LETTER | The inflow of the migrant workers to Malaysia is not a new or recent phenomenon as the demand for foreign maids has increased rapidly over the years.

Occasionally, there are incidents that happen. The issues of Malaysians abusing their maids more often than not appear in our news.

The media attention received by some of these abuse cases have shed light to the fact that the abusing of migrant domestic workers exist in Malaysian society.

Statistical data from 2010 shows the number of foreign workers in Malaysia has shown that the number of domestic workers coming from the region hail mainly from the surrounding regions with Indonesia leading the number with a total of 918,000 people, followed by Bangladesh (310,000 people) and Thailand with 15,000 people.

The influx of migrant workers, especially domestic workers into the country have had a positive impact.

Thousands of Malaysian women that previously were not able to leave their homes due to their families were now able to work, travel and many happened in due part to their domestic help.

Moreover, wages for migrant maids are generally lower than local maids, making it preferable for most to hire them over local domestic workers.

On the other hand, there are cases of domestic workers charged with stealing, abusing their employer's children.

Further, the outflow of the money from Malaysia will be increased because the migrant workers are from other countries and they will bring the money out of Malaysia to give to their families.

While there are positive impact of migrant domestic workers to the country and us, one must always make sure that the negative impact are negated in matters related to our children.

Of course, the domestic workers are a boon to the average housewife and the working women, but they must also beware of the negative aspects of it.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.