences of South India around the 4th century, mainly through trading.

When Penang was founded by Francis Light in 1786, many notable government buildings and roads were built by convict labourers from Malabar.

Back then, most of the towns in the Madras Presidency were well connected by roads, railways and ports, thus making it easy for labourers to travel.

Estates around areas such as Padang Rengas, Sitiawan, Labu, Bahau and all over the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia had Malayalee labourers.

It is believed that a large number of Malabari Muslims had migrated to Penang and Malacca even before the British invaded Malaya.

In British Malaya, the traders from Malabar travelled from ports in Cannanore and Calicut to Penang and Malacca.

The Arabi Malayalam was used as a medium for religious classes among the Malabars, and the Malayali Christians in Malaya spoke dialects from Cochin.

However, the financial status of the Malayalee clerks and merchants enabled them to enrol their children to English medium schools.

During World War II, these Malayalam medium schools closed due to the Japanese occupation in Malaya.

Estates in Padang Rengas, Labu, and Johor Bahru were known to have Malayalam medium schools in existence before the Independence of Malaya.

Around the early 1970s, the Malayalee Associations in Peninsular Malaysia provided Malayalam classes to preserve the language.

Today, Malayalam classes are still being provided by numerous Malayalee Associations throughout Peninsular Malaysia.

The newspaper was later printed in Singapore due to the high population of Malayalees there and renamed as Malaysia Malayali around the early 1970s.

[2] In 1931, the first Malayalee reading room in Malaya was founded in Jelf Road (Regat Tun Perak), Ipoh.

Today, Malayalam is only used as a spoken language at home and for formal purpose pertaining to some events held by the Malayalee Associations.

Malabari Muslim youths today are more comfortable in speaking Bahasa Malaysia than their mother tongue.

The children of the Malayalees who migrated to Malaya from the Madras Port (mostly labourers) were registered as Tamils in their birth certificate.

This led to the actual population of Malayalees in Malaya being unknown, but definitely more than the figure from the census conducted by the British government.

However, the record has been inaccurate due to some mistakenly Malayalis addressing themselves as Tamils, and some being classified into the "Orang India Muslim/ Malabari" category.

However, this figure is not accurate based on the system of the Malaysian Government because of the segregation of the Malayalee Muslims as a separate Indian ethnic category (Orang India Muslim/Malabari).

As the Malayalees migrated to Malaya, they received influence from the Tamil culture (the predominant Indian ethnic) and the Malays, in aspects of food, lifestyle, outfits, believes and more.

The affiliates of the All Malaysia Malayalee Association, AMMA organise cultural events during August and September in conjunction with Onam.

The Mohiniyattam, Thiruvathirakali, stage plays, and the Mappila Paattu were often performed by the Malayalee youths.

As Datuk Susheela Menon was one of the most popular Indian artist in that era, the TV shows included Malayalam songs too.

In 2020, the inaugural Malaysian Malayalam telemovie Acchammakku Oru Vishukkani premiered on Astro Vaanavil to coincide with the festival of Vishu.

[citation needed] A large number of Malayalees who migrated from North Malabar (Kannur & Kasargod) prayed to Muthappan.

[citation needed] Penang and Johor Bahru are the prominent places of the Malabari Muslim community in Malaysia.

The religious classroom was known as Othu Muri and classes were conducted by a labourer who had vast knowledge about Islam.

The association was responsible for not only providing funeral services for Malayalee Hindus in Singapore, but also for the ones in Johore and Malacca.