Malaysia's illegal indonesian migrant labour problem: In search of solutions

Contemporary Southeast Asia

Volumn 25, Issue 1, 2003, Pages 44-64

  Liow, Joseph ^a  

^a NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY   (Singapore)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 85050709472     PISSN: 0129797X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1355/CS25-1C     Document Type: Article

References (59)

1. See, for example, Firdaus Abdullah, "The Phenomenon of Illegal Immigrants", Indonesian Quarterly 21, no. 2 (1993).
2. See Azizah Kassim, "The Unwelcome Guest: Indonesian Immigrants and Malaysian Public Responses", Southeast Asian Studies 25, no. 2 (1987); Azizah Kassim, "Masalah Tenaga Kerja Indonesia di Malaysia" (Paper presented at "Identifikasi Masalah Tenaga Kerja Indonesia di Malaysia dalam Konteks Pembinaan Sumber Daya Manusia" Seminar, Kuala Lumpur, 22 August 1997); chapters by Ida Bagoes Mantra and Riwanto Tirtosudamo in Sukamdi, Abdul Haris, and Patrick Brownlee eds., Labour Migration in Indonesia: Policies and Practices (Jakarta: Gadjah Mada University, 1998); Sidney Jones, Making Money Off Migrants: The Indonesian Exodus to Malaysia (Hong Kong: Asia Limited, 2000); Arif Nasution, Orang Indonesia di Malaysia: Menjual Kemiskinan, Membangun Identitas (Yogjakarta: Pusat Pelajar, 2001); and Khairulmaini bin Osman Salleh and Fauza Ab. Ghaffar, "Modelling the Impact of International Migration on National Security at Border Regions — A Case Study of the Sarawak-Kalimantan Border of Malaysia and Indonesia" (unpublished paper).
3. 3.Most of the studies that have attempted this are dated. See, for example, A.S. Bahrin, "Indonesian Migration and Settlement in Malaysia", Asian Studies 5, no. 2 (1967); a more recent study would be Grame Hugo, "Indonesian Labour Migration to Malaysia: Trends and Policy Implications", Southeast Asian Journal of Social Science 21, no. 1 (1993).
4. 4.See CD. Cowans, Nineteenth Century Malaya: The Origins of British Political Control (London: Oxford University Pres, 1961).
5. 5.Firdaus Abdullah, "Issues in Malaysia-Indonesia Relations" (Paper presented at the ASEAN Fellowship Seminar, Tokyo, Japan, 20 August 1992), pp. 45-46.
6. 6."Extract from KL's 1967/8 Annual Report", A1838 3006/4/9 Part 38, National Archives of Australia (NAA).
7. 7."Quadripartite Talks: Agenda Item (B)", Department of External Affairs, Canberra, 22 June 1966, A1838 3006/4/9 Part 35, NAA.
8. 8.Cable no. 2493, Australia High Commission, Kuala Lumpur, 26 July 1969, A1838 3006/4/9 Part 39, NAA.
9. 9.Jockei to Hasluck, 12 May 1966, A1838, 3006/4/7 Part 39, NAA.
10. 10.For a detailed study of Indonesian economic migration into Malaysia during this period, see Firdaus Abdullah, "The Phenomenon of Illegal Immigrants", Indonesian Quarterly 21, no. 2 (Second Quarter, 1993).
11. For a detailed study of Indonesian economic migration into Malaysia during this period, see Firdaus Abdullah, "The Phenomenon of Illegal Immigrants", Indonesian Quarterly 21, no. 2, p. 43.
12. 12."Migrant workers spark resentment in Malaysia", Far Eastern Economic Review, 11 January 1990.
13. 13.See Country Profiles, "Indonesia's Labor Looks Abroad", Migration Information Source, September 2002, p. 2.
14. 14.A study of the costs and benefits of migrant labour to the Malaysian economy has been undertaken in Don J. DeVoretz, Malaysian Immigration Issues: An Economic Perspective (Vancouver: Vancouver Centre for Excellence, Research on Immigration and Integration into the Metropolis, Working Paper Series, 1999).
15. 15.This suggestion that the Malaysian Government has been largely "reactive" in its formulation of policies to deal with the illegal foreign labour problem has also been made in Azizah Kassim, "Profile of Foreign Migrant Workers in Malaysia" Towards Compiling Reliable Statistics" (Paper presented at the "Conference on Migrant Workers and the Malaysian Economy", Kuala Lumpur, 19-20 May 1998). Similarly, the literature on industrial relations in Malaysia has little by way of studies on Indonesian labour.
16. 16.Indonesians accounted for 82.7 per cent of the illegals and overstayers repatriated.
17. 17.See "Malaysia Wavers on Crackdown", Migration Information Source, 1 October 2002, at www.migrationinformation,org.
18. 18."Illegal migrant report for Jakarta", Straits Times, 15 February 1981.
19. 19.See Country Profiles, "Indonesia's Labor Looks Abroad", Migration Information Source, September 2002, p. 2.
20. 20.These figures were quoted in Azizah Kassim, "Profile of Foreign Migrant Workers in Malaysia", p. 7. Further figures are available in Division of Record and Information Systems, Immigration Department, Malaysia, Information on Foreign Workers in Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur: Immigration Department, 1996).
21. 21."Malaysia acts to stem tide of illegal immigrants", Straits Times, 29 January 1987. Statistics are not available for more recent times.
22. 22.Non-Muslim evangelism among the Muslim community is prohibited by Malaysian federal law.
23. 23."Illegals must go", The Star, 9 August 1987.
24. 24.See, for example, "Time to stop flood of illegal immigrants", New Straits Times, 31 August 2000. Elsewhere, Indonesian illegals have been described as a problem and a challenge to "political stability". See Azizah Kassim, "Profile of Foreign Migrant Workers in Malaysia", p. 20.
