This paper aims to contribute a study on the issue of street begging in Malaysia, specifically at the area of Shah Alam, Selangor. Street begging is the issue that became a great concern not only in Malaysia, but also throughout the world. The main purpose of this study is to identify the factors that lead people to engage in begging behavior and the feeling of street beggars in begging life. The study adopts a qualitative research method by using semi-structured interview in order to understand the issue of street begging. There were twelve street beggars involved in the interview session. The street beggars in this study comprised those active street beggars that meet certain criteria for instance those who selling something or small items to cover their begging activity. There were many reasons for people engaged in begging activity that been highlighted from previous study. The finding of this study revealed that the poverty is the main reason people engage in begging behavior together with other factors like human trafficking, migration, intra-family relationship and physical disability. This study also provides recommendations for instance revisit policy adoption, socio-economic interventions and strengthening the laws and cooperation associated with migrants in order to tackle this issue. It is hoped that this study would contribute to the improvement and new actions that can be done towards the street begging issue in Malaysia.
