Malaysia’s Migrant Labor Regime is Unfair and Unsustainable

A Vietnamese worker at a farm in the cameron highlands, 2018 | Photo: UN women on Flickr, Creative Commons

In an article for New Mandala, Yvonne Tan and Alfian Al-Ayubby assert that the reform of recruitment and work permit systems that reproduce de facto debt bondage and isolate workers from their families have costs for migrant workers and Malaysian society more broadly; however, entrenched political economy factors give too many political actors a stake in the current system.

In May 2025 Malaysia’s Ministry of Home Affairs announced that migrant workers would be permitted to change employers across different industries. This could mean a potential break from the country’s employer-tied visa system. Yet the 13th Malaysia Plan launched two months later instead explicitly flagged tightening migrant workers’ permit conditions in ways that would limit their eligibility to change industries and employers, placing restrictions on their doing business and shortening work permit durations.

This policy change and contradiction occurred under the leadership of the Pakatan Harapan government that has repeatedly presented their administration as reformist, emphasising transparency, accountability, and concern for migrant rights. While such plans have been announced, these competing policy proposals operate within an unchanged regulatory or legislative framework.

As detailed guidelines have yet to be launched, the key question is whether to expect a meaningful shift in addressing power imbalances and debt dependency in the migration system. Will it translate into equitable labour conditions for its migrant workers, particularly as Malaysia’s rapidly ageing workforce is set to deepen reliance on foreign labour? With this current contradictory policy backdrop, it is critical to examine how employment structures shape migrant workers’ everyday realities, specifically through social exclusion and institutionalised debt.