ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Malaysia's evolving migration management frameworks and policies in light of changing migration realities in the country. It describes Malaysia’s border-control system and its impact on migrant workers' human rights. Labour migration has been a significant policy issue in Malaysian history since the late nineteenth century and continues to dominate policy-making, security concerns and migration management. Malaysia's national migration policy after independence has to be viewed from the perspective of political transitions and competing ethnic aspirations. Malaysian labour policies enacted after the 1980s focused on international labour migrants; the colonial administration had already laid the basis for labour laws and labour rights for Malayan workers in the 1940s and 1950s. Semi-skilled and less-skilled workers are classified as migrant workers and issued a Visit Pass for Temporary Employment for jobs in the manufacturing, construction, plantation and services sectors. Malaysia employed approximately 1.9 million foreign workers in the main economic sectors.
