Skilled Foreigners On the Decline

Patrick Lee

Malaysia is seeing fewer skilled foreign workers and expatriates, while low-skilled migrant workers flood our shores.

PETALING JAYA: There are more skilled migrant workers in Malaysia than there are skilled jobs.

According to a 2011 World Bank report entitled “Malaysian Economic Monitor: Brain Drain”, many foreigners were forced to take up jobs lower than their skills levels.

“Despite a sharp decline in the share of migrants in skilled occupations, from the peak level of 10% in 2002 to 5.8% in 2008, the share of migrants with tertiary education level exceeds the share of migrants with higher skilled occupations,” it said.

The report added that skilled migrant workers were also heavily overshadowed by their low-skilled counterparts.

It said that nearly 40% of migrant workers had no formal education, as compared to the 10% with tertiary experience.

Interestingly, the report added that a “large number” of migrants tended to put “not applicable” as their education levels.

However, the report said that education levels among foreigners fell while domestic education levels rose.

“This indicates that migrants are filling the demand for unskilled labour in the Malaysian economy as the overall skill level of the natives is increasing,” it said.

The report added that while Malaysia was a major receiving country, immigrants tended to be within the low-skills region.

The World Bank’s findings come as no surprise, especially with Malaysians shunning low-level jobs in favour of high-paying ones.

As such, the country’s labour market has had to rely heavily on foreigners, especially in its agriculture and manifacturing sectors.

Skilled foreign workers were also a very small number, consisting of less than 5% of the Malaysia’s migrant worker population.

This, the report said, had remained the status quo since 2001.

Data obtained in 2006, however, showed tertiary-level migrants to be highly paid, with those in the management and professional sectors earning 50% more than Malaysian citizens.

All other fields, including clerical workers, technicians and other craftsmen tended to have smaller salaries than locals.

“This may reflect the scarcity premium of tertiary educated migrants over the Malaysian tertiary educated workers,” the report said.

Decline Of Expatriates

The report also touched on Malaysia’s declining expatriate population.

As of 2010, it revealed that there were 32,583 expatriates in West Malaysia, or a 25% drop from that of 2004 (43,406).

The country with the largest number of people leaving the Peninsula was Singapore, with 60% of its 3,091 citizens (1,249) moving back south.

Runners-up Taiwan and Japan, on the other hand, experienced 58% drops, with 811 and 3,149 foreign citizens leaving respectively.

The decline, according to the report, was largely due to the global economic crisis during this time.

“The crisis affected not only the movement of capital across borders (particularly foreign direct investments) but also that of professional workers,” the report said.

It also noted stricter enforcement procedures put in place by the Immigration Department’s Expatriate Committee as a factor.

Another point highlighted were the supposedly “rigid conditions” in applying for an employment pass.

On the other hand, expatriates from Bangladesh and Iran appeared to flock to the country in droves.

From 2004 to 2010, 1,315 Bangladeshi and 466 Iranian expatriates came to Malaysia, indicating a 234% and 194% increase respectively.

-- FMT