Immigrants and Emigrants – Facts and Figures

ARCHIVES 2010

By admin-s On Oct 5, 2010

The Star reported HERE today that more than 25,000 Malaysian citizenship applications have been processed by the National Registration Department over the last three years, following efforts by the Government to expedite the matter.

Note the following facts and figures from that report:

1. Deputy Home Minister Datuk Wira Abu Seman Yusop said a total of 29,667 applications have been submitted to the department since 2007, and of these, some 4,000 were pending a decision.

He said that the department has set a benchmark of settling the remaining 4,000 applications by the end of this year.

2, He said a special task force set up by ministry, comprising 60 officers, helped resolved a backlog of 32,927 applications from 1997 to 2006.

3. Some 15,000 applications were received by the department as of October this year, which will be processed by 2011, he added.

To sum up:

1997 to 2006 (ten years inclusive) : a backlog of 32 927 applications

2007 to 2010 : 29, 667 applications in three years

2010 (as of October 2010) : 15 000 applications

4. Abu Seman said there was an increase in the number of citizenship applications in recent years, mainly from those from neighbouring countries, due to Malaysia’s stability and economic growth.

Is it realistic to make such a statement? What he said does not seem to jell with the following facts and figures from The Malaysian Insider HERE :

1. About 700,000 Malaysians are currently living abroad, with half of them in Singapore, while the rest can be found mostly in Australia, Britain and the United States.

2. An Australian immigration agency in Perth with offices in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor has reportedly said that the number of Malaysians enquiring about moving to Australia had spiked by 80 per cent since 2008.