Page 33 - BPAReport

CHAPTER 3: CURRENT POLICIES IN THE MANAGEMENT OF FOREIGN
WORKERS IN MALAYSIA

1. The bundle of current policies on employment of foreign workers is an accumulation
of a succession of measures taken in response to the demands of industry to support the
booming economic growth experienced by Malaysia. The need for foreign workers is also a
reflection of the inability of the Malaysian labour market to keep pace with the requirements
of industry in terms of the numbers of workers required as well as shortages in certain skills
essential to sustain competitiveness and make technological advances. Due to the practice of
responding under pressure to the manpower needs of industry, a proper framework with a
comprehensive strategy for the effective management of foreign workers had not been
developed. More often than not policy responses were ad hoc, seldom reviewed for continued
relevance or effectiveness and without any central monitoring and management mandates.

3.1 Overall policy on governance for foreign worker management

2. Currently, there are 10 Ministries with their associated regulatory bodies with
approving authority and oversight over the entry of foreign workers into Malaysia and the
deployment of foreign workers to the permitted sectors of the economy (see Box 1 below for
a description of the meaning and usage of the term foreign workers). The procedures that are
followed are somewhat different dependent upon whether the foreign worker is deployed in
Peninsular Malaysia, or in Sarawak or in Sabah; arising from the unique separate legal
arrangements for regulating foreign workers in these three distinct territories.

Box 1: Migrant Worker versus Foreign Worker

For the United Nations, the term "migrant worker" refers to a person who is engaged or has
been engaged in a remunerated activity in a State of which he or she is not a national.* It is
believed that migrant workers usually do not have the intention initially to stay permanently
in the country of work. This is in contrast to immigrants who intend to reside and work
permanently in the foreign country.

Migrant workers are also referred to as “foreign workers” or “expatriates” or “foreign
labour” or “guest workers”. There is also the term “Frontier workers” being used. Frontier
workers are unlike “migrant workers” mainly because they reside in the frontier of the
source country adjacent to the targeted foreign country, and usually commutes back and
forth on a daily or periodical basis.

“Guest workers” usually refer to those who already have job positions before they depart
the source country. Whereas other “migrant workers” could be those who may not have
secured job positions before departing the source country. The usage of the term ”foreign
labour” is applied predominantly to casual, manual or unskilled workers who move from
one region to another offering their services on a temporary seasonal basis and thus they are
also called “seasonal workers”.

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