Too many foreigners in Singapore? (Poll)
 

PM Lee said in his 2010 New Year Message that the government "will manage and moderate the inflow of foreign workers, so that Singaporeans are not overwhelmed by the sheer numbers".

Even as our birth rate continues to fall, our population has instead increased from 3 million in 1990 to 4 million in 2000 and to almost 5 million in 2010. Source: SingStat.

This is because of more foreigners coming to our shores. While the citizen population grows at a slow 1.1% (probably due to new citizens), the total population is growing at 3.3%, implying that foreigners are forming the bulk of the increase. Alarmingly (to me), the PR population is growing at a 11.5% rate. Data source: SingStat.

Earlier this year, we estimated that 44 percent of our workforce are foreigners (including PRs).

Though not reported widely in the mainstream media, many citizens are complaining about the negative impact of having too many foreigners in our midst. See this comment for an example. For more opinions, just browse through The Online Citizen and Temasek Review.

Do you think there are too many foreigners in Singapore? Please vote in the poll above.

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boon or bane?
 

PAP is in a sure-lose situation :

there's low birth-rate, without foreigners our economy stagnates and in a decade or so become just like Japan's stagflation.

But letting foreigners in leads to Singaporeans (especially the lower income ones) complaining and very likely voting against them in the upcoming election.

However if PAP changes policy and stops importing foreign talents, our economy tanks and government is again at fault.

imagine if you were an opposition member and got voted in, what do you think you can do to solve this predicament?

What makes you think our economy will tank without new foreign talents? Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Switzerland and many other countries do not "tank" even though they don't massively import foreigners.

During the financial meltdown, our economy tanked anyway with all the foreigners. (I know someone is going to say it would have been worse without the foreigners.)

Importing cheap foreigners is an extremely easy way to boost GDP. Any country in the world can do it, but there is a heavy price to pay. We are seeing the effects now.

We are sons and daughters of Singapore. How do you feel when your parents replace you with adopted children who are cheaper and faster, but not necessarily better? You run away from home? Or do you try to be cheaper? Don't forget foreigners can retire back to their cheap countries, whereas for us, we can't simply jump ship and migrate. We can only suffer the ill effects of the "booming economy" - high prices, expensive housing, etc.

What do you do?

coz those countries are reproducing above 2.1 and have natural resources. we don't.

dang, it's our fault again. wait, aren't we paying top dollars to our best & brightest ministers? given singapore's constraints, can't they think of a better solution other than importing cheap labour? as someone said above, importing cheap labour is such an easy solution. we don't need to pay millions to get this lousy solution.

equal opportunities
 

If we have standardized the pay/salary based on qualification and experience for all nationalities in all levels of industries including pr and citizen. Then we will not have the problems currently encountered by the citizens. (e.g. no more sweeper works for S$600/mth on 12/7, engineer works for S&1800 on 12/7. regional IT manager works for S$ 2800 on 60 to 70hrs/week, and etcs)

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If we want MNC we need to embrace MNs too ...
 

I am a PR working for a MNC. I came to Singapore when my company decided to start a large scale operations here.

No one complains about MNCs but only about Foreigners. I guess Singapore(ans) needs to rethink its(their) priorities; does it want to be a cosmopolitan attracting investment, capital and talent or a kampong living to itself.

If Singapore doesnt want MNCs there are a number of other places in Asia where they could setup shops and move their personnel (Hong Kong, Sydney, Shanghai ... ).

You got a point there in your last sentence. Maybe Singapore should really slow down letting MNCs into its land, so as to make more space for canals.

And maybe so for MNs too. To make space in MRTs during peak hours.

MNCs think Singaporeans are unqualified. That's why you see majority of their employees are foreigners- Indians, Caucasians, Filipinos, Mainland Chinese, malaysians. Singaporeans are just the minority, in some cases less than 10% of the staff! Whoever said our education system is top notched is smoking stuff.

Or we can go with what some countries adopted- a policy to hire locals first. That is, the onus is on the MNC to prove that no local can meet the requirements of a job opening, they can proceed to hire a foreigner. Singapore govt can implement such policies really well- after passing into law, the regulators will quickly find some bad apples, fine them heavily, and publicize it widely.

But the only problem is that our govt is unwilling to adopt such a policy for one reason or another.

The govt. has these policies in place. But they club citizen & PR into the same quota.

yes agreed too many foreigners...I m a PR who came here for about 4.5 years..yes we offer lower "price" for obtaining the job here...then boss like us because we are obedience..like dog...yes..our inglish is vehri vehri poor...and then yet we still force to talk cock singsong while entertaining all the clients..which they are those ppl who wish to have the work "singaporean's work" and yet we are the guys who in those sector where most of the ppl don't wish to join or only those who did not have qualification to join...

PS: Pls take note for all foreigner, don't offer too low la..

The only quota is for S Pass employees, none other.

