Recently, there has been a lot of resentment of even hate towards the expats in Singapore.
This presumably stemmed from Singaporeans feeling threatened by these expats, thinking that the expats have “stolen” their jobs from them.
Nobody knows about what the expats in Singapore are thinking until a recent article published by Financial Times. The article titled “Fed-up expats begin drifting away from Singapore”, sheds some light of how expats really feel about staying in Singapore.
In case you lazy or too busy to read the sibei long article, here’s a quick summary of what the expats are “fed-up” about living in Singapore:
- many expats kena locked out of Singapore when Singapore imposed strict travel curbs as the Covid-19 variants started emerging
- expats pek cek that they must wait very long until it’s their turn to be vaccinated
- expats pek cek that Singapore prioritise Singapore citizens over foreigners
- expats pek cek that Singapore tightened the flow of foreign workers and make it very difficult for them to continue to work in Singapore
As a result, a lot of expats say that they rather go work in other countries like Hong Kong than to work in Singapore.
After reading this, is it you got a bit also stunned like vegetable? Because so far, we have only heard complaints from Singaporeans. Who would have imagined that actually these expats also very good at complaining and they 不稀罕 (don’t give a shit) about staying in Singapore leh?!
Aiya, actually this kind of thing is like that one hor. I see you good, you see me good. We think Gahmen like biased towards the foreign expats, the expats think our Gahmen unfriendly to them.
Since we don’t like them and they also don’t like us, is it Singapore can kick out all these foreign expats leh?
The answer is unfortunately no.
As much as Singaporeans don’t like having expats in Singapore because we think they snatch our rice bowls, but we cannot forget that Singapore is a tiny little country with no resources, no nothing and we depend highly on trades to survive.
We need these rich foreigners to come to Singapore, to set up their companies here then bring in some handsome foreigners to work here for a while, because this is how they created jobs for Singaporeans too.
Without these free trade agreements which Singapore have with other countries, no body will come to Singapore to invest and set up companies here. Then Singaporeans will have no jobs and we can really go and 喝西北風/ drink the northwest wind – which means to go hungry lah.
Remember some time back Dyson say they going to set up their manufacturing hub in Singapore?
Setting up a hub in Singapore means that they will need to hire, say maybe 1,000 Singaporeans. Means there will be 1,000 job opportunities for Singaporeans! They cannot suka-suka say they want to bring in their own people from their own kampong here because Singapore don’t allow that. If people tell you otherwise, please know that one is fake news!!!
But can you imagine if Singapore really so petty and childish until we shut off ourselves from foreign investors just because we don’t like having foreign expats to work here, it will mean that Dyson won’t even consider setting up their shop here and there will be ZERO job opportunities for Singaporeans leh.
You rather have SOME foreigners and MORE job opportunities for Singaporeans, or ZERO foreigners and VERY FEW job opportunities for Singaporeans leh?
NTUC deputy secretary-general Chee Hong Tat say liao, NTUC will continue to pressure the Gahmen and the towkays to make sure they ensure that there is fairness for Singaporeans when it comes to hiring and career progression.
And they will also look closely at how they can strengthen support for Singaporeans in the workforce.
While it is impossible that we have zero foreign expats working here if we want to create more jobs for Singaporeans, Singaporeans also need to be 自动 (spontaneous) a bit lah. Go for courses, go and upskill or reskill ourselves so that we can fit into these available job roles before they kena taken up by foreigners.
Have more 上进心, be self-motivated, be like Yumi.
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