Amnesty for Undocumented Migrants in Malaysia: Policy Development and Implementation since 2011

Abstract

Labour migration is a persistent phenomenon in Malaysia, driven by a profit-making motive and over-reliance on foreign workers. The state has resorted to large-scale amnesty programmes as its main migration control measure to reduce the number of undocumented migrants. This article analyses the development of the labour amnesty policy, with a specific emphasis on its post-2011 development.  It aims to examine the rationales, challenges, and perceptions of the stakeholders (the host country, migrant workers, and industry) in these amnesty programmes. Based on document analysis of official documents, parliamentary debates, press statements, and secondary literature, this paper surveys the implementation of amnesty initiatives introduced since 2011 (6P Programme, Three-Plus-One Programme, Back-for-Good Programme and Illegal Immigrant Recalibration Plan).  From the enforcement perspective, amnesty is a pragmatic approach to deal with the issue of foreign workers working without documentation. Amnesty offers an urgently needed solution to handle the uncontrollable influx of undocumented migrant workers and the socioeconomic costs associated with hosting many foreigners. However, from the economic perspective, amnesty is deemed an ad hoc solution, which fails to tackle the root problems of Malaysia’s labour migration management in the long term; the dependence on foreign workers, the unscrupulous recruitment system, the employers’ preference for foreign workers, profit-making agents, and profiteering of the labour migration industry.