Construction workers from Bangladesh, hotel staff from the Philippines, waitresses from China, shipyard welders from Myanmar, technology professionals from India — Singapore has them all.
For years the rich but worker-starved city-state, built by mainly Chinese immigrants, had rolled out the welcome mat for foreigners, whose numbers rose drastically during the economic boom from 2004 to 2007.
However, with one in three of the 5 million people living on the tiny island now a foreigner and citizens complaining about competition for jobs, housing and medical care, the government is taking a fresh look at its open-door policy. With the grumbling getting louder and general elections expected to be called before they are due in 2012, the government has unveiled measures to reduce reliance on foreigners and assure citizens they remain the priority.
“There are social and physical limits to how many more we can absorb,” Singaporean Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam told parliament last month.
He said the government will make it costlier for companies to hire foreigners by raising the levies they must pay for every non-Singaporean or non-resident they hire.
The government also earmarked S$5.5 billion (US$3.9 billion) over the next five years to upgrade Singaporean workers’ skills to boost their productivity, make them more competitive and raise incomes.
It imposed measures to cool down rising home prices, also blamed on foreigners buying into the property market, and pledged it will further tighten the process of accepting permanent residents and new citizens.
Of Singapore’s population of nearly 5 million last year, 533,200 were permanent residents and 1.25 million were foreigners on employment passes, along with their families, official statistics show.
“I think it is shaping up to be one of the hottest issues in Singapore today,” political commentator Seah Chiang Nee said.
Economist Song Seng Wun of CIMB-GK Research said that apart from helping local companies rise up the value chain, the new measures will also address potential election issues.
Singapore’s last elections, held in 2006, saw the People’s Action Party returned to power for six years, continuing its uninterrupted rule over the island since 1959.
“The government has to be seen doing something in areas that are potential flashpoints,” Song said.
Disenchantment over foreign workers gained momentum during a severe economic slump that began in the third quarter of 2008, when trade-reliant Singapore became the first Asian economy to slip into recession.
Drastic job and salary cuts were implemented, affecting many white-collar workers.
In coffee shops, Internet forums, letters to newspapers and sessions with members of parliament, citizens became more vocal about the rapidly growing numbers of foreigners in their ranks.
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