http://www.singapore-window.org/sw99/90329ip.htm
Resentment towards foreigners
growing
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Inter Press Service. March 29, 1999.
"ARE foreigners taking away jobs from the locals?" This is a
question often asked during periods of economic downturn in Western
countries which employ overseas workers and talent.
Today, Singaporeans are asking the same question, too.
Over the last two decades, this tiny island republic of three
million people has grown to become South East Asia's most advanced
economy. Singapore now has a living standard and a per capita
income at par with many advanced Western countries.
It has thus attracted a large number of expatriate professionals to
its shores in recent years.
There are an estimated 700,000 foreign workers employed here, a
large segment of which is composed of unskilled labor such as house
helps and construction workers mainly from Bangladesh, India,
Nepal, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.
There is also an increasing number of foreign professionals both
from Asia and the west working in the financial sector, information
technology, mass communications, teaching and the bio technology
fields.
Highly paid, they also get perks like subsidized housing, cars and
schooling for the kids all extremely expensive in this city state.
They are often better paid, and lead a more luxurious life than
their Singaporean counterparts.
The Singapore government has been pushing the concept of a "global
city", requiring foreign workers its shores to make its economy and
industries internationally competitive.
In August 1997, the main theme of Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong's
national day speech centered on the need to attract foreign talent
to Singapore. But with the recession, which has trimmed work
opportunities and caused layoffs among local professionals,
resentment is growing towards this policy.
Earlier this month, government MP Tan Cheng Bock, during a
parliamentary debate on the budget, urged the government to tone
down its rhetoric on the value of attracting foreign talent to
Singapore. He warned that this policy is not going down well with
Singaporeans today.
Opposition MP, Chiam See Tong immediately lent support to Tan,
saying he is merely voicing the concerns of Singaporeans. He cited
a case of how a young Singaporean graduate from an Australian
university, who applied at a private school for a teaching job, was
rejected and the job given to an expatriate New Zealander.
Since Tan's call, there has been much debate in the media about the
issue and the government has taken pains to reassure the
Singaporean citizens that they will be given preference in
employment against foreigners with similar qualifications.
Responding to Tan, Manpower Minister Lee Boon Yang said that it is
tempting under the current economic conditions to press the
government to stop, or at least reduce, the efforts to attract
foreign talent to Singapore, "in order to protect our citizens and
give them a better chance".
"We must be prepared to subject ourselves to the discipline of the
market," said Lee. "For one local job protected on the short term,
many more will be at risk in the future."
Lee defended the government's foreign talent employment policy by
arguing that Singapore is now competing fiercely in the global
market place. "We are now seeing the removal of geographical and
regulatory barriers to the movement of people and capital. This
changing world will not stop for us to catch our breath," he
observed.
Prime Minister Goh reminded Singaporeans that the tiny republic can
sustain its success "only if it has a critical mass of talents
comparable to the best elsewhere".
While acknowledging that he understood the concerns of Singaporeans
under the current economic crisis, he pointed out that the country
has to compete in the global marketplace with countries whose
populations are many times larger than Singapore's.
"As the number of our able people is unlikely to be proportionately
higher than that of other countries, it would be difficult for us
to compete with them for high value added industries and services.
So we must try and increase our proportion of able people by
drawing in able people from outside," Goh argues.
To support his argument he quoted figures from the Department of
Statistics which show that without an increase in foreign manpower
between 1994 and 1996, Singapore's growth in 1996 would have been
5.3 percent, instead of 7.5 percent.
"That means fewer jobs and less wealth would have been created for
Singaporeans," he said.
"Over reliance (on foreign talent) is not a good thing," argued Yeo
Mong Heng in a letter to the Strait Times, adding, "surely, we do
not wish to be left high and dry, if these foreigners decide to
walk out on us... It is best that the government nurtures its own
core of local talent."
Political analyst Chua Lee Hoong observes that an open economy like
Singapore imports foreign spare parts and raw materials for its
factories to make goods for export, and no one questions it. But,
when you import foreign labor to add value to your export product
it is a different matter.
"There is one important difference between foreign workers and
other foreign imports. The former are people. They walk, talk and
share the same living space as Singaporeans. That is where politics
comes in," argues Chua. "And, politics is harder to handle than
economics."
