Demographic Trends and Key Rates
Censuses were taken in Malaysia in 1970, 1980, 1991, and 2000, with the one in 2000 taking place between 5 and 20 July. The total population is approximately 28 million. The population distribution is highly uneven, with some 20 million residents concentrated in Peninsula Malaysia. 70% of the population is urban. Due to the rise in labour-intensive industries, Malaysia is estimated to have over 3 million migrant workers, which is about 10% of the Malaysian population. The exact numbers are unknown: there are a million legal foreign workers and perhaps another million unauthorised foreigners. The state of Sabah alone had nearly 25% of its 2.7 million population listed as illegal foreign workers in the last census. Sabah based NGOs estimate that out of the 3 million population, 2 million are illegal immigrants.
Additionally, according to the World Refugee Survey 2008, published by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), Malaysia hosts a population of refugees and asylum seekers numbering approximately 155,700. Of this population, approximately 70,500 refugees and asylum seekers are from the Philippines, 69,700 from Burma, and 21,800 from Indonesia. The USCRI named Malaysia as one of the ten worst places for refugees on account of the country's discriminatory practices toward them. Malaysian officials are reported to have turned deportees directly over to human smugglers in 2007, and Malaysia employs RELA, a volunteer militia, to enforce its immigration law.
Read more about this topic: Ethnic Groups In Malaysia
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