A brave article by our usually timid media:
For new expats, integration may not really work
By P N Balji, TODAY's Editorial Director | Posted: 12 March 2007
0759 hrs
Let's not kid ourselves. Most expatriates who come to work and live
here don't do so because they want to make this place their home.
Their primary reason is economic. That is, Singapore is a good
place to make money. Period.
Our reason for attracting them here is also economic. Without the
entry of outsiders, we may as well kiss goodbye to the good times.
That was Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng's clear message to
Singaporeans last week.
He gave a list of figures. At the heart of it all is this
statistical reality: To keep the economy humming at 6 per cent a
year, we need 34,600 foreigners every year to top up the labour
market.
Argument clinched, so shall we all accept it and move on?
But in Parliament two Fridays ago, we saw another side to this
expat debate with MP Indranee Rajah talking about a disconnect
developing between Indian Singaporeans and expatriate Indians and
social integration being thrown in by MP Inderjit Singh as the
solution.
I beg to differ, Mr Singh.
The new expatriates are very different from those who ran away from
abject poverty and harsh political regimes, risking their lives in
rickety boats and sometimes as stowaways in passenger ships. Many
of our parents and grandparents left their motherland with a
one-way ticket.
Yes, they came here to make money but in the process they saw
themselves as contributing to society by entering politics,
starting unions and registering clan associations. Integration into
Singapore came naturally.
But the new expatriates are very different. They are very
well-educated, well-informed and well-heeled, very confident that
if it is not Singapore, then there are other modern societies which
will welcome them with open arms and red carpets.
Take the new flavour in the immigration game, the Indians. I have
yet to meet one who is willing to sink his or her roots in
Singapore.
A month ago, I met one Indian expatriate in her mid-30s, who has
lived here for eight years and teaches in an international
school.
I asked her if she had become a Permanent Resident (PR) or taken up
Singapore citizenship. The answer came without hesitation:
No.
Why not, I asked.
Because I am an Indian, she said with a sense of pride, the glow
unmistakable on her face.
That same sense of pride was palpable during my two recent trips to
India, one to New Delhi last year and the other to Chennai and
Kerala just two weeks ago. Something I had not seen during my
previous visits.
The young people I met in all three places were flush with money,
taking me to plush restaurants and offering to pay for my drinks,
all the while displaying the India Is Shining slogan proudly on
their sleeves.
One even insisted on taking me on a ride on the Delhi Metro to
display the cleanliness and the efficiency of the system.
Isn't it as good as your MRT, she asked.
When I asked what was the reason for the transformation, she
answered, her nose high up in the air: Indian pride!
In Chennai, I was taken to what was once a remote place, one and a
half hours away by car, called Wallajabad. The route was filled
with a construction buzz I have not seen before, with my guide
proudly pointing out the names of multi-national corporations
muscling in to establish their presence.
He took me to a 40-acre area being developed into a township, J S
Nagar, to cater for the industries coming up in the vicinity. What
impressed me was the attention to planning details (park for the
residents, lake, drinking water, temple, wedding hall) and the
no-nonsense attitude of the brains behind the development, Mr RGK
Subramaniam (he was on the phone scolding an employee for
misspelling a word in the contract).
Even the mother of all summits, the Davos economic summit, for the
first time pushed the US to the back seat, reserving the front row
for India and China.
And what was the slogan for India as it prepared for cricket's
World Cup?
Without pride, there is nothing.
A survey by The Week magazine in Kerala showed up a similar trend.
To the question of whether India was shining, the answer was a
resounding 68.8 per cent "yes".
With this changing demographic profile, a new world that is hungry
for the same small pool of talent and the reality that they are
being attracted and coming here as economic digits, is integration
the route to take?
It is only one way, with successes like expatriate-turned-citizen
Gautam Banerjee, who went one step further and was appointed
Nominated MP, and expatriate-turned-PR Edison Liu of A*Star talking
about their commitment to Singapore.
The other answer is to face reality and admit that many of the new
expatriates will come here, make money and disappear, either to a
new destination in a global world where their skills are in greater
demand or back to their home countries which are throwing up
opportunities galore.
It is a revolving-door nation that we are looking at. But with one
important caveat: That we have to keep building and growing a core
of people who believe in the soul of this nation. And be prepared
to die for it.
A revolving-door nation with a strong and unshakeable core.
Achievable?
Honestly, we have no choice. - TODAY
