- Joined
- Jul 24, 2008
- Messages
- 33,627
- Points
- 0
[h=2]Are Singaporeans xenophobic?[/h]
July 6th, 2012 |
Author: Contributions
Phobia is an intense fear of something that is of little or no actual danger to you. So, in that sense, xenophobia is the fear of foreigners when they are of little or no danger to you. So, are Singaporeans xenophobic? To answer that question, we must examine if there is any threat to Singaporeans from foreigners.
The Government has often reiterated that the foreigners are not a threat to Singaporeans. They’ve emphasised that the foreigners are here to take up jobs for which there is no expertise locally, and to do the jobs that Singaporeans don’t want to do anyway.
But is this really true?
Bloomberg reported recently that “of the 122, 600 jobs created in Singapore last year, about 70 percent, or 84, 800 positions, went to foreigners.” [LINK] Is there really a dearth of Singaporeans to fill the majority of these jobs created?
The unemployment rate in Singapore is currently at 2.1 percent, which is very good; but how many of those employed are holding down jobs that they are ‘forced’ to?
I was at McDonald’s recently and an older Malay women wanted to clear my table after I had finished eating. As she had a very pleasant disposition, I struck up a conversation with her, and asked her why she was working at that restaurant clearing trays.
She said that she was retrenched from a private company where she had worked for about 30 years recently, because the company found a foreigner who could do the job she had been doing for the last 30 years, for a fraction of the sum she was earning. She had worked as a clerk and tried to find similar employment elsewhere, but was not successful because of her age.
When she went to the Community Development Council for help, they could only place her at McDonald’s. She is now a daily-rated employee in that restaurant earning about $5.50 per hour. She currently earns more than one-third less than what she did in her previous employment and she is counted as ‘employed’ according to government statistics, by the way.
Anecdotal evidences such as this suggest that those that feel that there is a real danger to their livelihood by the foreigners is real; and if that is so, it is understandable if they feel a certain resentment towards foreigners for unfairly disadvantaging them.
And Singaporeans may feel unfairly disadvantaged not only at places of work but in areas like scholarships and national service (NS) as well.
The Defence Minister’s recent disclosure that “over the last five years, about a third of male foreigners who became PRs under the sponsorship of their parents renounced their PR status prior to serving NS”; and the fact that $36 million are awarded each year to overseas students, does very little to calm the fears of Singaporeans.
But the Government keeps saying that we must continue to accept foreigners or we’ll die; just ‘accept the discomfort‘. The Government tries to assuage any possible political fallout by having too many foreigners in the country who seem to compete unfairly with Singaporeans, by ‘prioritising’ Singaporeans by making the foreigners pay more for goods like education and healthcare.
While it’s good that there is an attempt to differentiate Singaporeans from foreigners, is pricing the only mechanism the Government can think of to prioritise Singaporeans over foreigners? The foreigners who live among us too must not be unfairly discriminated.
It’s not their fault that they are here. It is human nature to go where you think you can make a better future for your loved ones and yourself. They are only acting in their best interest.
That is why I think xenophobia is wrong. It shifts the focus of frustration and anger from where it ought to be directed at, to an easier, more vulnerable target – the foreigners. And the higher price foreigners will now have to pay when compared with Singaporeans, only serve to accentuate that the problem lies with the foreigners.
In my opinion, Singaporeans are one of the most tolerant people in the world. Perhaps no other country in the world with such high percentage of foreigners, will be able to share such a tiny space (637.5 square kilometres), without having a major xenophobic incident.
But if a recent poll that 80 percent agreed that Singaporeans are becoming more xenophobic is true, then there are reasons to be concerned. I can only hope that Singaporeans will vent their frustrations on the pro-immigration policies of the People’s Action Party Government, and not on the foreigners who live in our midst.
Online/Offline: Digital Citizens on Xenophobia (Part 1/Segment 1):
.
Online/Offline: Digital Citizens on Xenophobia (Part 2/Segment 1):
.
