Social injustice is one of the top three reasons behind the country’s brain drain, the World Bank said today, adding that Malaysians are only willing to return if the government shifts from race-based to needs-based affirmative action policies.
The World Bank conducted an online survey in February of 200 Malaysians living abroad in conjunction with the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
In its fourth issue of the Malaysia Economic Monitor, the report stated that 60 per cent of the respondents found that social injustice as their main concern to migrate or return-migrate, citing unequal access to scholarships and higher education especially among the younger generation within the non-Bumiputera community.
Of those surveyed, 66 per cent found that lack of career prospects was a major factor and 54 per cent agreed that unattractive salaries as underlying factors in the Malaysian diaspora.
The report also showed that a large number of the diaspora migrated to Singapore, resulting in Malaysian-born individuals contributing to a quarter of the island nation’s population in 2010.
According to a census conducted in Singapore last year, there are currently 385,979 Malaysians-born residents comprising 47 per cent of all skilled foreign labour in the country.
The number of ethnic Chinese among Malaysian migrants in Singapore has also jumped from 85 per cent in 2000 to 88 per cent in 2010.
The World Bank also said that a large number of Malaysians obtained their tertiary education overseas, pointing out that those emigrating are getting younger as more of those below 23 are leaving the country.
The report concluded that the “Malaysian diaspora is large and expanding, as well as geographically concentrated and ethnically skewed.”
In a Bloomberg news service report earlier today, World Bank senior economist Philip Schellekens was quoted as saying that foreign investment could be five times the current levels if the country had Singapore’s talent base.
“Migration is very much an ethnic phenomenon in Malaysia, mostly Chinese but also Indian,” Schellekens told Bloomberg in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday ahead of the report’s release today.
Governance issues and lack of meritocracy are “fundamental constraints” to Malaysia’s expansion because “competition is what drives innovation,” he said.
Malaysia’s growth fell to an average 4.6 per cent a year in the past decade, from 7.2 per cent the previous period.
Singapore, which quit Malaysia in 1965, expanded 5.7 per cent in the past decade and has attracted more than half of its neighbour’s overseas citizens, according to the World Bank.
Malaysia has in recent years unveiled plans to improve skills and attract higher value-added industries.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has pledged to roll back the country’s NEP-style policies but he also told the Umno assembly last year that the government’s social contract of providing benefits to Bumiputeras cannot be repealed.
According to the Bloomberg report, Najib has eased some rules to woo funds, including scrapping a requirement that foreign companies investing in Malaysia and locally-listed businesses set aside 30 per cent of their Malaysian equity for indigenous investors.
Last year, he unveiled an economic transformation programme under which the government identified US$444 billion (RM1.3 trillion) of projects from mass rail transit to nuclear power that it would promote in the current decade.
Worsening
Meanwhile, World Bank senior economist Philip Schellekens painted a gloomy picture of the Malaysian brain drain situation today saying that it not only grew rapidly but is likely to intensify, further eroding the country’s already narrow skills base.
Schellekens said that the number of skilled Malaysians living abroad has tripled in the last two decades with two out of every 10 Malaysians with tertiary education opting to leave for either OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries or Singapore.
“Brain drain from Malaysia is likely to intensify in the absence of mitigating actions,” he said at the launch of the World Bank report titled “Malaysia Economic Monitor: Brain Drain”.
The report defined brain drain as the outflow of those with tertiary-level education.
The economist said Malaysian migration was increasingly becoming a skills migration with one-third of the one million-strong Malaysian diaspora now consisting of the tertiary educated.
“Expect the trend to continue,” he said.
He added that the outflow of talent was not being replaced with inflows, thus damaging the quality of Malaysia’s “narrow” skills base, noting that 60 per cent of immigration into Malaysia had only primary education or less, even as the number of skilled expatriates declined by 25 per cent since 2004.
The report also noted that there was a geographic and ethnic component to the brain drain, with about 88 per cent of the Malaysian diaspora in Singapore being of ethnic Chinese origin.
“The numbers for US and Australia are similar,” said Schellekens.
