The Malaysian Insider | We asked readers to tell us why they migrated… or are even thinking of migrating. This is one of the stories.
MAY 19 — I would like to tell you first-hand why I am thinking of migrating in the future:
The salary base of Malaysian employees are low.
I am a trainee for a foreign bank and urban poor as I earn less than RM3,000 a month; compared to my counterparts who are currently working overseas (merely as a waiter/ barista), their weekly salary is equivalent to what I earn in a month.
The living cost is getting higher. As you know, petrol price for RON97 just increased 0 sen, with the increase of this and the fuel surcharge by AirAsia, it’s a wonder how we can survive! Housing price is increasing, buying books at the local book store costs a fortune, transportation fee is getting higher, food and drinks are getting more expensive! Everything is going up, and nothing is going down. Buying a car or a house/ condo/ flat right now is suicide for me and many Malaysians, no doubt.
The injustice in the country.
With the many issues and injustice that are published (or not) in newspaper/Internet/mass media (for e.g. the Anwar trial, Teoh Beng Hock’s death and the recent Sarawak election), I would like to opt to have my children and my children’s children grow up in a place where nothing of this sort happens, where they know the difference between right and wrong, to learn and have known the importance of freedom of speech, and not to have their human rights violated.
Decline of university/education ranking in Malaysia.
I graduated from a local university and to be honest, the level of fresh graduates is appalling, as the majority of them (80-90 per cent) can’t even communicate efficiently in English, let alone form a simple sentence.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to find out the reasons why, but I digress, however, this is one of the many reasons that drives me to further my studies overseas in the future, while migrating there at the same time.
Not to mention, I do not want my children to be subjected in an education system where Math and Science is not taught in English and where “literature” books like Interlok are approved.
Word-of-mouth from friends and relatives who have migrated.
According to my friends and relatives who have migrated and are scattered all over the world now (eg. UK, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and Singapore), they have never regretted or looked back on the decision they made. Some of them have already settled down and have a family there. Once, I asked whether they would come back and work for Malaysia/ the government, the answer I got was a simple: “Hell no!”
These are the top five reasons that I have come up with for now, which I think would suffice, but the primary reason is that I don’t feel safe, physically (as the country’s crime rate in KL is one of the highest, where police/ ambulance/ public services are in a sad state), mentally (brain drain in Malaysia is happening as we speak, my creativity would be at risk), spiritually (as seen in the recent Al-Kitab incidents), and financially (as I would forgo the second best alternative by staying in the country, whereas I can use my time and resources to work overseas, thus earning extra and being happy without such pressures.