Major discrepancy in Immigration numbers

Only after I've made the blog posting here, and subsequently read the World Bank's Brain Drain report, I discovered a mistake had been made in my blog. I should have reviewed the World Bank report first instead of just relying on figures from Jabatan Imigresen. That is because there is a huge discrepancy between the Imigresen and the World Bank migration number.

Below are excerpts from both World Bank and Jabatan Imigresen.

Above: Slide presentation from Jabatan Imigresen. The figure of 1.8 million inbound migration is reasonably  supported  by detailed breakdown of nationality but the outbound migration figure (785,000) is vague and nowhere near World Bank figures.

Above: From the fourteenth and one-hundred-thirty-sixth pages of the World Bank Brain Drain Report- big gap betweenthe two reports.
There is obviously a big difference between 785,000 (Jabatan Imigresen figure) and the 1 million plus (lowest World Bank estimation of outbound migrants). I doubt I have the power to summon the World Bank for detailed workings of their figures but as a rakyat I need to question Jabatan Imigresen and Department of Statistics on the quality of their public presentations.

Look at the quality of  'statistics' published at the Imigresen website here:
It is also obvious that either the quality of employee skills in Jabatan Imigresen and Jabatan Statistik is so bad; or there is a deliberate act to release false data deemed as sensitive to the public. Maybe the Jabatan Imigresen figure of 785,000 is just an 'anggaran' but it's an anggaran so inaccurate that it cannot fit into my regression line*.

*The long story on regression line here.

5 comments:

  1. I am malaysian working in SG as with my many other malaysian friends. At no point of time did we have any contact with any government agency to inform them of that fact. While I am aware that malaysians working abroad are supposed to report to the embassy, in Sg at least I dont know of anyone who did.

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  2. Ya, no need to report in Singapore unless you need to renew passport which require photocopies of Work permits/PR ICs.

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  3. statistics can notoriously difficult to reconcile once one try to compare different authorities

    what is indisputable is
    1) the best and not very best of Malaysians are leaving the country

    2) M'sia is less of a place to fulfil one's dreams and hopes than S'pore, OECD countries despite wonderful weather and disaster -free

    3) what remains is stuck in a substandard work culture and leadership environment

    4) and yet the controlled mass media still singing praises all over despite the obvious paradox, on 1 page is 1Malaysia, the next page is 1Melayu 1Bumi....

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  4. dei. the 1 million is accumulated migration over the years. the 785,000 is the total migration for the year 2010. apalah.

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  5. Anon, it's obvious that you had not read that World Bank report. Anyway logic will tell that if 785,000 is the migration figure for 2010, that leaves a 200,000 for the years before 2010. Hullo?

    Anyway the World Bank reports stated the year 2010 specifically for the subject matter under discussion. The report is detailed talking about other stuff, under other prior year reporting periods as well. I understand the confusion.

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