NeoLiberalism and the Challenges of Managing Labour Migration in Urban Malaysia

Abstract

Labour migration into Malaysia has increased rapidly in recent decades and this has affected Malaysia's government policy in managing migrants’ movement. Interestingly, Malaysia has attracted a high degree of unskilled labour, accompanied by unabated rise of undocumented migrant workers. Mitigating undocumented migration is the main aim of Malaysia's labour migration policy and therefore the focus of Malaysian government. This has impacted on how enforcement agencies work out strategies. These agencies are the forefront of Malaysia's labour migration policy but they faced a number of challenges, such as documentation, finance and manpower capability, and political intervention, which impede their ability to optimize their capabilities in enforcing the Malaysian government labour migration policy. Resolving these challenges and moving towards a long‐term labour migration policy will benefit the Malaysian state, its citizens and the labour migrants.

When Bare Life is Bearable: The Life Projects of Rohingya and Hazara Refugees Living in Malaysia

“…While both Rohingya and Hazara refugees described Malaysia as a safer place and a shelter, the two groups did not agree on whether Malaysia was, in fact, a transit country. Despite scholars, international agencies like the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the Malaysian government itself considering Malaysia a transit country (Tedong et al 2018; Missbach and Hoffstaedter 2020), findings here suggest that Malaysia is simultaneously a transit and a destination country, depending on which group of refugees is considered.…”

Migraciones y Desplazamientos Forzados. Nuevas aproximaciones y contribuciones al estudio de la migración contemporánea

“…A través de su historia, Malasia ha importado migrantes con propósitos laborales, especialmente en el siglo XIX, cuando migrantes ingleses y chinos se asentaron en la isla en medio de un boom económico (Tedong, Kadir, Roslan, & Lumayag, 2018). Durante los años 70, Malasia experimentó una importante escasez de manos de obra en la industria manufacturera, lo que significó un factor de arrastre para migrantes no especializados (Kaur, 2015).…”

“…Durante los años 70, Malasia experimentó una importante escasez de manos de obra en la industria manufacturera, lo que significó un factor de arrastre para migrantes no especializados (Kaur, 2015). Este patrón persiste hasta el día de hoy, siendo los migrantes no profesionales quienes llegan a Malasia a realizar trabajos denominados como "sucios, difíciles y peligrosos" (Tedong, Kadir, Roslan, & Lumayag, 2018). La migración temporal, entonces, es vista en Malasia como un factor importante para su desarrollo económico, y es tolerada por el bajo costo económico que sus trabajadores representan.…”

Foreign Labour Migration in Sarawak, East Malaysia

“…The State government implies a structure of managing labour that is driven by the middle actor – the private sector – to ensure that pursuits of capitalist ventures continuously respond to the needs of the market: opening up plantations, serving the domestic needs of the households, providing new lifestyle concepts towards which neoliberal policies thrive, and serving their demands (Horstmann & Wadley, 2006; De Jong et al, 2010). Understandably, the State is not able to establish a clear‐cut migration management policy on its own (Tedong et al, 2018) and still relies heavily on the Federal government, because international labour importation is still the function of the federal government. For example, in 2016 the federal government rumour mill revealed that it was sending thousands of Bangladeshi workers to Sarawak to work in the plantation.…”

“…Fifth is the question of migrant workers’ agency in the domestic service and general worker categories in relation to their work and welfare conditions in Sarawak. In this article, I do not discount the agency of Filipino workers – meaning how workers are consciously aware of the risks they may go through as soon as they have decided to join the labour migration journey (see for example, Lumayag, 2018; Tedong et al, 2018). This is rightly so, considering that workers are aware that, for instance, the person who offers help to arrange their work permit may be part of the whole organised network producing fake documents.…”