COVID-19: NEGLECT OF MIGRANT WORKERS
COULD HURT MALAYSIA’S ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Low-pay and low-talented migrant workers around the
world have been among the most unprotected as
organizations cut wages and positions to adapt to the
pandemic's financial stun. Their bind regularly is
exacerbated by an absence of help from their host
nations, as governments organize help for their own
residents.
FIGURE 1: PERCENTAGE OF MIGRANT WORKERS
IN MALAYSIA BY INDUSTRY
Migrant workers play big role
Regardless of whether the Malaysian government
needs to improve work of its residents, freezing the
work of traveler laborers may not help the employment
possibilities of local people. The first reason is because
migrant workers have been a very integral part of
Malaysia’s economy and the failure to protect migrant
workers’ jobs would actually have a spill-over effect on
the survival of industries and businesses. Several
industries are heavily dependent on migrant workers,
including manufacturing, construction, agriculture,
forestry and fishing. That dependence is particularly
acute among low-skilled roles, with nearly half of those
jobs filled by migrant workers.
Migrant workers labor force is not totally substitute
Local people can generally fill in the opening once the
migrant workers are gone however indeed local and
migrant workers, they are not perfect substitute.
Malaysia's nearby labor force has gotten more taught in
the course of the most recent decade, so Malaysians
have been utilized in gifted and semi-talented positions
leaving migrant workers to fill a great part of the low-
aptitude hole. Keeping organizations from recruiting
Mohamad Hifzul Azad
1 November 2020
Malaysia has done little to shield low-
wage migrant workers from the effects of
the Covid-19 pandemic which could hurt
an economy that attempting to recoup.
migrant workers could disable Malaysia's push to
restore the economy which thusly could hurt work
possibilities of local people.
FIGURE 2: MALAYSIA’S COVID-19 OUTBREAK
Malaysia’s economic transformation
Malaysia’s economic outlook has worsened
substantially as it battles what authorities have called a
third wave of the coronavirus outbreak. The government
has reinstated a lockdown in some states. The
International Monetary Fund forecast the economy
could shrink 6% this year, worse than the 3.8%
contraction it projected in June.
The government announced measures worth around
300 billion Malaysian ringgits ($72.2 billion) to support
the economy. But one of the few government initiatives
relating to migrant workers is a 25% cut in the worker
levy paid by firms.
Strategy for Malaysia and its Southeast Asian
neighbors can better protect migrant workers
There are almost 7,000,000 laborers who relocate
inside Southeast Asia, so it bodes well for nations to
cooperate and improve the protection for migrant
workers. Within Malaysia, the government can extend
public health and economic benefits to foreign workers
regardless of their immigration status. Those workers
should be allowed to work legally in industries where
they’re in high demand. These policies are very crucial
to set the stage for more robust and quicker public
health and economic recovery.