Report figures also show that 54 per cent of the Malaysian brain drain went to Singapore while 15 per cent went to Australia, 10 per cent to the US and 5 per cent to the UK.
The top three drivers for brain drain identified by the report were career prospects, compensation and social justice.
“(Lack of) Meritocracy and unequal access to scholarships are significant push factors and a deterrent to coming back,” said Schellekens. “Non-Bumiputeras are over-represented in the brain drain.”
He suggested that Malaysia implement important structural reforms in tandem with introducing targeted measures such as income tax incentives to reverse the brain drain.
“Once the highway is built, you must compete for traffic,” he said. “One suggestion is to hold a competition among members of the diaspora to get ideas on what can be done to attract them home.”
He added that while this report estimated the Malaysian diaspora at one million compared with about 1.4 million in a previous World Bank report, it was due to the lack of Singapore government information on the breakdown of its non-resident population.
“This is a conservative estimate and the diaspora could well be larger,” he said.
Source: Malaysia Chronicle
The World Bank conducted an online survey in February of 200 Malaysians living abroad in conjunction with the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
In its fourth issue of the Malaysia Economic Monitor, the report stated that 60 per cent of the respondents found that social injustice as their main concern to migrate or return-migrate, citing unequal access to scholarships and higher education especially among the younger generation within the non-Bumiputera community.
Of those surveyed, 66 per cent found that lack of career prospects was a major factor and 54 per cent agreed that unattractive salaries as underlying factors in the Malaysian diaspora.
The report also showed that a large number of the diaspora migrated to Singapore, resulting in Malaysian-born individuals contributing to a quarter of the island nation’s population in 2010.
According to a census conducted in Singapore last year, there are currently 385,979 Malaysians-born residents comprising 47 per cent of all skilled foreign labour in the country.
The number of ethnic Chinese among Malaysian migrants in Singapore has also jumped from 85 per cent in 2000 to 88 per cent in 2010.
The World Bank also said that a large number of Malaysians obtained their tertiary education overseas, pointing out that those emigrating are getting younger as more of those below 23 are leaving the country.
The report concluded that the “Malaysian diaspora is large and expanding, as well as geographically concentrated and ethnically skewed.”
In a Bloomberg news service report earlier today, World Bank senior economist Philip Schellekens was quoted as saying that foreign investment could be five times the current levels if the country had Singapore’s talent base.
“Migration is very much an ethnic phenomenon in Malaysia, mostly Chinese but also Indian,” Schellekens told Bloomberg in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday ahead of the report’s release today.
Governance issues and lack of meritocracy are “fundamental constraints” to Malaysia’s expansion because “competition is what drives innovation,” he said.
Malaysia’s growth fell to an average 4.6 per cent a year in the past decade, from 7.2 per cent the previous period.
Singapore, which quit Malaysia in 1965, expanded 5.7 per cent in the past decade and has attracted more than half of its neighbour’s overseas citizens, according to the World Bank.
Malaysia has in recent years unveiled plans to improve skills and attract higher value-added industries.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has pledged to roll back the country’s NEP-style policies but he also told the Umno assembly last year that the government’s social contract of providing benefits to Bumiputeras cannot be repealed.
According to the Bloomberg report, Najib has eased some rules to woo funds, including scrapping a requirement that foreign companies investing in Malaysia and locally-listed businesses set aside 30 per cent of their Malaysian equity for indigenous investors.
Last year, he unveiled an economic transformation programme under which the government identified US$444 billion (RM1.3 trillion) of projects from mass rail transit to nuclear power that it would promote in the current decade.
Worsening
Meanwhile, World Bank senior economist Philip Schellekens painted a gloomy picture of the Malaysian brain drain situation today saying that it not only grew rapidly but is likely to intensify, further eroding the country’s already narrow skills base.
Schellekens said that the number of skilled Malaysians living abroad has tripled in the last two decades with two out of every 10 Malaysians with tertiary education opting to leave for either OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries or Singapore.
“Brain drain from Malaysia is likely to intensify in the absence of mitigating actions,” he said at the launch of the World Bank report titled “Malaysia Economic Monitor: Brain Drain”.
