Foreign Workers In Malaysia

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The presence of foreign workers is one of the most critical issues faced by the construction market of Malaysia, as the construction of 'Trade Wet' increasingly popular require significant labour. Malaysian construction industry provides employment to 800,000 employees, representing 8% of the total workforce; 69% of these are foreign workers (Abdul-Rahman, H., Wang, C., etc. (2012)) " From previous studies, the Malaysian Government has relied on foreign worker from 1980 late, but there was not a comprehensive policy on the recruitment and placement of migrant workers. Malaysia is a multiracial country as significant migration(Castles and Miller, 1998; Dannecker, 2005). Clearly economic growth in the country created many jobs for the 28…show more content…
During the industrial transformation of the 1980s and early 1990s, India shifted toward export-oriented industrialization. This is supported by a large number of low-skilled foreign workers imported; Malaysia has become the Asian country with the highest reliance on foreign workers. Foreign construction workers (foreign unskilled and semi-skilled workers) in Malaysia are from adjacent areas; Indonesia is the main source of employment, followed by Myanmar, Pakistan, India, and the Philippines. Meanwhile, Malaysians have long migrated to work in countries and regions such as Australia, Brunei, Hong Kong, Japan, Canada, New Zealand, United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, Taiwan and the Middle East (Wells, 1996; Kassim, 2005; Kanapathy,…show more content…
However, some employers prefer to use foreign workers when facing a shortage of labour, and not raise wages and improve working conditions to attract local workers. The employer denied the minimum wage level for construction workers as this will reduce their competitiveness by increasing their salaries thereby increasing the overall construction costs. the impact of the local workers have lost jobs in competition with foreign workers, and wages for local workers to remain low. As a result, local workers choose to migrate to seek better wages. Migrant workers have been replaced by local workers in the construction sector. Living standards and wages in the country of origin is the most influential factor affecting domestic workers to migrate to the developed countries to another in order to get a higher salary. Due to the construction industry requires a large workforce, the labour supply is important, and has become the most expensive resources are used in the industry. Foreign workers needed in the construction industry, and there is a shortage of local workers willing to work in this industry during the economic boom. In 1997, 2.4 million in 1998, 1.9 million in 2006, and then 2.1 million in

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