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NEGATIVE IMPACT ON FOREIGN LABORS IN MALAYSIA

a. Cultural Pollution
Most foreign workers are peaceful. They want to earn money to send home. In most cases, concern over foreign labour is linked to anxieties over what some have characterized as cultural pollution and over foreignisation They may change the cultural and social orders of the normal practice of the locals in construction industry.
b. Social Problem
Legal and illegal foreign labors also pose many social problems and make impacts on the locals. They create many social problems like spread of diseases, theft, robbery, cheating, rape, killings, and illegal settlements and so on. They form syndicates. If there are no syndicates, legal and illegal immigrants cannot arrive in Malaysia.
According to unpublished police records at the police headquarters in Bukit Aman, between 1985 and 1991, foreign labour accounted for between 14.7% and 18.2% of all murders committed in the country. The figure for gang robbery was between 32.7% and 48.2%.
c. Political Stability
The inflow of legal and illegal workers poses many implications on political issues. The local population is fearful for the country’s harmony, security, social, economic and political stability. The locals are fearful of becoming a minority group unable to express views, influence or control the country politically if the influx of foreign workers on such large scale.
The precarious balance between the Malay and the Chinese, Indian, Kadazan and Iban communities could be easily distorted with continued arrivals of foreign labour into the country. Indonesian migrants are said to be similar to Malays and in most cases they can be easily mistaken to be Malays. Meanwhile, migrants from Philippines are similar to the Chinese and Kadazan, and those migrants from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are said to be similar to the local Indians. Therefore, the Government must keep an eye on them.
d. Economic Issues
The foreign workers have had an impact on the wage structure, labour market, competition with locals. Another perceived bad impact is the high remittances sent out by foreign workers to their home countries.
Foreign workers also thought to be responsible for the higher rate of inflation because of their increased demand. They enjoy public goods without paying taxes and user fees. As such they become free-riders in the Malaysian economy. They are ensured health and other facilities without corresponding payments.
However it cannot be denied that the use of temporary foreign labour enables the rapidly growing economics and societies to fill manpower needs in dead-end, low status, low wage sectors of the economy such as construction sectors.

