Bangladeshis in Malaysia

Bangladeshis in Malaysia form a large proportion of Malaysia's foreign labour force. The first migrant workers from Bangladesh are believed to have been a group of 500 who came in 1986 to work on plantations; the two countries concluded a governmental-level agreement on manpower exports in 1992, following which migration expanded sharply. Bangladesh is one of five countries, along with Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Thailand, which have such agreements with Malaysia for manpower exports.citation|title=Bangladeshi Migrant Workers in Malaysia's Construction Sector|last=Abdul-Aziz|first=Abdul-Rashid|journal=Asia-Pacific Population Journal|date=March 2001|volume=16|number=1|pages=3-22|url=http://planet.unescap.org/esid/psis/population/journal/Articles/2001/V16N1A1.pdf|accessdate=2008-04-08] As of 1999, official figures record 385,496 Bangladeshis as having gone to Malaysia for work, of whom roughly 229,000 were in the country at that time, forming 12% of all Bangladeshi workers overseas. This figure was roughly comparable to the numbers in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, but much smaller than the number in Saudi Arabia, the top destination, where roughly one million resided. [citation|title=Recruitment and Placement of Bangladeshi Migrant Workers: An Evaluation of the Process|publisher=International Organization for Migration|date=November 2002|isbn=984-32-0435-2|url=http://www.iom.org.bd/images/publications/Recruitment_and_Placement_of_Bangladeshi_Migrant_Workers.pdf|accessdate=2008-04-08|page=75] Remittances from Malaysia to Bangladesh amounted to roughly US$5 million in 1993, but grew eleven times to US$57 million by 1999. [citation|title=Recruitment and Placement of Bangladeshi Migrant Workers|page=68]

Construction workers form a large proportion of Bangladeshi migrant workers. From July 1992 until December 1995, of 89,111 Bangladeshis issued temporary work passes, 26,484, or 29.7%, worked in construction, forming one-fifth of all workers in the construction sector in Malaysia and making them the second-largest group behind Indonesians. 91.4% were first-time migrants, who had never previously worked abroad. Surveys showed between 6.4% and 14.9% admitted to working illegally, without proper employment authorisation or travel documents.

A scandal arose in 1996 when it became known that Bangladeshi consular officials in Kuala Lumpur had overcharged at least 50,000 workers applying for passport renewal by RM200-300, thus appropriating RM10-15 million for themselves. The situation resulted in many Bangladeshi workers becoming undocumented, and Bangladesh's government later came to an agreement with the Malaysian authorities to redress the situation and issue fresh passports to those affected. However, none of the officials concerned were penalised. [citation|title=Recruitment and Placement of Bangladeshi Migrant Workers|page=52] The following year, an amnesty was offered under which 150,000 illegal workers were able to regularise their status. [citation|title=Recruitment and Placement of Bangladeshi Migrant Workers|page=5]

ee also

*Bangladeshi American
*Koreans in Malaysia

References

Further reading

*citation|title=Bangladeshi Migrant Workers in Malaysia: The Construction of the 'Others' in a Multi-Ethnic Context|last=Dannecker|first=Petra|journal=Asian Journal of Social Science|volume=33|issue=2|date=2005|pages=246-267|publisher=Brill|url=http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/brill/saj/2005/00000033/00000002/art00006|accessdate=2008-04-08