Full coverage: International Workers' Day

With May Day falling on Sunday, many of Malaysia’s foreign migrant workers will have a rare two-day holiday. They will use the opportunity to head to the centres of towns and cities, to meet up with their fellow countrymen.

Workers in some jobs, though, will unlikely have a day off. It’s one of the many sacrifices they have to make to ensure a brighter future for their families.

Foreign workers flood into downtown Kuala Lumpur from factories and building sites in the outskirts. It’s the same on every major holiday.

But despite that, newspapers will frequently run stories about Malaysians feeling intimidated or angry about so many foreigners congregating like this.

It’s not as if foreign workers are normally hidden away in remote factories and plantations here.

Take my neighbourhood. Almost all the homeowners are Malaysian. It’s not an exclusive expatriate enclave. But foreign migrants live and work in our midst, doing a variety of jobs.”

Indonesians and Bangladeshis build new homes here and maintain the existing ones. The local restaurant is staffed entirely by people from India. Women from Indonesia and the Philippines look after the children and tend to the people’s homes. And men from Nepal safeguard the residents.

"In Nepal I am doing x-ray technician job, so not enough money," said security guard in Nepal Sunil Kumar Yadav.

Here, he can earn four times what he did at home.

"I have two kids and I want to support them. I didn’t to a high level, but I want to make sure my daughters can go on to higher education. That is why I came to Malaysia," said Sunil Kumar Yadav.

Many domestic workers here have also left children at home.

"I sacrifice because I want to help my parents. Also last time it is my dream to work overseas, because I want to help my parents with their financial problems, to support my family. I give to my children the life I never experienced before," said Melissa Barredo Hernandez, domestic helper in Philippines.

The Philippines’ government insists that its citizens get one day off a week. Indonesia is only just trying to push for the same for its domestic workers.

And while construction, plantation and factory workers will be celebrating May Day in town with their friends, foreign security guards don’t get weekly days off.

So they will remain at their posts, diligently minding the safety of their Malaysian employers.