Booming Malaysia a magnet for migrants

Booming Malaysia a magnet for migrants

As Malaysia becomes more affluent, it becomes a magnet for
migrant workers. Kalinga Seneviratne of Inter Press Service
reports.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's rapid economic growth has made it a
magnet for migrant workers and all the problems that go with a
large population of foreign workers.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad plans to make Malaysia a fully
developed nation by 2020, and economic expansion has led to a
serious labor shortage. The country has opened its doors to
workers fleeing poverty and unemployment in other parts of Asia.

There are now an estimated two million guest workers in this
nation of 19.6 million people. Half of these migrants hold legal
work permits while the rest entered illegally, mainly through
Thailand and Indonesia.

Indonesians initially dominated the market with cheap labor
but Bangladeshis are now a force to be reckoned with. There are
now at least 200,000 Bangladeshi workers in the country -- more
than half of them working in plantations and factories.

Malaysia has reached an agreement with Bangladesh to recruit
50,000 skilled and semi-skilled workers -- including nurses and
doctors -- every year.

Increasing numbers of middle-class Malaysians are employing
domestic helpers mainly from the Philippines, Sri Lanka and
Bangladesh. Deputy Home Minister Ong Ka Ting has admitted the
immigration department has a backlog of at least 10,000
applications for work permits for foreign maids. Unscrupulous
employers, however, are exploiting the desperation of many of the
Asian workers fleeing from poverty at home. Bangladeshis are the
most vulnerable.

"Recruiting agencies promise them US$300 a month if they come
to Malaysia," says welfare worker S. Sinnappan. He says many
young university graduates, lured by promotional photos and
videos, end up getting only half this amount.

Most of the Bangladeshi plantation workers, with whom
Sinnappan works, had been promised jobs as technicians or
engineers. They had never worked in plantations and were not used
to the heavy work in the palm oil estates.

"They paid the agencies as much as 6,000 ringgit (about US$
2,400) to come here. Many raised the money by mortgaging their
land or house," he adds.

G. Rajasekaran, secretary-general of the Malaysian Trade Union
Congress, says they do not object to migrant labor, provided the
government makes sure there are still jobs left for Malaysians.
The government has drawn up regulations, but enforcement is very
weak, he says. "It has become so chaotic because recruitment is
done through recruiting agents."

Rajasekaran says such agencies have mushroomed in recent years
because it is an easy way to make big money without any capital
outlay. "You just bring a person here, collect money from the
person who wants to work, and collect money from company that
wants to employ him."

He says exploitation happens at both ends and has led to
corruption like the forging of work permits and other documents.
He favors government-to-government deals but is worried that an
unregulated labor influx will undermine working conditions.

"Despite impressive economic growth rates in the last five
years, wage levels and living standards of Malaysian workers --
especially industrial workers -- have not gone up as much as they
should have," he says, and the flood of foreign workers has
affected the bargaining power of trade unions.

"If the government didn't allow foreign workers to come in,
even without collective bargaining, because of supply and demand
wage rates would have gone up," argues Rajasekaran.

He says because of the comparative low wage rates in Malaysia,
as much as 60,000 Malaysians cross the border each day to work in
Singapore, where a factory worker gets about US$380 per month
compared to $160 a month for the same job at home.

A task force on foreign labor has recommended a monthly wage
of $140 but some firms pay only $110. Locals refuse to work for
such wages, and companies use this as an excuse to turn to
foreign workers. The government this month warned it would no
longer tolerate such exploitation.

Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who heads the cabinet's
Committee on Foreign Workers, is concerned about the impact of
foreign workers on employment opportunities for Malaysians. "We
will not accept foreign workers at the expense of Malaysians,
especially the younger generation, who are entering the
employment market. We want to ensure that priority is given to
Malaysians for all employment opportunities," he said.

In his 1965 budget, Anwar who is also minister of finance,
increased the levy on foreign workers by 100 percent. He also
announced in August that foreign jobseekers can now be recruited
only as domestic helpers or shop assistants.

P. Arunasalam, secretary-general of the Electrical Industry
Workers Union, urged the government to gradually phase out its
labor intensive industries and instead train Malaysians to
overcome the shortage of skilled labor for high-tech industries.
He warns an increase in foreign labor will put more demands on
the government schooling system to cater for their children. He
says many foreign workers have already forced small traders in
Malaysia to give up their trade at night markets.

"Huge sums of money remitted by the foreign workers to their
respective countries of origin is a big drain on our country's
economy," says Arunasalam. "In 1994 alone, $960 million was sent
out of the country by one million workers."

Rajasekaram argues that because of the low wage rates
cushioned by foreign labor, many Malaysian women are not
encouraged to join the workforce. He cites an official report
last year saying Malaysia would have 729,000 more workers if more
women were encouraged to work.

Many Malaysians are now questioning the pace of development in
their country while others think the problems of illegal
migration and exploitation of foreign labor should be addressed
first.

-- IPS