The impact of foreign labour on host country wages: The experience of a southern host, Malaysia
![](https://acde.crawford.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/styles/anu_narrow_200_200/public/publication/images/acde_crawford_anu_edu_au/2016-12/td_working_paper_image_2.jpg?itok=1fHVunb-)
This paper investigates the impact of foreign labour on domestic manufacturing wages through a case study of Malaysia, a country where foreign labour immigration has played a key role in manufacturing growth over the past two decades. The main focus of the paper is on an econometric analysis of the determinants of inter-industry variation in wage growth using a new panel dataset. The results suggest that wage growth is fundamentally embedded in the structure and performance of domestic manufacturing. There is evidence of a statistically significant negative impact of foreign labour on the growth of unskilled-worker wages, but the magnitude of the impact is rather small.
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