the government recently lifted the freeze on the admission of new foreign workers for plantations, manufacturing, restaurants, cleaning services, laundrettes, welfare homes, and cargo handling at ports. Only employers, not labor brokers, are permitted to apply for the admission of new foreign workers. Foreign workers are permitted to remain in Malaysia for a maximum seven years on plantations and six years in other sectors, and in April 1999 the government announced that up to one-third of an employer's foreign workers may have these maximum times extended, a policy change intended to head off a new round of illegal immigration. About 160,000 Indonesian workers were returned from Malaysia in 1997-98. In March 1999, there were some 713,821 registered foreign workers in Malaysia, down from 1,033,497 in 1998. Since March 1998, the government has approved the entry of 137,043 new foreign workers and 49,498 of them were already in Malaysia in March 1999. The government reported that 159,135 foreigners returned voluntarily to their countries of origin since January, 1998, and 187,486 were repatriated under the amnesty program that permitted illegal workers to leave without paying fines between August 31 and November 15, 1998; another 79,849 illegal workers were caught and repatriated. The Filipino Department of Labor and Employment reported in March 1999 that there were 500,000 Filipinos in Malaysia, including 50,000 legal workers in peninsular Malaysia, and 270,000 in Sabah and Sarawak. The first half of the book, Service And Servitude: Foreign Female Domestic Workers and the Malaysian "Modernity" Project, by Christian Chin, a Chinese-Malaysian, summarizes the history of colonial Malaysia, noting that the British encouraged the Malays to be farmers, the Chinese mostly mine workers or traders, and the Indians (most from Tamil areas) plantation and public works laborers. The second half of the book reports the results of Chin's surveys in Malaysia. She notes that most middle-class households consider a foreign maid as essential as a car or a video-cassette recorder. They are important to the chief sending country, too: successive Philippine administrations have praised women who go abroad as heroes of development. The Philippine government would like to set a minimum wage of US$500 a month for maids who work abroad. Indonesia. Ethnic Chinese in Indonesia have reportedly shifted about US$80 billion out of the country and 25,000 entrepreneurs and their families are expected to leave before the June elections. Some ethnic Chinese report they are leaving because they feel current laws discriminate against them and they are concerned about the political environment. Many of the ethnic Chinese are moving to Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia. "Chinese Indonesians capital flight hits US$80B, says report," Reuters, April 15, 1999. "Thousands of Indonesians Blacklisted in Malaysia," Antara, April 13, 1999. Chin, Christine B. N. 1998. In Service And Servitude: Foreign Female Domestic Workers and the Malaysian "Modernity" Project. New York. Columbia University Press.