December 2, 2009 by admin
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By Lee Wei Lian from The Malaysian Insider
The number of Malaysians who surrendered their citizenship has
almost doubled in this year, according to Deputy Foreign Minister
Senator A. Kohilan Pillay, who revealed today that about 3,800
Malaysians have given up their citizenships to date compared to
2,000 last year.
This figure, however, is much smaller than the 304,358
Malaysians who were reported to have migrated from March 2008 to
August 2009.
Kohilan clarified that the number of “Malaysians who migrated”
consists of those who are working abroad and registered with the
respective Malaysian embassies.
There was nevertheless a sharp rise in the number of Malaysians
who registered themselves as having moved abroad with 210,000 of
them doing so from January to August this year compared with 94,000
from March to December 2008.
He also said that between 45 to 55 per cent, or roughly half, of
the Malaysians working abroad are professionals.
The volume of Malaysian talent moving abroad is a potentially
damaging brain drain and a matter of concern as the country is
attempting to remake itself into a developed high-income
nation.
The most common reasons given for migration were better
education, brighter career or business prospects and marriage.
Kohilan also pointed out that the government is taking some
steps to attract talent to the country, including making it easier
for foreigners with desired expertise to obtain permanent
residence.
Kohilan, who is from Gerakan, also criticised the Penang state
government currently under Pakatan Rakyat, saying that they should
stop using the shortage of engineers an excuse for the recent loss
of an RM10 billion electronic factory investment and should instead
find ways to overcome it.
“Penang should not blame others if there is no investment,”
Kohilan told The Malaysian Insider. “What professionals would want
to stay there if there is only push factors? There must also be
pull factors. They must think wisely and make sure the state also
has pull factors.”
Kohilan said that there was no breakdown by race for Malaysians
who have moved abroad but some migration agents have noticed a rise
in applications from Malays to migrate over the past few years.
Robert Chelliah, who runs a migration consultancy in Petaling
Jaya says that he has seen a noticeable increase in interest among
Malays to move to Australia.
“These are educated Malays and they feel frustrated with the
system of governance and they have a global frame of reference to
make comparisons,” he said.
“Generally, the push factor from Malaysia has been on the rise …
people feel pushed away from the country. They feel alienated and
they feel that their prospects are limited by factors that they
have no control over,” he added.
According to Kohilan, Australia had the most number of
Malaysians registered with the Malaysian embassy with 274,000 and
the US second with 31,000 and Taiwan third with 14,000.
He added that there were about 50,000 Malaysian students now
studying abroad. – The Malaysian Insider
Republished from The Malaysian Insider on 1 December 2009