1) Economy

Of course if China's economy falls, the rest of Asia Pacific would be badly affected. I don't think China will fall into deep recession unless USA defaults in China investments - then that is really bad news for the whole world.

China has been on the high for a very long time, never fall into recession. Economists are always on the opinion that every economy has cyclical timeline. There's always a high and a trough. China's economy has been overheating for a very long time, property prices are up, the burden on its inefficient social system, the one child policy has bear a lot of inconvenience to the next generation to support their parents and grandparents, inflation, lack of labour and economic reform.

If China falls into a mild recession, that would have very bad consequences for Australia. Australia is very vulnerable to external effects. Mining prices are very volatile, they are just like eg, coffee commodities. Brazil for instance was riding high on coffee exports until the 1970s, when farmers over-extended resources to plant more coffee (over-investing) and then when the cofee prices fell to all time lows, many farmers became bankrupt.

The only commodity that is recession proof is oil. Coal, gold, nikel and aluminium are among the major Australian mining resources that are determined in the international markets, they are as I said, very volatile. Moreover, coal is a dirty resource, it pollutes the air. The world bodies are trying to find some way to limit to use of coal. Already in Beijing, the coal production has resulted in air pollution of catastrophic proportions, visibility poor, children sent to hospitals because of respiratory problems, development of smog, etc.

2) What does Australia have?

Yes Australia is stronger than Malaysian economy. Australia is among the top 10 economies, scandinavian countries are among the top ten too. But Australia compared to the Scandinavian economies, what the Ozzies got that is better than Sweden, Norway and Finland? Besides their rich mining resources...naada.

Australia is not exactly an innovation country. They don't have a proper manufacturing base....when you think of UK, you can think of innovative companies like Dyson..that created their stand out vacuum cleaners, GSK that created strepsils. When you think of Sweden, you think of IKEA, Volvo and Saab. When you think of Finland, you think of Nokia.

Malaysia's economy may not be strong but it sure has what it takes to weather out any economic difficulties. We have our exchange rate advantage, this is why our unemployment rate remains so low. We have top rated port facilities, road infrastructure, factory industrial estates, efficient electricity grids and the gateway to the wider South East Asian market of 500 million consumers.

I recall when Australia fell into deep economic recession in 1994, it was so bad that I heard Australian PRs had to come back to Malaysia, because they could not find any jobs back in AUstralia. At that time their unemployment rates were like 14-18%. When Australia is on the high, its best performer but when Australia sink, they really sink all the way to the bottom.

3) Blue collar jobs

Yeah but I seen Polish migrants doing blue collar jobs in Australia, repairing roads and in the construction line. Everywhere in the world is the same lah.

How can we malaysians able to match with our indonesian counterparts if we were to work as construction laborers? No Malaysian can survive on RM500 a month doing construction labour. However, a lot of Malaysians are in the top tier construction jobs..like supervising, crane operator, operating the bulldozer, wielding, electrical wiring, etc.

4) Education

Yeah our educational standards are dropping. But you forget one thing, the chinese vernacular schools are always maintaining their high standards of education. We Malaysians are always well known for our educational dexterity. I can't say much about the Malays..because I have not gone to local universities. I recall when I was studying in Australia, we chinese and indians beat the local Australians, in terms of exam results, flat hands down.

Every year the top awards of high distinctions goes to us asians. So much for higher Australian educational standards. I mean, I've gone for tutorial classes and watch the Aussie students asking stupid and irrelevant questions while the Asians ask meaningful questions...at the end, who scored better? The Asians.

5) Politics

If you think Malaysia political atmosphere brings entertainment value to you, you should check out the American political atmoshere. Come on...corruption is everywhere. I am not saying I am condoning corruption but we are human beings, imperfection is everywhere. Even in Australia.

No country is perfect. But I am confident that Malaysia is reaching places. THe people of Malaysia are no longer foolish and agreeable...if you have experienced the Bersih rallies and Malaysians openly having constructive conversations over mamak drinks..about politics and BFM radio, people are calling in providing constructive feedback on pertinent issues...there is democratic realisation or awakening happening in Malaysia.

There are places far far worse than Malaysia. Like in Syria, where the people are going against the government, taking up arms...government is launching indiscriminate bombings on civilian areas...so far 60,000 people dead.

Of course Malaysia should not be stuck at where we are just because we are better off than those worst off countries. But I see, some ray of hope in which Malaysia is going through some sort of democratic evolution..its being transform into something.

