Foreign workers

Developing Malaysia has relied heavily on foreign workers to help it build. A population of just over 27 million is filled out by 2.1 million foreign workers and estimates put the number of illegal workers in the hundreds of thousands. Most of these workers had mortgaged their houses and land to pay for the agents' and visa fees to come and work here. Unfortunately many of them were unable to find jobs.

This end up causing more social problems and increase the crime rates, as well as the spread of diseases and squatter colonies. These caused the locals uneasy. In recent years, the problem has turned serious and financially draining. The government has to spend hundreds of millions a year to look after those detained for working illegally and to deport them.

Apart from that there are claims that foreign workers are far much cheaper than local workers. However this is not necessarily true as there are some foreign workers such as Filipinos are not cheap. They are paid very much higher than locals, with additional bonuses, yearly free flights home, accommodation for the first three months. So do we need foreign workers? We are very sure that we do not want Malaysia to be a home to over a million foreign workers, almost half of whom are illegal immigrants, mostly from neighboring Indonesia.

Hence, the authorities especially government must take effective measures. There are many ways to improve the supply of labor without having to rely so much on the low-skill foreign workers. But more importantly, a long-term solution to improve our productivity efficiency and competitiveness is the only way to solve our human capital problems. Changing the quality and composition of the foreign workers will take time and involve painful adjustments. But this will benefit us in future.