Singapore is way past kampong era, and we did well without many foreigners. Contrary to what you idiots believe, MNCs come here not for the ease of hiring you idiots, Singapore has its own selling points. If you read up more, there are many ways to attract foreign investments. The reason why we need to increase our productivity now is because we have too many sub-standard employees (PRs and foreigners) like yourself, so as to make up your deficiency. I am sure we can survive without any of you ignorant retards.

haha sounds like someone is really insecure about himself. i'd suggest you get off ur computer and go read a book or something. whether you like it or not, singapore needs an open-door policy to chug along. if your gov one day decides to shut its doors to us 'retards', it'll be total chaos for Singapore and the SGX will stand to show the bloodbath.

who are you to tell us that we need you? why don't you ask your own government to open its door wide and hire us with high salaries? oops, i forgot your own country may not be doing well, with bloodbath already everywhere.

Are you stupid or what? Chaos in Singapore without you sub-retards? You are even more ignorant than I thought. Nobody is saying Singapore should shut its door ENTIRELY, only from retards like your kind. Do youself a big favour and make post some intellectual views or dont post at all, dont disgrace your monkey face.

Only 16 retards out of 175, we still have hope!

Hi,

Worked with various PR/'S' Pass/EP colleages.

In gist, most are 'ok' type with dreams/hope to cherish their family. They either send loads of $$$ home or start to bring their love ones to stay in SG.

They are SOME, which I love to send them off the first boat/ferry out of SG. These are the 'vomit blood' types. 'Smoke' their through and through. I think we are too nice to 'accomodate' these bad minorities.

But without their love ones in SG, the 'FT' push up the bars by 'spoiling' the market. Think in terms of putting in longer hours in office. More 'face-time' they clocked. Also, weekends they are on standby, clear emails, readily respond to calls from their bosses [Not necessarily fellow colleagues. Same par/rank need not bother calling them.]. I am in favor of having more FT to take a tougher position that they join us as 'Pink' holder. [Else, AU style of tough PR extension rules should apply.] I am glad that some of my former FT associates are putting up roots into SG. They do bring along their strong expertise and their spouse are talents in their own rights. Glad that the process of granting 'Pink' card is getting more stringent.

Thus, as Pink card holder, I will advocate to 'earn' from FT. Please feel free to charge them market rate 'or beyond' for the housing rental. ['In Rome, do as the Roman does' - When we 'Pink' holders were/are in overseas for work/study, they (citizens of the host country) also charged us the 'sky' for accomodations. At times also got to get the short end of the stick. Behave meekly even though we are the paying customer?!?]

Close to 80% of PRs have university degrees, compared to about 15% of Singaporeans. I think there is confusion over the term FT. FT should refer to PRs and Employment Pass holders, not the 200,000 on S Passes and work permits who have to leave after a few years. Generally, FT are more qualified than most Singaporeans, but the temporary workers are not. There are very few Singaporeans in top management of Singapore MNCs because most highly qualified Singaporeans prefer to work for the Govt or are bonded because of a scholarship. The lesser qualified Singaporeans usually work for FT bosses, hence the unhappiness.

You are the one who is really confuse. Most top management of Singapore MNCs are Singaporeans, and most FTs are in the middle management and middle-level executives who are no better than any average Singaporeans. Most of these FTs who come over because they cannot do well in their own country for whatever reasons. The unhappiness is not because of working for FT bosses, but rather, the huge amount of incapable FTs who claim to be talented but prove to be otherwise, costing Singaporeans their opportunities and affecting our productivity. We welcome REAL talents, and not lamers like most of them are.

Your argument does not make sense. If top management is Singaporean, why are they hiring FT over Singaporeans. It is when top management becomes FT that a lot of middle management FTs enter the organization because they don't preference Singaporeans.

On MNCs, it depends on the sector. In manufacturing (which is dying) there are locals as heads e.g., HP, IBM etc., but definitely not in the services sectors like financial services. In fact, even Singapore GLCs like SGX, DBS and OCBC have foreign CEOs. Once you bring in FT as CEOs, they are not afraid to bring in more FT to run the departments.

Unfortunately for Singaporeans, private firms can use meritocracy to decide whom they want to hire, not the person's citizenship. If you want preferential treatment as a Singaporean, work for the Government or some GLC that is still run by a Singaporean. There are plenty of them. Why choose to work in companies where you have to compete with the rest of the world.

As a "FT" from a western country who has been here for awhile, I can tell you that me and my friends come over not because we aren't doing well in our countries, but because Singapore taxes are so low and we save a lot being here. Also, the business climate in my home country isn't good anymore, so the best and the brightest are heading to Asia/Singapore because they are better than the rest and can get jobs here. The bad ones are left behind in a stagnant economy. An appreciating S$ also is a strong incentive.

I'm a mid level manager in financial services and the Singaporeans on my level aren't bad, but except for the ones that were educated and worked overseas, they have some traits that put them at a disadvantage, mainly in their verbal and sometimes in their written communication skills. Also, many of them have not worked in an extremely competitive environment e.g., London or New York and lack some of the type of motivation that you derive from a difficult and competitive working environment. Lastly, many Singaporeans want a life and have a large social network, whereas the foreigners have hardly any social network and are therefore more focussed on their work. That seems to negatively affect Singaporeans in promotions etc. However, the Singaporeans with good foreign degrees, and who have worked abroad, are toe to toe with the foreigners.

In my business, you are competing with other financial centers like HK, so you need internationally competitive people. If you put in preferential treatment for Singaporeans in an internationally competitive industry, you will be beaten by other countries. You only need to look to Malaysia to see how the "Bumiputra Policy" where, at minimum, you are forced to have to have 1/3 of your employees to be Malay, has resulted in happy bumiputeras, but internationally uncompetitive companies.

You have the herd mentality, so because top management are Singaporeans, they have to hire Singaporeans? And those companies you mentioned, MOST of the top management are Singaporeans (if you know what top management means). Its precisely what you bunch of cheapskates will do, one come in will bring in the rest, regardless of their capability (you mentioned yourself) and this is deem unhealthy to our progress. Get it? Numb-skull.

You are only in the middle management, and you claim to be the one of the best and brightest in your country? The best and brightest do not have to look for other alternatives, for they can survive in any situations, leaving when things turn bad are typical of weaklings. If you leave for reason like challenging yourself, it would be more convincing that you are in the elite group.

Coming here just to escape paying a bit more tax to your government. Your country gave you education and made you what you are today, and you bite the hand that feed you. You are a greedy ingrate. Singapore can only remain competitive if we attract real capable foreigners (I do not think you or the egg head who post before you are in this group), and hopefully they will return the grace by contributing positively to our society and if possible take up citizenship. Anyway, if you are a real talent, you wont be offended by what I said, because, my rant is about big headed fake talents who have a foul mouth.

Before you mock Malaysia and her policies, take a look at your own country, at least Malaysia is not the one with high unemployment rate and crumbling economy.

Just because the middle positions are the ones which Singaporeans target, and the ones which are being snatched away by foreigners, Singaporeans tend to define FT at the very end of the ladder, i.e., the Executives.

The question to ask is what if the same singaporeans got similar chances in HK or US. These folks who can never step out of Singapore, can always bitch about the intentions of foreigners, say save taxes. Why dont they go out for, say driving cars. The fact is those who can do, and those who cant, make it look like they are here for Singapore. Sour Grapes !

My belief is that for every singaporean, there are atleast 50 foreigners who can do the job better. But people who live in a pond cannot see this. They have a inflated opinion of their own talent. If they were really talented, they wont have to bitch on this site. Insecured Losers !

Thats exactly what you are doing, dumb ass!

So immature, you dare to claim yourself a talent when you cannot even defend your shallow belief with any valid points? Talking big is useless, I dare you to post your portfolio here. And do not even think of asking me to post first (you moron). I am not the one who claim to be a talent. You are the insecure twit who keep selling how great you are online without any solid proof. Comparing SG with US or HK is like comparing apple and orange, the policies and economic conditions are so different. So spare us the ******** that you are know much, when you are so ignorant. You just make yourself a good example of FTrash that are hiding within the bandwagon of REAL foreign talents.

By the way, you make a real good point - "If they were really talented, they wont have to bitch on this site". You are a real sub-retard.

So I hurt you morons. And no wonder, its raining abuses on me. Your right. I should not compare HK and SG bcus SG cannot survive on its own, so needs FTs. SG does not have much to boast except the fact that the leaders have created an environment where outsiders can do business and hire outsiders.

You guys are simply the case who have NO Choice. I have a PHD degree and am able to work Globally [which means US, SG, JAPAN, etc]. While you people are stuck in Singapore bcus noone outside SG will hire you. And, hence the frustration.

Your abuse does not matter since I am not someone who needs Singapore as much as you. If I am not getting a good deal, I can work elsewhere.

And ya, I think most locals are not that good. Thats why, you are being replaced. Lazy Incompetent Frustrated Stuck in the rat race u call Singapore.

I didn't claim to be the best and the brightest, nor suggest that I was in top management. You aren't very good in reading :) Thanks to the Singapore Government's Global City initiative, finance is booming here and a lot of money, jobs and the wealthy are moving to Singapore. Many foreigners in private banking are simply following their clients.

I believe that I already contribute to Singapore by paying taxes and contribute to the economy more than most. I can understand that someone from Cambodia or Indonesia might want to take up Singapore citizenship, but most westerners won't and we do contribute to the economy. The Singapore Government certainly sees this, but unfortunately, the cost of progress is social pain and bitter people like yourself. However, I think that over time, the bitterness will pass, and we will learn to live together.