The main determinants of the inflow of foreign workers are a combination of economic and socio-cultural factors. Rapid industrialization, stable economic growth, and a smaller population base created high employment levels and tight labor markets. Most importantly, rapidly increasing education levels led the younger generations to reject low-skilled jobs in favor of formal and better-paying employment in the public and private sectors. The first graph below shows the evolution of the educational composition of Malaysian labor force as the share of people with primary schooling (or less) declined from 60% to less than 20%. Yet, the demand for low-skilled workers has not abated which is easily filled by neighboring countries. The second graph shows the educational composition of the foreign workers where those with primary schooling (or less) form the large majority.