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The presence of migrants, especially ethnic Buton, Bugis, and Makassar in Maluku has been going on since the 16th century. Initially, they penetrated economic areas, through trade ventures and service servants, such as driver, laborers, city transportation entrepreneurs and so on. In line with state policies, through transmigration and spontaneous migration, the number of migrants, including fuel, has increasingly increased and influenced the composition of the demographics of the Maluku people. In 1999 there were conflicts with nuances of religion and ethnicity in Maluku. One argument states that migrants helped trigger the conflict. As a result of the conflict, some left Maluku, some remained in Maluku and continued to live their lives to this day, including participating in local political contestations. This phenomenon is very interesting to study more deeply through ethnographic research and literature review. In the current social dynamics, ethnic BBM, especially ethnic Butonese began to explore the political area. This phenomenon is interesting and is the focus of the study in this paper. There are two questions that will be answered through this paper, namely; First, what is the dynamics of fuel migrants in the Maluku islands? Second, how they are involved in local political contestation in Maluku. Using perspective, flexible citizenship, such as the introduction of Aihwa Ong (1993, 1999), this paper sees that the theme of local politics and decentralization and nationalism, does not have to be seen in black and white, but in citizenship formation, each ethnic has a strategy and access in public space, including participation in local politics.