I hope the Council of Eminent Persons and the Committee for Institutional Reforms will read and act on this humble plea.
On an annual basis, about 100,000 marriages take place between Malaysians and non-citizens, who form a large pool of unrecognised “latent workforce”. Although professional and skilled, these spouses are not being treated favourably.
Foreign spouses face many challenges in Malaysia. Despite living in Malaysia for years, raising children and establishing permanent homes, their immigration status remains uncertain with severe restrictions on their right to work.
The human capital of foreign spouses should rightly be tapped into at a time when Malaysia is facing acute brain drain, yet their visas bear the statement — “any form of employment is strictly prohibited”. This leads to difficulty in securing jobs, as employers are reluctant to take on non-citizen spouses upon seeing this statement. Although the Immigration Department states that foreign spouses can work with an endorsement, upon satisfying certain conditions, in practice, this no easy process.
We request that foreign spouses of Malaysians be given visas with the right to work.
For too long, our difficulties and appeals have fallen on deaf ears. In Sabah and Sarawak, foreign spouses are not able to be employed and if they secure a work permit to sustain their families, they become ineligible for permanent residence (PR) status.
Bear in mind that we have Malaysian children and are kept in situations of acute economic disadvantage and dependency on our Malaysian spouses to maintain our legal status in the country, until we receive PR status, which itself is mired in bureaucratic delays.
The government can benefit from the contribution of the “brain inflow” of foreign spouses to Malaysia’s economic development by simplifying the visa and employment process, as income earned by foreign spouses is spent in Malaysia and benefits their Malaysian families.
It is also necessary to make it compulsory for employers to contribute towards the Employment Provident Fund and Social Security Organisation, as spouses are here for the long haul and need a safety net for their retirement.
The Education Ministry should not ask foreign spouses to change their visa status to a student pass, especially when those on expatriate and employment passes are allowed to study without any need to change. If foreign spouses change their status to student pass, we forgo our eligibility for PR.
Spouses also face difficulty opening individual bank accounts, leaving us vulnerable.
Furthermore, families with a foreign spouse have difficulty purchasing affordable housing, as they are subjected to foreign investment directives and limitations on property purchase or ownership, which currently is at a ceiling of RM1 million or higher. This is unaffordable for middle- and low-income families, with or without a foreign spouse!
Divorced and widowed spouses are mostly given short-term visas without the right to work. Although the Immigration website claims that the resident’s pass could be given to divorcees and widows, not many of these disadvantaged spouses have actually been given this. How then should we provide for themselves and our Malaysian children?
We came to Malaysia as young brides and grooms, and some of us are now in our senior years, yet we cannot enjoy senior citizen rates and facilities for transport and other amenities.
The time has come to consider equal nationality rights to Malaysian women in conferring citizenship on their children born overseas and on their non-citizen spouses on an equal footing as Malaysian men, which is included in the concluding observations in the Malaysia-UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women 2018 Review.
There is also a huge backlog of pending citizenship cases of children with one Malaysian parent that needs to be cleared to enable them access to the national education system and health care.
We urge the newly-formed government to urgently review the policy on foreign spouses and to consider simplifying the visa, employment, PR and citizenship processes. It would be helpful to exclude foreign spouses from the overarching policy governing foreigners to enable us, spouses, to have a sustainable livelihood and a life of dignity for ourselves and our Malaysian family, and to contribute towards the growth and development of the Malaysian economy.
Bina Ramanand
Coordinator, Foreign Spouses Support Group, Kuala Lumpur