There are xenophobic Malaysians and that is the truth. Some of these xenophobes take it one step further and allege that the increased population of foreign workers is the cause of increased crime rate.
I am usually uncomfortable with the allegation. In a way, the phobia forms part of anti-free market thinking; protectionist thinking. Further, it seems that foreign workers are being made scapegoats.
Without proper citation however, if I were to challenge the allegation, their words would be as good as mine. That changes today as I have found a reputable source to back me up. At The Economist:
Malaysians think that the increase in foreign workers has worsened crime rates. Official figures show that foreigners in the country commit proportionately fewer crimes than do Malaysians themselves.
Anyway, the xenophobia is not unique to Malaysia though the reason might differ. Nevertheless, it is a typical protectionist rationale:
Locals in the receiving countries already seem to be worried about competition for their jobs. In a recent poll for the ILO, 59% of Thais said their government should admit no more foreign workers, and only 10% thought more should come. Even in prosperous, cosmopolitan Singapore, just over half of locals oppose admitting more foreign workers, according to a poll in the Straits Times.
Also, in Singapore, according to Rajan:
In other words, foreigners are proportionally underrepresented amongst criminals. So not only is “most crimes in Singapore are done by foreign labourer workers” false in the absolute sense, neither is it true on a proportional basis.
So, let us reject out irrational prejudice against foreign labors.