Foreign Talent is beneficial to Singaporeans

[Leongsam]

http://socyberty.com/government/foreign-talent-and-singapore/

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Foreign Talent and Singapore

by doom cruzer in Government, October 2, 2008 Is the introduction of foreign talent in Singapore beneficial to Singaporeans?

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Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong mentioned two years ago that “if we want our economy to grow, if we want to be strong internationally, then we need a growing population.” In other words, the population of Singapore needs to be large enough to ensure that economy can grow. However, statistics have shown that last year, the number of citizen births rose by a mere 0.9%, or an average of 28,000 births per year. So, the other option will be to introduce foreign talents into Singapore. The foreign talent policy has since caused much discussion among Singapore citizens. I certainly agree that foreign talents are beneficial to Singaporeans. Foreign talents refer to those who have achievements or skilled in bio-medicine research, technology and other related jobs as well as those who come to our tertiary institutions to impart their knowledge to our students. Students with great potential migrating to Singapore to study can also be considered as “foreign talents”. Those who have migrated to Singapore working as clerks, store assistants, secretaries, etc. are not considered foreign talents. They are considered as “foreign workers”.




Foreign talents are definitely helpful to Singaporeans. Foreign talents add value to the Singapore’s workforce and can even exchange valuable knowledge and experiences they have obtained in their hometown or other places with our local expertise. This co-operation with our local workforce can definitely help to improve the efficiency of the workforce and thus help to improve Singapore’s economic. The foreign talent can also transports the technique they use in their homeland and adapt it in Singapore, making Singapore more competitive compared to other countries. Also, as these foreign talents normally migrate to Singapore from places where it is poorer, the living conditions are not that good and they could not find a suitable job, they often tend to settle for lower pay unlike locals. This can help to slow down the demand for higher wages and through this, it helps to keep the economic competitive.


<script type="text/javascript"> var playerSeed = new PlayerSeed('SmartPlayer'); playerSeed.sid = 332; playerSeed.width = '300'; playerSeed.height = '250'; playerSeed.videoControlDisplayColor = '#E47F13'; playerSeed.overlay= true; playerSeed.autoStart= false; playerSeed.cbCustomID = '5min-companion-ad'; playerSeed.hasCompanion=true; //playerSeed.Load(); </script> Besides economic increase, foreign talents also bring with them their culture when they migrate to Singapore. As Singapore is a country with many cultures and a crossroad of the east and the west, these new cultures brought here by the foreigners will definitely merge into the society. With cultures from around the world, Singapore can really be considered as a global city as there are people of different origins living side by side of each other.


Despite all these benefits, many are still not convinced that foreign talent will benefit the locals and aid in Singapore’s economy. Singaporeans feels threatened by these foreign talents as they tend to be at a disadvantage when compared to those foreign talents. For example, Singaporeans have other duties besides that of work, including those locals with great talents. Thus, they are unable to work overtime whereas foreign talents are willing to. This disadvantage, as claimed by many locals, can cause them difficulties when looking for a job. Even students mention that they have difficulties in obtaining scholarships as those foreign talents often do very well. This is completely unjustified; as long as there is fair competition and no rampant undercutting of wages resulting in overall decline in welfare, there is no reason to feel threatened by foreigners. Foreign talents may indeed be more hardworking and less demanding with good attitude, locals also have their own advantages: They are able to pick up things faster than foreigners. As such, locals’ fear of foreign talents taking away their jobs are unjustified.


In conclusion, the introduction of foreign talents brings more benefits than harm to Singaporeans and Singapore’s economy. Although foreign talents do indeed have certain advantages, it does not mean that they have no disadvantages. Thus, locals do not have to fear about foreign talents taking away their chances of employment or scholarships. Therefore, the introduction of foreign talent in Singapore is beneficial to Singaporeans.

 

[Leongsam]

http://aaron-ng.info/blog/attract-foreign-talents-or-retain-local-talents.html


Attract foreign talents or retain local talents?

MM Lee has a very upbeat assessment regarding the foreign talent policy. He feels that even if just 30 percent to 40 percent of foreign talents who come into Singapore eventually stay, Singapore would benefit tremendously.


Well, that is a fair statement to make except that I don’t exactly have the necessary statistics to agree with him. Do we actually have such a high rate of foreign talents who choose to make Singapore their home, or do most of the foreign talents take Singapore as a nice, sheltered parking lot?
Besides, is it easier to convince a foreign talent to make Singapore their home, or is it easier to convince local talents not to make somewhere else their home? The CIA World Factbook stated Singapore’s net migration rate in 2002 to be an estimated 26.11 migrants per 1,000 population. It’s a sobering figure.


Of those, this figure appears to be extraordinarily high and I have no idea how it’s computed but there is no doubt that a good deal of Singaporeans are giving up their pink ICs and red passports. I have to say that I do not know the exact demographics of Singaporeans who migrated but I do think they are probably highly-educated, talented folks who are either attracted to better opportunities elsewhere or are just too sick and tired of life in Singapore. If you are not highly-educated nor talented enough, you are probably too busy with just making ends meet, let alone consider migration.


It’s perhaps much more effective to stem the emigration rate compared to increasing immigration rate and hoping immigrants will stay. Those who choose to emigrate probably lived in Singapore for a large part of their life. They would have made many friends here and they probably have many cherished memories of times in Singapore too. Would it be easier to persuade these people to stay compared to foreigners who are new to Singapore shores? The foreign talents probably feel more of an emotional attachment to their own hometown than to Singapore.


One might argue that Singapore is a state made up of immigrants and that if my logic above holds, there should be no Singapore today. That may be true, but the immigrants of yesteryear are usually poor and less educated than immigrants of today. The modern Singaporean immigrant is highly educated, probably well-to-do and certainly very mobile. It will take much more to convince these people to stay compared to the immigrants of the past.


However, encouraging Singaporeans not to emigrate is not exactly easy either. While emotional ties might be a useful leveraging tool, there’s only so much that can be leveraged without corresponding tangible actions addressing the reasons why these Singaporeans choose to migrate. Sometimes, it might not be in the interest of the government to address these issues. Perhaps the key consideration for the government really isn’t a question of whether it is more effective to attract foreign talent or retain local talent but rather, which option doesn’t disrupt the status quo.

 

[jw5]

The assumption is that they are really "talents".
Problem is that some of them are no-gooders even in their own country and hoping to scam their way through life in SG.
He wouldn't know it because he, his family, friends and colleagues don't mix with such people.

 

[makapaaa]

Talent takes many forms, including but not limited to lying (on resumes), cheating (lao tikos), stealing (panties), dodging (NS), poisoning (steamboats), selling (kar chng), subletting (resale PHoles), insulting (citizens in their own cuntry), infesting (with kakis), etc. FTrash are indeed better than Sporns in all these areas.

 

[zinuet]

i think we should let FTs into our armed forces. we serve NS for f**k? just get them in and our armed forces can grow two or three folds...