JUMMEC, 1998;3:60-60.

Abstract

The majority of migrant workers studied in this pilot survey were male, from Bangladesh and Muslim. The mean age was 30 years and the majority were aged between 21-30 years. Although almost half of them had 7-13 years of schooling, or an equivalent to secondary education, the majority were work- ing in the Service industry, predominantly in cleaning services. It is noted that this enlployment trend varied from the national situation, whereby majority of legal migrant workers (Indonesian and Thai) are found in the agricultural sector. More than two thirds of the migrant workers were provided with various forms of housing by the employer. However, it is not known if such acconunodation was adequate or not, as there were no questions about housing structures aod extent of overcrowding. Majority of them stated that they had better amenities, such as piped drinking water and sanitaly toilets, here in Malaysia compared to those in their home countries. Yet, the real extent of better sani- tation is difficult to assess since verification of such amenities could not be done. From their self- reports, it appears that the majority did not engage in risk behaviours, such as smoking, alcohol and drug abuse. It is pertinent, however, to include other risk behaviours in the study, particularly the area of sexual behaviour. The pilot study yielded 28 female Indonesian migrant workers. More than two thirds of them were married. Although none of the married women reported that they were pregnant at the time of the survey, more than two thirds of then1 had betweenl-3 children in Malaysia. Since the age range of these children would be an important indicator of the need for preventive health care, it is proposed that age range of the accompanying children and their immunisation status be included in the questionnaire. Just below half of them were currently practising family planning, and more than two thirds were using modern methods, such as, pill, Norplant and IUD. It is recotnmended that in addition to pregnancy and family planning information, the study could also collect data on gynaeco- logical health and the health seeking behaviour for these problems.