25. 25."Curb inflow of illegal immigrants", New Straits Times, 2 March 2001.
26. 26.See for example, "Rusuhan di depot: 13 pendatang, polis cederà", Berita Harían, 18 October 2001; and "2000 illegals go on riot, torch 4 blocks", Business Times, 4 December 2001.
27. 27."Flogging move marks tougher stance on illegals", South China Morning Post, 11 December 2001.
28. 28."Malaysia to expel illegal immigrants", BBC News, 26 January 2002.
29. 29.See "The Bali bomber's network of terror", BBC News, 19 February 2003. For more general studies on theinflux of militant Indonesian Islamic ideology into Malaysia, see Rohan Gunaratna, "Terrorist Patterns in the Asia-Pacific Region", in The New Terrorism: Anatomy, Trends, and Counter-Strategies, edited by Kumar Ramakrishna and Andrew Tan (Singapore: Eastern Universities Press, 2002); and Zachary Abuza, "Tentacles of Terror: Al Qaeda's Southeast Asian Network", Contemporary Southeast Asia 24, no. 3 (December 2002): 450-59.
30. 30."A matter of face", Asia Times, 7 February 2002.
31. 31."Sorry is not enough", Straits Times, 22 January 2002.
32. 32."Malaysia said on Tuesday it will whip illegal immigrants and their employers", Reuters News, 5 February 2002; and "Malaysia shuts the door on Indonesian workers", Australian Financial Review, 25 January 2002.
33. 33."Malaysian government cracks down on immigrant workers", at www.wsws.org/ articles/2002/feb2002/mal-f04, 4 February 2002.
34. 34.It was estimated, for example, that foreign workers accounted for the outflow of five billion ringgit annually. See Malaysian Human Resources Minister Fong Chan Onn's comments in "Indonesia apologises to Malaysia for problematic immigrants", Agence France-Presse, 10 December 2001. See also "Clock ticking for Malaysia's immigrants", BBC News, 20 June 2002.
35. 35."Southeast Asia-Malaysia", Migration News 9, no. 10 (October 2002). 36.Ibid.
36. 37."Persoalan TKI, Persoalan Jatim", nakertransNET, 4 February 2002, at www.nakertrans.go.id.
37. 38.To that effect, one should note also that several Malaysian labour and human rights groups, such as Tenganita, also protested the government's treatment of Indonesian illegals.
38. 39."Malaysian government cracks down on immigrant workers", at www.wsws.org/ articles/2002/feb2002/mal-f04, 4 February 2002.
39. 40."Remember 'Konfrontasi'", Jakarta Post, 1 February 2002.
40. 41.See "Malaysia defends arrest of thousands of illegal immigrants", Agence France-Presse, 26 February 2002.
41. 42."Jakarta paper raps Malaysian press over illegal immigrants", Straits Times, 10 March 1987.
42. 43.See "30,000 work permits issued since Aug 1", New Straits Times, 16 August 2002.
43. 44.The Philippine response has been comparable, but in some respects their case has been more clearcut and specific in that they are protesting the treatment of repatriated illegals who, among other things, have been subject to sexual abuse.
44. 45.This term was used in Stephen Chee, "Malaysia and Singapore: Separate Identities, Different Priorities", Asian Survey 13, no. 2 (February 1973): 157, to describe Malaysia's relations with Indonesia during Tun Abdul Razak's office. See also Lee Kam Hing, "From Confrontation to Co-operation: Malaysia-Indonesia Relations, 1957-90", Sarjana, Special Issue (1994).
45. 46.Brief discussions of the tensions in Indonesia-Malaysia relations can be found in Leo Suryadinata, Indonesia's Foreign Policy Under Suharto (Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1996), pp. 69-74; and N. Ganesan, Bilateral Tensions in Post-Cold War ASEAN (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1999), p. 30.
46. 47."KL-Jakarta labour pact", Straits Times, 20 June 1984.
47. 48."Passports for illegal Indonesians in Malaysia", Straits Times, 6 July 1988. 49.See "Malaysia, Indonesia agree to amicably resolve labour row", at www.nakertrans.go.id (Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration, Republic of Indonesia, 20 February 2002).
48. 50.This has been argued in Nasution, op. cit.
49. 51.See "Immigration officer and 'middleman' assisting ACA", JVew Straits Times, 1 September 2000.
50. 52.See Jones, op. cit., pp. 20-21. 53.Parts of this section have been published in Joseph Liow, "Desecuritising the 'Illegal Indonesian Migrant Worker' Problem in Malaysia's Relations with Indonesia",
51. IDSS Commentaries, No. 18 (September 2002). 54."Indonesia-Migration in 1998", at www.scalabrini.asn.au/atlas/indonesia98.htm.
52. 55."Humanity is what makes Malaysia great", at www.Malaysiakini.com, 30 August 2002.
53. 56."Hamzah Admits Government's Lack of Response Over Indonesian Workers", Tempo,
54. September 2002. 57.See "Getting to the root of the problem", Business Times, 6 February 2002.
55. 59."Not in my backyard", Asiaweek, 29 June 2001.
56. 60."Malaysia stops recruitment", Migration News 4, no. 9 (September 1997).
57. 61.See "PM admits migrant crackdown hit construction industry", at www.Malaysiakini.com, 10 September 2002.
58. 62."Wanted: More workers", Far Eastern Economic Review, 12 September 2002.
59. 63."Indons aware whipping applies to all", JVew Straits Times, 29 August 2002. 64."Indon youth movement admits to groups trying to sour ties with Malaysia", JVew Straits Times, 30 August 2002.