Malaysia’s Missing Minds

“In 2005, my starting salary was RM2,000. But now, in 2025, why are our fresh grads still earning the same?”

That line, spoken by a Malaysian university lecturer preparing to leave for Saudi Arabia, still lingers in my mind. I had the opportunity to connect and conduct an interview with him to understand why Malaysians are choosing to leave the country for opportunities abroad. It captures the quiet frustration of many young professionals, who feel that their wages no longer reflect the cost and standard of living they are pursuing. Young Malaysians who once dreamed of building their futures here have now decided to take their talents elsewhere.

Malaysia's brain drain issue has always been a problem that is widely spoken about in my social circle. As I grew up in Johor Bahru, more than half of my peers have their parents working in Singapore, or they themselves have the plans of working there full-time after graduating from secondary school. This contributed a reality that over the past five decades, 1.86 million Malaysians have left the country. Among them, 1.13 million have left for Singapore, and this number is roughly equivalent to 60% of all emigrants. What’s more worrying is that this rate, 5.6% of our total population, is nearly double the global average of 3.7%. Most of those who left weren’t just blue-collar workers, instead they were young and skilled engineers, doctors, academics, and innovators. In other words, the very people Malaysia needs most to move forward.

So why do they choose to leave?

According to data from the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), the reasons are clear. There are better salaries, stronger career progression, and healthier work cultures abroad. For many, the equation is brutally simple.

Malaysian engineers, for instance, earn only about 20–30% of what their Singaporean counterparts make for similar roles. With the ringgit’s gradual depreciation and rising living costs, the pay gap has become an impossible barrier to ignore. Even for young graduates, 60% of entry-level jobs still offer salaries below RM2,000, barely enough to survive in urban cities like Kuala Lumpur and Penang.

To better understand the context of this issue, my team conducted a survey earlier this year, and we collected a total of 67 responses in a span of three weeks. 62% of respondents cited higher wages and career growth as their main reasons for considering work abroad. Another 43.9% said work-life balance was their top career priority, which is something Malaysia’s corporate culture often struggles to provide. As one respondent put it: “We send students abroad hoping they’ll contribute back, but many face local resistance or end up stuck in unchallenging jobs. When our brightest study engineering in Japan but return as translators, something is clearly broken.”

It’s tempting to think brain drain is only about money, but it’s not. Many young Malaysians describe feeling disillusioned with the rigid hierarchies, racial policies, and lack of meritocracy that still shape parts of our system.

Moreover, ethnic-based policies like quota system and political instability of changing four prime ministers in a span of five years between 2018 and 2023 have eroded confidence and faith in the country's future prospects. Countries like Singapore, Canada, and New Zealand, by contrast, offer not just better pay, but also transparent governance and fairer career advancement.

“I’ve worked in academia since 2007,” said the university lecturer who is preparing to move  to Saudi Arabia. “Despite meeting all the requirements, it’s hard to get promoted. The culture is so hierarchical, and the pay doesn’t reflect the effort. On the other hand, in the Netherlands, which is where I did my PhD, I felt respected as an individual and I am rewarded fairly based on my ability and experience. But here in Malaysia, it’s just exhausting to move forward in the job hierarchy.”

Others echo similar sentiments about quality of life. Nearly 80% of respondents in our survey ranked it among their top three priorities. A Malaysian doctor now training under the UK’s NHS who I also interviewed for this study said: “There’s more respect for employees here in the UK. I work four days a week, and one of them is an education day. I can actually spend time with my newborn. In Malaysia, that kind of balance just simply doesn’t exist.”

One of the most complex dimensions of Malaysia’s brain drain lies just across the Causeway. Around 1.13 million Malaysians now live or work in Singapore, forming the single largest group of the emigrating diaspora. Some are permanent migrants, but many are daily or weekly commuters from Johor Bahru. This creates a phenomenon sometimes dismissed as “not real” brain drain because they technically still live in Malaysia. Yet economically, their productivity, taxes, and innovation all flow into Singapore’s GDP, not ours.

Malaysia bears the cost of their education and training, but Singapore reaps the return. This “cross-border brain drain” is perhaps the most visible symbol of how proximity alone can’t compete with opportunity.

This results in a widespread effect, and the consequences go far beyond individual careers.

When doctors, engineers, and academics leave, the nation loses not only talent but also public investment. For instance, each Malaysian medical student costs the government between RM500,000 and RM1 million to train. Yet many of them, after graduation, head straight to Singapore or Australia for housemanship or future medical training, taking their state-funded expertise abroad.

In education, universities suffer when experienced lecturers emigrate, lowering research output and global rankings. In the private sector, the shortage of skilled professionals has slowed Malaysia’s ambitions in areas like Industry 4.0, semiconductors research, and digital innovation.

Meanwhile, the gap left behind is often filled by low-skilled foreign workers, which presently numbers at over 2.4 million in Malaysia. This creates an economy that’s increasingly dependent on low-cost labour and less capable of competing globally in high-value industries.

Yet for all the bleak statistics, there’s another side to this story, one of hope and homecoming.

TalentCorp’s surveys show that 92% of Malaysian diaspora members actually express a desire to return, if the right opportunities and conditions exist. Take Daniel Ang, a Malaysian who once worked with WeChat in China. Though his job there was rewarding, he chose to come back, joining WeChat Malaysia as an Associate Director of Visual Design. “I missed Malaysia’s multiculturalism,” he said. “China was exciting, but this is my kampung.”

Another returnee, a Warwick economics graduate, put it simply: “Working in Singapore is often glamourised. Yes, the pay is higher, but the stress and cost of living there are intense. Here, I get to be near my family, and that’s worth a lot.” This makes me wonder that for some, returning isn’t about rejecting the world, but reclaiming a sense of belonging.

As we begin to consider the best ways to tackle the brain drain issue, the government isn’t blind to this for sure. Several recent policies aim to turn the tide, ranging from the Progressive Wage Model to new industry master plans.

The Johor–Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ) promises to create over 100,000 high-quality jobs, potentially reducing the need for Johoreans to commute daily across the border. The National Semiconductor Strategy aims to train 60,000 engineers and position Malaysia as a global player in chip manufacturing.

And through TalentCorp’s Returning Expert Programme and Malaysia@Heart (MyHeart) initiative, efforts are being made to connect overseas Malaysians with opportunities back home, despite critics arguing that the impact remains limited compared to the scale of the problem.

Still, the signs of change are emerging. A push for better graduate employability under MyNext, and a growing national conversation about work-life balance and meritocracy show that Malaysia is beginning to tackle the roots of the issue, not just the symptoms.

Ultimately, solving Malaysia’s brain drain isn’t about forcing people to stay, but it’s about making them want to return. That means rebuilding trust, improving pay structures, nurturing innovation, and perhaps most importantly, believing in the potential of our own people.

Besides, the solution to brain drain doesn’t have to be permanent. If we can turn it into brain circulation, where Malaysians go abroad, learn, and return with new skills and perspectives, the outflow of talent could become a source of strength instead of loss.

As I wrote in my presentation months ago, “Every coin has two sides.” Yes, many Malaysians have left, but many more still call this place home, in heart if not in geography. Many who are abroad are eager to go back and be a part of nation building when the conditions are turning better for them to return for good.

Perhaps the question isn’t how to stop Malaysians from leaving, but how to make Malaysia a country worth coming back to.

By Ronin Lim, Charisma Movement