Who are the Vietnamese?
Vietnamese migrant workers are an important component of Peninsular Malaysia’s foreign workforce. Partly as a security measure related to terrorism dangers, the Malaysian government determined early in 2002 that recruitment of foreign workers would be carried out on a Government-to-Government basis. At that time the foreign workforce was listed at around 800,000 with only a handful being from Vietnam. Since then, a number of MOU’s (Memorandum of Understanding) have been signed or are still being negotiated with several countries including Vietnam. The MOU with Vietnam was one of the first to be negotiated and since its signing, the number of Vietnamese workers has grown rapidly. The agreement allows up to 200,000 Vietnamese workers to come to Malaysia each year. Although the broad terms of the agreement allow these workers to stay up to five years with possible extensions of an additional five years for those deemed as being “experienced” in areas of more acute needs, most are coming o
