Barber Shortage

Date: Tuesday, May 21, 2002 11:05 AM

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If you aren't careful reading this article you might think you are
reading a
Harris Miller interview about the programmer shortage. The arguments to
import more barbers to Malaysia are very similar to the shortage
shouting
here for nurses, programmers, and teachers. I'm starting to wonder if
these
arguments are drafted into a standard template during those WTO
meetings.
The just change "programmer" to "barber" and then release the paper to
the
press.

Some of the key arguments:
* barber's shops have closed because of the manpower shortage
* visas given to foreign barbers from India
* young people don't want to be barbers anymore
* barbers are getting old (middle age)

Lifeline for dying Indian barber shops
With few Malaysians interested in the profession, the government has
decided
to allow Indian hairdressers to import workers

By Leslie Lau
IN KUALA LUMPUR

A TRIP to the neighbourhood Indian barber is part of the ritual of
growing
up for generations of Indian Malaysians.

Plying an unglamorous trade, Mr Manivanan, 29, is the youngest barber in
this shop and one of the few young Indian Malaysians in the job. --
LESLIE
LAU
And the government here has moved to ensure that this tradition
continues in
this dying trade.

Indian nationals will be allowed to work here as barbers as there are
not
enough Indian Malaysians taking up the trade.

Mr M. Jeghan is among the hundreds of Indian nationals who have been
plying
their trade illegally in Malaysia in recent years. 'I have been here for
more than two years. All I want to do is make a living,' he told The
Sunday
Times.

He considers himself lucky because he escaped a crackdown on Indian
nationals working here illegally as barbers last year. Many were picked
up
and deported for overstaying, leaving Malaysians in a predicament -
there
were not enough barbers to give them their weekly trim.

Several barber's shops closed temporarily because of the manpower
shortage.

Following appeals from the shop owners, the authorities finally decided
to
allow the foreign barbers from India to work here.

Malaysian Immigration director-general Jamal Kamdi said his department
has
already received applications from 294 barber's shops in the Klang
Valley to
bring in foreign workers from India.

'The government has acknowledged the appeal for foreign workers in view
of
the unavailability of local workers. There is a lack of interest among
the
young to pursue the trade,' said Malaysian Indian Congress
vice-president S.
Veerasingam.

Petaling Jaya Indian Hairdressers Association secretary A. Mylvaganam
said:
'Young people do not want to do it because of long hours and it is also
not
glamorous for them.'

Mr S. Manivanan, 29, is one of the few young Indian Malaysian barbers in
a
profession dominated by middle-aged Indians.

'I never really went to school. All I can read is a little bit of Tamil
and
I can speak a little Malay. So this was the only job I could get,' he
told
The Sunday Times.

He works at a shop in suburban Subang Jaya with four other barbers, two
of
whom are Indian nationals, and all of whom are in their 50s or older.

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