Doesn't mean just because a country has corruption and social problems, it will inhibit economic growth. I can assure you that one of the most corrupted countries in the world is USA, and yet its the top upper echelons of the economic leadership. Don't listen to transparency international...I think if they don't put USA among the top ten, they are quite bias. There are many powerful rights lobbies in the USA..and they got a lot of cash, like the gun lobby or the jewish lobby that gives cash contributions to political candidates to run their campaigns. Isn't that corruption at a legal scale?

Many of the politicians in USA cater to lobby interests in contrast to the people's needs. Also in USA, the politicians do rob billions of dollars from its own coffers. Military contracts, USA funding of illicit governments amounting to billions of dollars to Egypt, Pakistan and other shadowy corrupted countries.

Then in USA, crime rate is horrific. Gun violence, rapes crimes, drug wars and insane serial killers.

I haven't kept up to mark to AUstralia's political situation but I am very sure Australia got its own problems too.

6) Job opportunity.

Of course, the people who migrate to Australia has to give up everything before he or she goes there. How else to find a job? A Malaysian can't exactly apply for a job in Australia, and then when he's called for interview, he tells the prospective employer that he needs to take a week to book a flight and ask permission from his current employer to go to take leave just to attend an interview?

Unless you graduated in Australia, and straight away go find a job there.

There are flexi-jobs available even in Malaysia. I got friends at Shell, that work 3 days a week at the cyberjaya office then the other 2 days, they work from home.

Its just that the standard of Ozzy jobs are kind of boring and low level. I know a friend who migrated to Australia, used to be a top senior manager at one of the Big four accounting firms, but he had to bust his chops to do a dead end one man book keeping job at the HR consulting firm. Pretty boring but the pay is ok.

For those who migrate, I think its best not to hope for those high end commercial jobs that one dreams of getting.

Job satisfaction is also important. Sometimes its hard for a migrant, he or she has to grab the first job opportunity that comes along the way.

7) Family

I don't know about you, but I have always pondered what if I migrated there? I don't feel like leaving my family and I got big disagreements with gf who prefers to live in malaysia. You see, I applied for fun for the PR some years ago, I thought just try lah, but I successfully got it. Now I wonder if its a big burden.

My career here is going up. I just got promoted to a manager. So if I migrate, everything will go down the drains because I have take up a junior position, boring job and then being press down by the white Aussie employers who look down on us Asians.

If I go Australia, I have to break up with gf or go long distance relationship which eventually would lead to break ip anyhow. Then I have to leave my family. Some time ago, a close relative of mine almost died but luckily I was there to take him to the hospital to conduct emergency surgery that saved his life.

So these questions do come to my mind.

I understand yr point but there are other countries which are better than both Malaysia and Australia. Namely Singapore.

Singapore has one of the world's most welcomming policies towards foreigners - those that can contribute to the economy.
In terms of economy, Singapore has a very robust diversified economic model based built on skills and talent of its people instead of natural resources
In terms of lazyness - well i don't think there is an argument there. You are hard pressed to find a lazy Singaporean.
Education - one of the best in the world
Politics - One of the most stable in the world (although that is begining to change)
Job opportunity - Plenty. Well paying ones too if you are in certian sectors like services
Family - great with many incentives thrown in by the gov including subsidised housing, baby bonus, etc
It also has the benefits of being culturally similar, similar food and nearby to Malaysia.
Income Taxes - one of the lowest in the world

Yea it has its drawbacks namely high prices of vehicles, private housing, cars and over-crowding. But those are small price to pay for the advantage you enjoy as a foreigner or PR.

Why not? The title of this forum is "Working in Australia" NOT "Malaysia vs Australia". I am talking about Australia's standing in the world.

1) MYR is intended to be weak to attract investments. THe govt is obviously manipulating the currency. If Malaysia tries to strengthen the Ringgit, the country will be in deep shit because Malaysia won't be able to compete against China which is a currency manipulator.

But the only disadvantage this has on Malaysians is that we are not able to go overseas tour as convenient as you Australian migrants because of better purchasing power. And yeah, certain products are a bit pricey especially those which are imported from overseas. But at the end of the day, its a consumer choice. If you want high standard then buy overseas imported products eg BMW, Sunkist and IKEA, if you don't mind local standards, you can buy our own local products say Ah Kau furniture, Yeo Hiap Seng and Proton.