The report defined brain drain as the outflow of those with tertiary-level education.
The economist said Malaysian migration was increasingly becoming a skills migration with one-third of the one million-strong Malaysian diaspora now consisting of the tertiary educated.
“Expect the trend to continue,” he said.
He added that the outflow of talent was not being replaced with inflows, thus damaging the quality of Malaysia’s “narrow” skills base, noting that 60 per cent of immigration into Malaysia had only primary education or less, even as the number of skilled expatriates declined by 25 per cent since 2004.
The report also noted that there was a geographic and ethnic component to the brain drain, with about 88 per cent of the Malaysian diaspora in Singapore being of ethnic Chinese origin.
“The numbers for US and Australia are similar,” said Schellekens.
Report figures also show that 54 per cent of the Malaysian brain drain went to Singapore while 15 per cent went to Australia, 10 per cent to the US and 5 per cent to the UK.
The top three drivers for brain drain identified by the report were career prospects, compensation and social justice.
“(Lack of) Meritocracy and unequal access to scholarships are significant push factors and a deterrent to coming back,” said Schellekens. “Non-Bumiputeras are over-represented in the brain drain.”
He suggested that Malaysia implement important structural reforms in tandem with introducing targeted measures such as income tax incentives to reverse the brain drain.
“Once the highway is built, you must compete for traffic,” he said. “One suggestion is to hold a competition among members of the diaspora to get ideas on what can be done to attract them home.”
He added that while this report estimated the Malaysian diaspora at one million compared with about 1.4 million in a previous World Bank report, it was due to the lack of Singapore government information on the breakdown of its non-resident population.
“This is a conservative estimate and the diaspora could well be larger,” he said.
Source: Malaysia Chronicle
Malaysia is definitely experiencing a major brain drain.
ReplyDeleteAgree with Maliau-basin. Can't deny that.
ReplyDeleteTidak boleh salahkan mereka kerana keluar negara mencari mata pencarian.
ReplyDeletemereka yang berhijrah selalunya ingin mencari peluang yang lebih besar seperti peluang pekerjaan dan sebagainya.
ReplyDeleteYa mungkin juga lah... apa nak di kata lagi??? huhuhu
ReplyDeleteApapun, saya harap hal ini mendapat perhatian sewajarnya.
ReplyDeleteitu hak masing2.
ReplyDeleteApa tidaknya.. standard gaji terlalu rendah tapi kos sara hidup mahal. cukai yg melampau, policy tempatan yg terlalu memihak kepada satu kaum, harga hartanah tidak munasabah, harga kereta yg tidak berpatutan kerana cukai berganda, senario politik yg terlalu kotor, ketuanan melayu dan sikap dominan satu kaum yg keterlaluan, sistem pendidikan yg undur ke belakang, sistem perundangan yg tidak 'merdeka', rasuah tahap kritikal, pihak berkuasa (polis) yg tidak profisional, pentadbir yg 'bodoh sombong', ahli politik yg tamak, media yg dicengkam oleh kerajaan, kebebasan bersuara yg dikekang, akta polis, darurat dan isa yg tidak releven, kebanjiran pendatang tanpa izin, perlakuan kronisme dlm tender & kontrak, pembangunan yg tidak seimbang dan tidak mapan, pembahagian harta negara yg tidak sama rata dan senarainya akan berterusan.
ReplyDeletecarilah jalan untuk menggalakknan mereka bekerja di sini.
ReplyDeletetIada pelabur asing mahu labur di malaysia sebab orang umnok tahu saja minta duit haram dari pelabur asing.
ReplyDeleteSebelum melabur sini, orang umnok sudah mau minta 50% share untuk kuota melayu, siapa mau datang labur sini lagi?
jawatan kerajaan semua mesti mau melayu. Yang lain bangsa mereka tidak peduli.
walaupun kerajaan suruh bukan melayu datang untuk interview adalah wayang kulit saja. Sebelum inteview, mereka sudah menentukan siapa orang melayu telah dipilih.
umno adalah agen syaitan.
Kerajaan perlulah menyelesaikan masalah ini.
ReplyDelete