THE EFFORTS OF THE INDONESIAN GOVERNMENT TO PROTECT INDONESIAN MIGRANT WORKERS IN MALAYSIA (2004-2011)

Abstract

Indonesia is the largest sender of migrant workers in Malaysia especially workers in the low-skilled sectors. The presence of Indonesian migrant workers has a positive impact on economic development both in Indonesia and Malaysia. Indonesian migrant workers help to increase the country’s foreign exchange as well as helping Malaysia to fill jobs in the plantation, construction, manufacturing and domestic sectors that contribute to Malaysian economic development. Unfortunately, every year, there are many cases of discrimination and abuse that happened to Indonesian documented migrant workers in the low-skilled sectors in Malaysia which include both formal and informal sectors. Seeing this, from 2004-2011, the Indonesian government continued to improve the protection of Indonesian documented migrant workers in Malaysia both domestically and bilaterally with the Malaysian government. The efforts of the Indonesian government include the issuance of Law No. 39/2004, Presidential Decree No. 81/2006, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Regulation No. 4 of 2008 as well as the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Malaysia in 2004 and 2006, the signing of the Protocol Amending the MoU 2006 in 2011, and the issuance of a moratorium policy to Malaysia from 2009-2011. In this research, the theory of classical liberalism and migration diplomacy is used in explaining how the Indonesian government carried out its efforts to protect Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia.