The PAP Government has acknowledged that there is a need to slow
down the rate of import of foreigners and concentrate on boosting
productivity, but deep flaws remain in its labour and immigration
policies.
Budget 2011 does not address these deep flaws. It merely
sugarcoats them by raising the foreign worker levy, which makes it
more expensive for companies to hire foreign workers. Companies
will merely pass the increased costs to consumers. The problems
will not be solved. In fact, they will only become worse.
The PAP’s immigration, foreign worker, and foreign talent
policies are three distinct but related policies. Insufficient
attention has been paid to the distinction between these policies.
The purpose of this article is to make clear this distinction and
point out where each policy gone wrong.
The PAP Government wants to attract foreigners to take up
residence in Singapore and eventually become citizens. Their
rationale is that the birth rate of the local population is too far
below the replacement level, and consequently there is a need to
constantly encourage foreigners to become new citizens.
However, the PAP has pushed the envelope too far on this policy.
In order to generate a constant supply of new citizens, they have
opened the floodgates and allowed foreigners in too fast.
The result has been rapid population expansion and a resultant
strain on the social fabric. Singaporeans feel disenfranchised,
even disturbed at what is happening around them. Will the
foreigners and the new citizens be willing to embrace local customs
and social norms?
Rapid population expansion artificially boosts GDP and allows
public servants and ministers to justify astronomical salaries.
But this model of economic growth is unsustainable because
it is built not on the firm rock of increased productivity and
innovation, but on the shifting sands of rapid population growth,
which cannot continue indefinitely.
Singapore is a nation of immigrants, as we know from history.
But we are no longer the sleepy fishing village of the early 19th
century. The Government cannot justify exploding the population
with foreigners on the basis that this was done in the early dawn
of our nation’s history. We are a modern city with vastly different
needs and social circumstances. Our economy has matured. The
Government’s policy of rapid population expansion is flawed and can
only end in tears if it is not reversed soon and fast enough.
The PAP claims that it wants to attract skilled labour to
Singapore to complement the local workforce. In fact, this is done
in conjunction with the immigration policy described above, because
there is the hope that some of the skilled labour would eventually
decide to make Singapore their permanent home.
The problem is that the PAP has been indiscriminate in their
import of foreign talents. Although the PAP has claimed that
skilled foreigners bring in expertise and experience that
Singaporeans lack, in reality the situation is different.
Today, we see foreigners taking up administrative jobs, junior
to middle management jobs in the private sector, both blue and
white collar jobs across almost every industry, jobs in accounting,
finance, engineering, and so on.
This is despite the fact that there are more than enough
Singaporeans who have the same skills and can take up the same
jobs. Why then is there is a need to import so many foreign talents
to fill up these places which can be easily filled by locals?
The Government claims that there is a shortage of labour and
that without foreign talents, the situation would be even worse.
But how does this reconcile with the stories we hear of PMETs going
out of work and facing difficulty securing employment once they are
past the age of 40?
In reality, the rapid influx of foreign talents benefits
businesses disproportionately. All too often, we hear of companies
firing lower to middle management personnel and then immediately
re-hiring batches of fresh foreign recruits who can be paid a lower
salary. This happened, for example, in the last recession.
The PAP’s foreign talent policy keeps wages low and makes it
harder for even educated Singaporeans to cope with the rising cost
of living. GLCs and MNCs reap the most benefit from this policy, at
the expense of heartland citizens who face an uncertain future.
The PAP’s foreign worker policy is about allowing companies to
import cheap, low-skilled workers from abroad to work in the
construction sector and certain service sectors that require mostly
menial labour.
However, the PAP’s “growth at all cost” model of economic
management has resulted in an extremely high demand for cheap
foreign labour.
The PAP wants to do everything at once — build casinos, carry
out massive infrastructure re-development, etc. Much of the
infrastructure re-development needs in fact stem from the PAP’s
immigration policies.
As such, there is a huge demand for low-skilled workers to fund
these Government projects.
The problem is that the Government has failed to make adequate
arrangements to house these foreign workers and ensure that their
rights are protected while they work in Singapore.
Very often, we hear of foreign workers living in poor housing
conditions or being exploited by employers.
Migrant rights in fact has become a hot topic for Singapore’s
NGOs like Maruah, TWC2 and H.O.M.E. which have been lobbying the
Government to uphold the rights of migrants to fair compensation,
proper living conditions, and protection from abuse.
The PAP Government’s lack of attention to the human rights of
foreign workers have attracted the attention of international
observers. The Ministry of Manpower has not done enough to address
this pressing issue and has often turned a blind eye to blatant
human rights abuses, as detailed in the blog Yawning
Bread.
There is a need to hold the PAP Government accountable for its
poor governance and its flawed immigration, foreign talent and
foreign worker policies.
This process of extracting accountability and transparency from
the Government must be undertaken by both opposition parties as
well as NGOs and civil society.
Only through a united effort on all fronts can this battle be
won.
