Foreign workers should be given some respect: NGO
Published on: Saturday, July 09, 2016
Kuala Lumpur: Foreign workers in the country should be treated with some respect as they are a vital cog in the economy, according to an NGO. 'Migrations Works' Campaign spokesperson Raymund Jagan said they have to be treated like guests and valued for their contribution to the economy of the country. He said one reason foreign workers were treated poorly by some quarters was the perception that most of them came from countries less developed than Malaysia and were therefore psychologically associated with people of a lower class.
ADVERTISEMENT
"To reduce these prejudices, people should try to interact with migrant workers, for example in a restaurant or in public places, to say 'Thank You' or have a conversation with the foreign workers to understand their problems. "When Malaysians interact with any foreign workers, regardless of their origin, they often see themselves as a better and stronger group and the foreigners being merely minorities. There's rarely any emphasis on the race, but more on their nationality," he said in an exclusive interview with Bernama News Channel here Friday. Malaysia imports labour from Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, India and Sri Lanka. There are an estimated of 1.5 million legal foreign workers in the country currently who work in the manufacturing, construction, plantation, agricultural, domestic help and services sectors. There is also a big number of illegal foreign workers in the country.
ADVERTISEMENT
"As a community, people always make interpretations about foreigners according to where they are from and this is heavily influenced by what they hear or see in the media. When we don't know them well, we tend to make assumptions about them," he added. He said there was also a misplaced perception that these foreign workers dominated the jobs which should have been filled by the locals in the first place.
ADVERTISEMENT
"Most locals refuse to take on the low-skilled jobs in the country, and therefore the country does not have enough manpower to do the jobs that the foreigners are doing. "For these migrants, even with the low wage, they are still satisfied because it is so much better than what they have back home," he said. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
Daily Express Malaysia
