The Migration Works campaign aims to show young Malaysians that they share more with migrant workers than they think.

Freelance photographer Sam Ruslan never bothered to really look at the foreign faces serving him coffee, until he found himself behind the coffee bar.

“Working closely with foreign workers as baristas made me see them in another light,” he shares. “I was shy and awkward, but they were so friendly and helpful. We ate together, joked and laughed. I started to see them as real people, like you and I.” His other discovery opened his eyes wider.

“While it is true that many work here to earn money, it is not just to survive. They want better lives too for their families and children,” says Sam.

“For one of my Filipino colleagues, Ben, barista work is actually his dream. He loves coffee and he is good at what he does. Migrant workers are like us, they have hopes and dreams too.”

Inspired by Ben, Sam started taking portraits of his migrant co-workers, two of which he exhibited at a recent photo exhibition organised by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to commemorate the International Migrants Day. The exhibition is one of many programmes planned by ILO in its campaign Migration Works to promote a positive attitude towards migrant workers in Malaysia.

Launched in Malaysia in December last year, Migration Works is part of ILO’s five-year Greater Mekong Sub-Region Tripartite Action to Protect Migrant Workers from Labour Exploitation (GMS Triangle) project. It was initiated after ILO’s study on public perception of migration in Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand indicated that dangerous myths and negative stereotypes are deeply entrenched in public attitude towards foreign workers.

In Malaysia, the study found that only 38% of respondents felt migrants make a net contribution to the economy. While the labour laws provide equal protection, 73% of respondents felt that authorised migrant workers cannot expect the same wages and working conditions as their local counterparts. This is reflected on the ground, where many migrant workers receive low pay and are mistreated at work.

Under the GMS Triangle project, ILO has been working with the authorities, employers and other stakeholders to strengthen the formulation and implementation of labour recruitment and labour protection policies and practices in Malaysia.

The ultimate aim of Migration Works is to get young people on board the campaign to recognise the important role migrant workers play in society and even initiate their own movement on this issue. To achieve that, Migration Works is focusing on the basics: the main reason why the migrant workers are here in the first place--to work.

Malaysia is not the only country relying on foreign workers. This year, some 232 million migrant workers aged 20 to 64 were recorded in the world. In Malaysia, the number of migrant workers has reached four million, filling the labour needs restaurants, plantations, construction sites and homes.

The Migration Works try to get locals to dispel their negative notions by getting up-close with a migrant worker in the workshops and hear for themselves the challenges and problems migrants face in Malaysia.

A student Elvin Ng, 19, discovered after getting to know his foreign co-workers at a café, they are vulnerable to street crime too.

“One from a café I worked at told me when he first came to Malaysia, he and a few friends were mugged at their apartment by locals.”

Brickfields Asia College student Tan Kar Can, 20, agrees it is unfair to put all the blame of crime on migrant workers. “Social problems and crime in our country are mostly committed by the locals, migrant workers contribute to a smaller number of crimes. This could possibly be due to the lack of jobs for the locals and more jobs for migrant workers. Most low income jobs are taken up by migrant workers because locals don’t want to do them. So, there are those who have no choice but to resort to robbery and theft.”

It seems as though the project’s attempt to give the public diverse peeks into the world of migrant workers has paid off.

Published on: 2 January 2014 | The Kathmandu Post