International Journal of Intercultural Relations 57 (2017) 19–29 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect International Journal of Intercultural Relations journal h om epa ge: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijintrel Perceived workplace discrimination, coping and psychological distress among unskilled Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia Noraini M. Noor * , Muhamad Nabil Shaker Department of Psychology, International Islamic University Malaysia, Jalan Gombak, Kuala Lumpur, 53100, Malaysia a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 1 July 2016 Received in revised form 17 January 2017 Accepted 23 January 2017 Keywords: Perceived workplace discrimination Coping Psychological distress Migrant workers Collectivist culture a b s t r a c t Migrant workers face many migration-related stressors that may affect their mental health. This study examines workplace discrimination in relation to psychological distress, and the role of coping among unskilled Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia. In a sample of 119 workers (39 males and 80 females), results of a hierarchical regression analysis showed that workplace discrimination was positively related to psychological distress. Both problem-oriented coping and emotion/avoidance coping were predictive of distress. While problem-oriented coping was associated with lower distress, emotional/avoidance coping was related with higher distress levels. In addition, low emotion/avoidance coping was found to buffer the adverse effect of discrimination on distress. These results are discussed in relation to the literature on coping as well as the social-cultural context of the migrants and the host country. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Migrant workers are the cornerstone of economic growth and development in many nations. Migrant workers are individ- uals of foreign nationals who work outside their home country in skilled and unskilled jobs. A common reason for migration is to seek better economic opportunities than the country of origin (Talib et al., 2012). But as outsiders in the migrated country, migrants become members of a disadvantaged or lower status group, subjecting them to the possibility of being discriminated (Major, Mendes & Dovidio, 2013). Evidence suggests that nearly 40 percent of all migrants may experience some form of discrimination in their workplace (Girling, Liu, & Ward, 2010). Discrimination is related to worse self-perceived health (e.g., Kelaher et al., 2008), higher prevalence of chronic diseases (e.g., Gee et al., 2007) and increase in mental health problems (e.g., Hammond, Gillen & Yen 2010). Thus, the ability to cope with this discrimination and other migration-related stressors such as the sense of loss of family and home, along with social and economic problems (Bhugra, 2004), is crucial for migrants to ensure their well-being. Malaysia has the highest number of migrant workers in Southeast Asia, making up approximately 20% of the country’s workforce (Malaysia Digest, 2015). Currently, it has 2.9 million documented and about another 3 million undocumented workers (Malaysia Digest, 2015), with the majority from Indonesia (50.9%, cited in Ahmad, 2012). The Malaysian government differentiates between two categories of migrant workers—skilled professional and technical, and semi-skilled or unskilled. * Corresponding author. E-mail address: noraini@iium.edu.my (N.M. Noor). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2017.01.004 0147-1767/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.