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.
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