The Big Read: Confronting Singapore’s need for foreign manpower and talent, amid its ageing and shrinking workforce

Yet the unemployment rates of Singaporean citizens and permanent residents had remained relatively stagnant over the same period, never breaking 5.2 per cent. 

“Contrary to popular belief, immigrant inflows to Singapore are not throwing citizens into mass unemployment,” he wrote.

Instances of discrimination experienced at work or during job search, including over one’s nationality, seemed to have also dipped, according to the Ministry of Manpower’s Fair Employment Practices report in July 2023.

Specifically for discrimination based on nationality, the proportion of resident job applicants reporting such an experience declined from 14.2 per cent in 2018 to 6.2 per cent in 2021 and 4.0 per cent in 2022.

IMPORTANCE OF PERCEPTION

Despite the government’s continuing efforts to promote and enhance the “Singaporean core” in the workforce — and even amid acceptance by many Singaporeans that the country needs foreign talent — why do tensions persist over this issue?

When it comes to emotive issues, what people perceive can easily be taken for granted as facts, experts told TODAY.

“So the perception that foreigners are preventing Singaporeans from being promoted or taking away their jobs, those very quickly become regarded as ‘facts’,” said Dr Tan from SMU.

“So even as the government has been trying its best to address concerns, it may not be seen as sufficient.”

More importantly, experts pointed out that job competition is but one part of the tensions.

Assoc Prof Theseira said that given the fact that Singapore is selective of the foreign talents it brings in, by default these workers will be earning higher than the average Singaporean.

Seeing foreigners able to better afford coveted things like cars and private homes, for example, would thus fuel a perception of inequality, he said.

For this reason, the government has also rolled out measures outside of the labour market to address these concerns. These include beefing up public infrastructure capacity, as well as dampening a hot private housing market, and disincentivising foreign investment in the latter.

The boosting of public infrastructure is also necessary because Singapore faces a similar conundrum with foreign manpower at the other end of the scale, given that a large number of blue-collar migrant workers are needed to do the jobs that Singaporeans shun. 

Sociologist Tan Ern Ser from NUS said: “Competition can produce tension and conflict; hence, the need to ensure that there is enough of the things that matter to Singaporeans at the workplace, schools, and neighbourhoods.

“And from this starting point, to facilitate collaboration and mutual understanding between Singaporeans and the foreigners in our midst.”

Beyond just top-down policies, it is important for locals and foreigners themselves to form bridges between one another, said Dr Leong Chan-Hoong, a Senior Fellow for Social Cohesion Research at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

“The shared narrative, the shared experiences (between locals and non-locals) is less articulated in public,” he said, adding that this narrative is important as we continue developing as a global city-state.

“We need to move beyond ‘how much you get, how much I get’. It’s about how much we are doing this together? And I think this is the narrative that is missing.”

A possible way to do this is to encourage ground-up groups that aim to address problems that are “universal” or that both locals and non-locals can empathise with, such as tackling parenting challenges or even second-hand smoke.

This would also help to strengthen the idea that the non-locals are here to contribute and not just here to take up jobs.

An MCCY spokesperson said: “For integration to be effective and sustained, it needs a whole-of-society effort — foreigners to actively contribute to the local community and adapt to local culture and norms, and Singaporeans to also be inclusive, patient, and willing to learn from foreigners.”

On top of implementing measures that sought to allay Singaporeans’ concerns, the government has also repeatedly stressed to the public the importance of foreign manpower to Singapore, though how it delivers the message seems to have changed slightly over time, some observers noted.