Labour migration in ASEAN: Indonesian migrant workers in Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to explain and share about labour migration for employment purposes issues from the perspective of a sending and receiving country in Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) (Indonesia; sending state and Malaysia; receiving state) on managing the international labour migration between the two countries.Design/methodology/approachThe research adopting “mixed methods”, mixing of quantitative and qualitative data within a single investigation or sustained programme of inquiry. The activity includes collecting primary data in two countries. Data collection is done by distributing questionnaires to migrant workers in the receiving states and used indepth interview to 10 stakeholders in the sending states.FindingsThe protection of migrant workers in Johor Bahru is still weak. The graph shows that Indonesian migrant workers in Johor mostly have their documents kept by their employer. Fisheries sector has the highest percentage of workers whose documents are retained by the employer. Meanwhile the sector in which the worker mostly do not get a weekly one day off is the domestic worker. Overall, this means that Malaysia has to put more attention on the existing regulation in order to create a more comfortable working environment.Originality/valueThis paper observe three parameters such as working hour, who keep the passport of the Indonesian migrant workers and weekly one day off relate to working condition of Indonesian migrant workers.