2) Obviously middle east countries are not resourceful with the exception of Qatar which has done exceptionally well with their Emirates airline and property sector. Don't say Dubai, in UAE lah, which has lately suffered some setbacks. Although they are not resourceful, oil is a very good defensive commodity against any economic cycle. Oil is always in demand and many asset backed investment has been tagged to the price of oil. THat is why oil rich nations like Saudi Arabia will never be poor until their oil wells dry of course.

Besides Saudi Arabia - Iran, Iraq and Venezuela, they are suffering from what we call the Dutch disease. I read this in Alan Greenspan's autobiograhy, he talks of new oil discovery in Netherlands that made the local populace not work hard to innovate and rely too much on the oil resources. But when the oil dried out, the local populace faced considerable challenges to keep up that economic growth because oil rally has driven up estate prices, inflation and made the people lazy.

In the same way, it could affect Australia. Recently they have been taking in some really shitty migrants (No offence, I am sure you are one of those highly skilled ones). For example, a manager in my company, just resigned from her five figure salary job to migrate with her husband to Australia. Everyday, she comes to my office, play the radio loud and then sing song with her broken voice. Doesn't do much work, when there are problems to be solved, she just send emails and push the problem to other managers, instead of going down to the lines and discussing what the solution can be done. What the heck skills does she have to be able to contribute to the Australian economy? And her husband? He hasn't been working for 2 years, because apparently he is a rich man son.

3) If you referring to a certain race, I hope you don't say all Malaysians are lazy. No that is not true. You should see the Malaysians that work in the top tier MNCs. They are the cream of the crop. But having said this, if there is the right motivation and leadership, all Malaysians can be motivated to work hard and smart. For instance, my friend who is a malay, he works for Shell. I have done some projects with him, whenever I need his help to achieve the deadline, he always does it in time. And when our project get into some hiccups, it is he who is able to come up with the solutions. So it is not true. Its because of the poor leadership of some government departments and GLCs that result in this kind of culture.

I got a singaporean friend who works in Australia, everyday, he criticize his Ozzy colleagues about their lazyness and low standards of safety at work.

And then, I used to work for a time share company over here and we have a hotel in Brisbane, Australia. The reports done by the Aussie guy at that Brisbane hotel, always don't comply to accounting standards. He is also not on time on his reporting.

4) SIgh, university rankings are bias and not accurate, maam. I graduated from a Scottish university that was ranked top 30 in 2010 but now its gone down to top 80. What the hell is that? This ranking btw is done by Financial times which is quite bias.

And then my Australian university was ranked 54 in 2004. I almost wanted to laugh. Because the quality of the university in which I studied is very bad. We never had residential halls, when I arrive in Australia, my classmates and I had to bunk in with friends before we finally able to find a house to rent nearby.

The facilities were lousy and the lecturers to say the least, was pathetic. The standard of teaching was horrible. How could this university be ranked 54 in the world?

You may say that our university rankings are the low. But end of the day, who hires all the University of Malaya chinese grads? Don't say the Bumi grads lah - their results normally cannot match the top chinese and indian graduates. TOp tier MNCs, Singaporean employers, UK employers and even USA.

5) why not compare to syria? What i am trying to say to you, gosh, is although Malaysian situation is bad but we haven't really gone down the drains of a pariah country. People are still making money and able to make a living here.

Of course its become a really big issue here, the people are talking about claims of politicians taking bribes, undertaking shadowy tender contracts without the knowledge of the rakyat and certain low level human rights abuses. But this should not be the reason to leave the country. Migrate because you want to experience the western life not because you want to run away from the political problems here.

What I am trying to say is that everywhere is the same. If USA can have these problems, then what more Australia?

I am not well verse with corruption and scandals in Australia, but I am sure there are, and perhaps Ministers have resigned before as result of that. Yeah, there are lots of scandals in Australia.

And there is veiled racism in Australia. Like 2 years ago, I was walking in a Melbourne city street with my brother and a friend side-by-side. Then two big Aussie guys was walking on the opposite coming towards us. We were so embroiled talking to each other, that the Aussie guys suddenly raised his voice and scolded us stupid Asians for not giving way. We made way of course, because those Aussie guys were really big guys.

6) Nooo you don't understand, I have not digress. You mention about migrants who migrate from malaysia shouldn't be trying to quit their job and sell everything they have in Malaysia to migrate to Australia. I was merely explaining that they have to do this because they can't just apply for a job in Australia and expect to fly there to attend interview. They have to quit their job and go find a job there.