HOW LINGUISTIC CAPITAL INFLUENCES OVERTIME PAY AMONG LOW-SKILLED MIGRANT WORKERS IN MALAYSIA: A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF BANGLADESHI WORKERS

Drawing on Bourdieu’s linguistic capital theory, this study utilized semi-structured inter-views with76 low-skilled Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia to explore how language ca-pability influences the overtime pay. The findings suggest that linguistic capital acts as an informal threshold in the allocation of overtime pay through three mechanisms: commu-nication efficiency, opportunity screening, and competency-based trust. This study ex-tends research on linguistic capital by demonstrating how language skills influence the informal income distribution of low-skilled foreign workers. This study contributes to the literature on linguistic capital and labor inequality by reconceptualizing language capa-bility as an informal institutional mechanism embedded in managerial practices through which overtime opportunities and income advantages for low-skilled foreign workers are unevenly distributed.