Race, Religion and Skilled Labour Immigration: The Case of Malaysia

There have been a number of studies on microeconomic and macroeconomic determinants of migration, but few discussed on the race and religion factors on skilled labour immigration. This paper makes contribution toward filling this void by examining how religion influences the skilled labour immigration flow into Malaysia. Specifically, the sharing of religious cultures enables the formation of exchange networks that can overcome the failure or non-existence of the social and economic institutions for affecting the flow of skilled labours into Malaysia. The determinants of immigration are analysed with pooled cross-country and time series data on skilled immigration into Malaysia from 39 countries during 1998-2004. Results demonstrate clearly the sharing of Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu culture by three major races which are the Malays, Chinese and Indians in Malaysia has a significantly positive influence on the inflow of skilled labour immigrants.