Malaysia's labor shortages can be attributed to rapid industrialization; higher
educational attainment leading to external and internal migration and labor
shortages; and poor wages and working conditions in plantations, the
construction industry and the service sector. Such shortages have been met
largely through the use of illegal migrant workers from Indonesia, south
Thailand and the southern Philippines. Implementation of the government's
plan for economic restructuring, 1971-1990, was assisted by such workers;
however, the government has also recognized the socioeconomic problems
engendered by illegal migration. Policies to facilitate temporary labor migration
in key sectors are being developed.