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14 theSun | THURSDAY JULY 2 2009

INTERVIEWS VIEWS

Doing without foreign workers


having established
roots where they
worked, problems
mounted. France has
difficulties assimilat-
ing its Algerian
migrants, Germany,
by Yap Mun Ching presence to incidences of crime. times, it must not have been an easy The dilemma its Turkish migrants
Fast forward to the present, I am call to make. Countries exporting posed by employ- and the Nether-
I HAVE a confession to make. About much better informed and my views migrant workers earn large amounts ment of migrant lands, its Moroccan
a dozen years ago, I wrote to a devel- far more moderate but it seems either of foreign currency from migrant workers is a deep migrants. Britain is
opment issues magazine criticising that too few people share these views labour repatriations. Since Malaysia rooted one. Human Freespace considering a general
an article that criticised Malaysians or they may be too little too late for is one of the largest employers of migration, of course, amnesty to cope with
for mistreating foreign workers. I had Indonesian policymakers who last Indonesian workers, the state of is as old as civilisa- Where young views rule the large numbers of
misguidedly defended the low wages week suspended sending workers to affairs must be really dire to provoke tion but the trend illegal immigrants.
paid to the workers and linked their Malaysia. In these difficult economic such a reaction from Jakarta. of migration work that we see In all these countries, govern-
today appears to have originated ments struggle to deal with the
from colonial policies of the 18th rise of right-wing politics while
and 19th centuries. Faced with addressing the social alienation
the challenges of having to quell experienced by their migrant
local opposition while at the populations especially those
same time co-opting locals to of the second generation who
support their administration, belong neither in their parents’
colonialists found it easier to rely country of origin nor in their
on imported labour. country of birth.
The industry has not changed These examples in Europe are
much. Foreign workers in a precursor of what we should
Malaysia are allowed into the expect if we want to continue em-
country on a temporary basis. ploying foreign labour or promot-
Their toil is required but noth- ing industries that rely heavily on
ing else – they are not accepted cheap migrant labour. As with
into society even though many many of the migrants who came
live in our homes and nothing is to Malaya for work two centuries
planned for their future. I once ago and eventually remained as
attended a press conference by citizens, the same possibilities
a minister who insisted that must be considered for migrant
although Bangladeshi workers workers who spent years toiling
are allowed to work in the coun- for us. If we are unwilling to do
try for up to seven years, they are this, it is time to cut the reliance
not allowed to have any marital and focus on building industries
relations locally. To believe that that are skills based and adapted
people can spend time abroad to local skills levels. This means
for years and form no personal also that we have to stop creat-
relations is naïve to say the least. ing artificially low-cost bases by
At worst, it was a calculated form importing workers, depressing
of rights denial. their wages and exploiting their
Certainly, Malaysia is not the humanity.
only country that faces this pre-
dicament of wanting to benefit
from the labour of foreign work- Comments: letters@thesundaily.
ers without having to provide com
for them socially. Countries in
Europe have been
facing this dilemma
for decades after the
liberal policies of We believe that the young
the post-WWII years should have a say in how things
opened the doors are run, because they have
to migrant workers everything at stake in our fu-
to fuel reconstruc-
tion and growth ture. This column creates that
demands. space for our panel of bright
However, once young sparks to debate issues
these jobs dried up that they feel strongly about.
and the workers were
unwilling to leave after

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