Ravi Philemon
* Ravi blogs at http://www.raviphilemon.net.
.
Phobia is an intense fear of something that is of little or no actual danger to you. So, in that sense, xenophobia is the fear of foreigners when they are of little or no danger to you. So, are Singaporeans xenophobic? To answer that question, we must examine if there is any threat to Singaporeans from foreigners.
The Government has often reiterated that the foreigners are not a threat to Singaporeans. They’ve emphasised that the foreigners are here to take up jobs for which there is no expertise locally, and to do the jobs that Singaporeans don’t want to do anyway.
But is this really true?
Bloomberg reported recently that “of the 122, 600 jobs created in Singapore last year, about 70 percent, or 84, 800 positions, went to foreigners.” [LINK] Is there really a dearth of Singaporeans to fill the majority of these jobs created?
The unemployment rate in Singapore is currently at 2.1 percent, which is very good; but how many of those employed are holding down jobs that they are ‘forced’ to?
I was at McDonald’s recently and an older Malay women wanted to clear my table after I had finished eating. As she had a very pleasant disposition, I struck up a conversation with her, and asked her why she was working at that restaurant clearing trays.
She said that she was retrenched from a private company where she had worked for about 30 years recently, because the company found a foreigner who could do the job she had been doing for the last 30 years, for a fraction of the sum she was earning. She had worked as a clerk and tried to find similar employment elsewhere, but was not successful because of her age.
When she went to the Community Development Council for help, they could only place her at McDonald’s. She is now a daily-rated employee in that restaurant earning about $5.50 per hour. She currently earns more than one-third less than what she did in her previous employment and she is counted as ‘employed’ according to government statistics, by the way.
Anecdotal evidences such as this suggest that those that feel that there is a real danger to their livelihood by the foreigners is real; and if that is so, it is understandable if they feel a certain resentment towards foreigners for unfairly disadvantaging them.
And Singaporeans may feel unfairly disadvantaged not only at places of work but in areas like scholarships and national service (NS) as well.
The Defence Minister’s recent disclosure that “over the last five years, about a third of male foreigners who became PRs under the sponsorship of their parents renounced their PR status prior to serving NS”; and the fact that $36 million are awarded each year to overseas students, does very little to calm the fears of Singaporeans.
But the Government keeps saying that we must continue to accept foreigners or we’ll die; just ‘accept the discomfort‘. The Government tries to assuage any possible political fallout by having too many foreigners in the country who seem to compete unfairly with Singaporeans, by ‘prioritising’ Singaporeans by making the foreigners pay more for goods like education and healthcare.
While it’s good that there is an attempt to differentiate Singaporeans from foreigners, is pricing the only mechanism the Government can think of to prioritise Singaporeans over foreigners? The foreigners who live among us too must not be unfairly discriminated.
It’s not their fault that they are here. It is human nature to go where you think you can make a better future for your loved ones and yourself. They are only acting in their best interest.
That is why I think xenophobia is wrong. It shifts the focus of frustration and anger from where it ought to be directed at, to an easier, more vulnerable target – the foreigners. And the higher price foreigners will now have to pay when compared with Singaporeans, only serve to accentuate that the problem lies with the foreigners.
In my opinion, Singaporeans are one of the most tolerant people in the world. Perhaps no other country in the world with such high percentage of foreigners, will be able to share such a tiny space (637.5 square kilometres), without having a major xenophobic incident.
But if a recent poll that 80 percent agreed that Singaporeans are becoming more xenophobic is true, then there are reasons to be concerned. I can only hope that Singaporeans will vent their frustrations on the pro-immigration policies of the People’s Action Party Government, and not on the foreigners who live in our midst.
Online/Offline: Digital Citizens on Xenophobia (Part 1/Segment 1):
.
Online/Offline: Digital Citizens on Xenophobia (Part 2/Segment 1):
.
Ravi Philemon
* Ravi blogs at http://www.raviphilemon.net.
.
