I have read a recent report that Indonesian workers have surpassed the Indians as the 3rd largest ethnic group in Malaysia. I can’t remember the exact figure; if I remember correctly there are more than 2 millions legal Indonesian workers in Malaysia at the moment.
Do we really need so many foreign labour in Malaysia?
The government and private sector always claim that we are hiring foreign workers because nobody is willing to do those jobs; their claims is not 100% true.
We were probably short of labour forces when the economic was booming in late 80s; we had to find resources from oversea especially in the construction field. The construction companies then realized that they can get cheaper labour from foreign countries, and thus not willing to hire local workers with higher price.
I personally know some people that worked in the construction field that have switched their jobs over the past 2 decades. Not that they didn’t want to work in construction field… they were indirectly forced out of their jobs because the companies preferred cheap foreign labour over locals.
Mind that the locals were not over-demanding with their pay; if not mistaken those days they were paid around RM50 per day, which should be quite reasonable with their work load. However, with the introduction of foreign workers, hiring locals seem to be a luxurious thing to do.
The government has never taken enough initiative to balance our work force. Instead of doing something to push the companies to use local workers (like setting a minimum wages etc.); the government decided to take the easy path and bring in loads of foreign workers to fill in the needs.
You can hardly hear from any construction firm hiring local labour these days; most of them go for foreign workers straight away. It’s not 100% true that no Malaysians want to work in those jobs… they are not offered any chances from the very beginning.
I understand that we still need foreign workers in some fields, but if the government can do more proper planning and look into the issue seriously… some of the jobs can be replaced by the real Malaysians, and our demand for foreign labour can be reduced significantly.