e. Low wages for local workers and Taking jobs away from locals
Women’s Workers Association President Silam Hassan (2004) claimed the problem of foreign workers stemmed from the Government’s “open policy” which drew large numbers of outsiders to the extent that local workers had to compete with them for jobs. As a result of the inflow of foreign workers in the construction industry, the wage rate for local workers has gone down.
Foreign workers are taking over work from locals. In construction industry, the foreign worker going into sub-contracting work, where there is a lot of money to be made. That is why they can build big houses and take over Malay reserve land. Besides, the presence of the illegals create problems also since illegals are not constrained by rules and regulations and are free to infiltrate into any jobs so long as the employers are willing to accept them. They also make inroads into jobs not designated for them, thus putting them into direct competition with locals. The Government should be strict about repatriating foreign workers who are not needed because they are taking jobs away from Malaysians.
f. Foreign labour caused works delay
Construction industry is labour intensive industry; it depends on large number of foreign labour. According to Economic Report 2003/2004, The New Immigration Act 1995/63 (Amendment 2002), which came into effect on 1st August 2002, about 318,300 illegal immigrants were deported in 2002. This has caused construction activities in all stages to slow down. Consequently, there was a labour crunch that caused costly work delays.
In a move intended to reduce dependence on foreign labour and increase employment opportunities for locals, the government has shortened the validity period of work permits to three years. The policy change will seriously affect human resource planning in construction industry.
Housing Developers’ Association Malaysia President Datuk Eddy Chen Lok Loi stated in New Sunday Times (18 November 2001), the industry will become very shorthanded when foreign workers are sent back as locals are not entering the industry due to foreign labours make up seventy (70) percent of the country’s 500,000 on-site construction workforce.
g. Low productivity and quality due to time consuming to train new workers
The reduction of the duration of temporary work permits for foreign workers from six or seven years to only three years had caused deterioration in the poor quality of workmanship and low productivity. Foreign labours that have had three years’ experience may be replaced by those do not have prior construction experience, thus resulting in low productivity and poor quality of work. Some of them were not able to cope with new experience of working on large-scale projects due to lack of quality foreign labour that have been hired is one of the main problems in construction industry.
The companies that lose workers will need to hire new ones, who are likely to be unskilled and inexperienced. That means the employers have to spend time and resources to train these new workers. Upon commencement, the foreign labour would require another 2 to 3 months to go through an orientation or learning curve period before they become productive.
Furthermore, on-the-job training will take around seven to eight months then only the foreign workers will begin to contribute to company. To some extent, the training was difficult, as most foreign labour were paid daily wages and were reluctant to undergo training due to loss of pay.
h. Heavy expenses in the recruitment process and long permit processing times
Malaysia introduced harsh new immigration laws in August 2002, the construction industry is suffering from an acute shortage of foreign workers throughout the nation.
As a result, this has caused construction activities to be delayed albeit contractors trying to the best of their endeavours to recruit new workforce. The central problem now appears to be the long processing time taken by the authorities to grant the foreign work permit . Contractors securing new jobs have problems mobilizing new workers on time, due to this long work permit or recruitment process.
The legal importation of foreign labour was and still time consuming and costly. Based on current experience, it takes about 2-3 months on a best case scenario to go through the entire administrative process, commencing from obtaining a work permit from the ministry of Home Affairs to the foreign workers gaining physical entry into Malaysia to work.
Therefore, it is not cost effective to send foreign workers home after just three years because of the heavy expenses in the recruitment process. Meanwhile, the process to bring in foreign workers is tedious and time consuming. Furthermore, a lot of cost is involved in medical examinations, transportation and levies. Thus, there is pressure in the system for employers to employ illegal foreign labour and to dodge the levies and charges which are incurred on the employment of legal foreign labour.
i. Accommodation problems for foreign labour
Accommodation for foreign labour was problematic, if contractors do not have any more new jobs after completion of their existing work. It is now apparent that due to the uncertainty of projects and the short-term nature of most construction projects, contractors find it difficult to maintain long-term employment for their workforce once they are imported into country.

There was a burden for the construction companies to maintain foreign construction labour both financially and administratively when projects are completed, and/or during the period where they have no new projects.
Malaysia has attracted over three million immigrant workers from the poorer countries in Asia. The economic benefits derived from foreign workers has resulted in social costs and social problems including rising crimes, fraud, social deviance, health care costs and the transmission of communicable diseases including HIV/AIDS. Official policies to control the impact of foreign workers have led to discrimination, isolation and abuse of foreign workers and their adaptation and survival strategies represent a high risk environment for the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Conclusion:

We have seen that the influxes of foreign workers to Malaysia will eventually robbing our local right to live luxuriously. We have seen that they are getting permanent resident status, their children are getting a Malaysia citizenship, getting free education, free health benefits and they don’t pay income tax.
Economically, Malaysian government loss about RM 1 billion revenue per month as out going remittance was transacted by foreign workers. In fact this amount of money should be spent in Malaysia to help economic growth.
The cost of keeping illegal immigrants at Detention Centers increasing as more illegal immigrants waiting for their deportation due to administrative process.

TAQIN WEDDING RECEPTION IN BRUNEI

On 19th March 2009 a group of our family (Janis n Coy) went to attend a wedding reception for Che' Ahmad Mutaqin in Brunei. The reception took place on 20th March 2009 at 8.30 pm. In Brunei we have to wait till all the guest came for a dinner. The bride and groom need to be introduce to all guest and followed by speech before dinner was served. It took till 10 pm then only we manage to taste the food. Any way we enjoy our short stay in Brunei. During our free time we manage to visit the down town and pasar tamu. I and my wife came back to KL on 21st March 2009 and my in laws reached KL on 22nd March 2009.