THERE are 2.4 million documented foreign workers in the country, skewing the labour ratio in favour of the imported workforce 7:1.
As no one has crunched the numbers, we can't be certain how many of the undocumented foreigners, estimated to be at least three million, got to make the ratio. Be that as it may, it is an unhealthy tilt. It has been a rise and rise story since at least 2000, when 800,000 were recruited mostly for the plantation and construction sectors. In 2019, it spiralled to two million.
Before some among us give our xenophobic tendencies a toxic boost, it pays to revisit the conclusion of Khazanah Research Institute's (KRI) 2019 study: foreign labour isn't a threat to local workforce because both inhabit different economic spaces. Foreign workers, the study argued with numbers to match, neither steal jobs nor depress wages. They man low-skilled jobs while locals compete for jobs in the semi-skilled and skilled categories.
But four years is a long time in economics. It is when the short term starts growing into the long term. To be fair to KRI, it did warn of the "dangerous consequences to the structural transformation of the Malaysian economy" should such heavy reliance on foreign labour persist.
That nicely leads to a critical question that is often left unaddressed: do we really need 2.4 million foreign workers? If at all it is asked by policymakers and employers, it is for another time to solve. The low wages are too good to be weaned off for profiteers. Hence their response: give us time.
Knowing time is money, the men of a particular bent of commerce want to reap as much and as long as they can. They forget every action or inaction has a cost, to their industry, the economy and the country. Capitalism can sometimes send commerce into slumber. There is a dire need for a jolt from the government. Commerce must be compelled to take a long view, not tomorrow but now.
Granted, the government announced in December that it is working on reducing the number of foreign workers. But Tuesday's news told a different story. Or at least it would make reducing the number a big challenge. According to the Home Ministry, the government is working on reducing their recruitment process from 29 months to 15 months. This means speeding up recruitment, though we can't equate the slice in time to a spike in number.
But what is more troubling is the government is giving in to the demand of industrialists to transfer foreign workers from one employer to another. There are dangers in such practice.
One, to transfer them so without their consent and not suitably remunerating them for the change may spell "compulsion".
Two, more dangerously, it may be considered forced labour under the International Labour Organisation's rules.
Three, even more dangerously, such determination would make Malaysia slip to Tier 3, the lowest rung in the Trafficking in Persons report ranking. Finally, and most dangerously, it means encouraging companies to bring in workers even when they don't need them.
If we don't watch it, this transfer of workers from one employer to another will soon become a human trade. Opportunists abhor a vacuum. The government mustn't create one.