Conclusions

Malaysian students being disproportionately represented in the student outflow to

Australia.

In fact, Australia’s immigration policies have been particularly focused on skilled

migration rather than unskilled migrants. This selectivity of migration is also reflected in

the occupations which Malaysian migrants hold in Australia (Hugo 2011, 161). Malay-

sians have a higher level of labour force participation than the total Australian population

(67.3% compared with 64.6%). In fact, 49.5% of employed Malaysians held skilled occu-

pations, compared with only 28.7% of the total Australian workforce. There is a strong

concentration in professional occupations which employ 4 out of every 10 Malaysian

workers compared with 2 out of 10 in the total workforce. Emigration of Malaysians

clearly represents a significant loss of human capital to Malaysia. As a result, Malaysian

companies often face difficulty trying to find skilled workers and tend to bring in techni-

cally skilled labour to cater to higher levels of technology especially in the textile and

electronic industries. These workers often earn higher wages than the Malaysian counter-

parts. In addition, there is little monitoring of the immigration of skilled workers and the

introduction of technology; most companies are left to their own devices to upgrade and

the managers of those companies often seek labour perspiration rather than investing in

machinery and skilled labour.