Coping with strangers in our midst : a critical analysis of Malaysia's foreign workers' policy

Abstract

In the post independence era, the inflow of foreign workers continued to increase in response to labour shortages in some sectors of the economy, especially since the implementation of the New Economic Policy (1970-1990). In 2007, according to official sources, Malaysia has over two million foreign workers accounting for about 6.9 percent of the country's work force and 7.5 percent of its population. In addition, there are irregular migrants workers (known locally as illegal foreign workers) whose number is estimated between 500,000 to one million. While the employment of foreign workers is crucial to economic

development, its negative consequences are many, affecting various spheres of Malaysian life - the socio- cultural, economics, politics and security. In the early eighties, amidst the growing number of irregular

migrants workers and its attendant problems, the government formulated a foreign workers' policy with the twin objectives of encouraging legal recruitment and combating illegal employment. This paper attempts to trace the development of the policy, the inter-play of domestic factors influencing its formulation and determining its strategies, as well as the effectiveness of its implementation. As the focus of the policy is on the low end labour intensive jobs, the paper will also discuss the relevance of the present policy in the light of the government's move towards knowledge based economy.