TASK 2
Read the text and write comments or reactions (in 2 or 3 paragraphs)Indonesian Migrant Workers in Malaysia
Malaysia relies upon migrant workers from Indonesia, Bangladesh, the Philippines, India, and Vietnam to meet labor demands. Indonesians are the largest group of foreign workers (83 percent) and have a long history of working in Malaysia. They fill sectoral labor shortages created by Malaysia’s economic policies: seeking to reduce economic disparities between the Malay and ethnic Chinese populations, Malaysia instituted its “New Economic Policy” in 1971 which aggressively pursued export-oriented industrialization and public sector expansion. The policies resulted in urban job growth and a mass migration of rural Malaysians to the cities. Industrial growth also led to an increase in demand for labor in manufacturing and construction that could not be met by the domestic workforce. By the early 1980s, the scarcity of labor in the agricultural sector and the heightened demand for domestic workers among an expanding middle class catalyzed a surge of migrant workers.
According to Indonesian government records, approximately 480,000 Indonesians migrated in 2002 for overseas work. Migrants to Malaysia find jobs in domestic work (23 percent), manufacturing (36 percent), agriculture (26 percent), and construction (8 percent). Two million Indonesians may currently be working in Malaysia, but the exact number is difficult to verify as more than half may be undocumented workers without valid work permits or visas.
Indonesians in Malaysia make up the largest irregular migration flow in Asia and globally are second only to Mexicans entering the United States. During an amnesty that regularized the immigration status of undocumented workers in 1992, fifty thousand undocumented workers came forward. In 1997, 1.4 million Indonesians residing in Malaysia voted in the Indonesian elections, causing Malaysia’s Immigration Department to estimate that 1.9 million Indonesians lived in Malaysia at the time. Many migrants choose to enter Malaysia through unofficial routes since migrating through licensed labor agencies can result in long delays and requires cumbersome bureaucratic procedures, while unofficial arrangements can take just days. However, there is greater risk of corruption and abuse with the unlicensed labor agents, and less protection if workers face problems with their employers or government authorities.
Over time, the Malaysian government has alternated between tightening immigration policies, causing mass outflows of foreign workers, and loosening them through development of bilateral agreements and amnesties. A number of measures taken by Malaysia over the past few decades, including the Medan Agreement of 1984, which introduced regulations for recruiting Indonesian domestic workers and plantation workers, a November 1991-June 1992 amnesty for undocumented workers, and a 2002 amendment to the Immigration Act that established harsh punishments for immigration violations, have all failed to stem illegal migration or to protect the rights of migrants seeking work in households, manufacturing, construction, and plantations.
Malaysia has made it a criminal offense for migrant workers to be present in Malaysia without a work permit or visa and has taken increasingly punitive measures, including caning, to deter and penalize such workers. The local Malaysian population often blames both petty and violent crime on foreign workers. According to SUHAKAM, Malaysia’s human rights commission, in January 2003, only three hundred out of 1,485 women in Kajang Women’s Prison were Malaysian. The rest were foreign women, including migrant workers and trafficking victims. The routine arrest, detention, and deportation of undocumented workers, regardless of the reasons for their undocumented status, means that migrant workers in abusive situations are less likely to attempt to escape, as they fear being caught by immigration authorities.
Source;
http://hrw.org/reports/2004/indonesia0704/4.htm#_Toc76201453
posted by Jati @ 10/02/2006 03:29:00 PM
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