1. Since the early 2000s, Singapore has opened up its talent search to bring in FT or 'foreign talents' to help restructure her economy and take advantage of sectors such as IT, digital banking, cybersecurity, wealth management and cryptocurrencies to name a few.
2. Many foreign people have come here to work, either on expatriate packages and in the last 10 years, on local packages. There are mutual bilateral country agreements such as CECA Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement to facilitate ease of movement for foreign professionals (in this case India) to come to work in Singapore in fields such as banking, nursing and others. Singapore on the other hand, will be able to export her goods into India with much reduced tariffs.
As a result, there seems to be an imbalance of foreign nationals coming here seeking employment in hospitals, banks, asset management firms, IT and others since Singapore's general standard and quality of life is far higher than many of its Asian neighbours,such as India for example.
3. Since it is relatively easy for foreign investors to incorporate companies here, they invariably will assign their fellow countrymen and women to come and assist in managing the startup and growth of these companies.
4. Additionally, many banks, advertising, trading platforms etc have also come in and brought in their expertise to help facilitate their business growth and development.
5. Many local Singaporeans feel overlooked and shunned from these opportunities. They may have been retrenched from their bricks and mortar jobs (eg HR, Sales and Operations of for example multinational electronics and semiconductor companies and feel that the opportunities have passed them by. I personally know of several friends from primary school and elsewhere who have become private hire drivers,security guards and property agents.My friends are mainly in their late 40s to mid 50s with good health, many with perhaps post secondary education.
They appear to be the most vulnerable to the wave of new migrants coming to our shores and taking over the jobs in the 'gig' economy.
One aspect many of these foreign talents have overlooked when coming to Singapore is that the culture here is very different from where they once lived for 20,30,40 or more years. As a result the archaic rules of the working world may work in India (for example) but it will not be the same in Singapore. Add to that, the behaviors of some of these expatriates are indeed very callous and there has been a spike in the arrests and incarcerations of numerous Westerners as well as those from India and China, for crimes such as molest, fighting and acting like they were the rulers in the old imperial times.
Times, they are a changing (Bob Dylan), and the foreign people need to be mindful that they are guests in their host country. Treat the hosts with dignity, even if the host may be serving you in a junior capacity. Where is the grace to your fellow human being ?
That is called basic manners, which seems to be lost (maybe never learned) with some of these (a small fraction I am sure) so called entitled professionals. Shame.
When unsure of local norms and customs, tread carefully
For the Singaporeans, it is a sore point to lose one's job and one's self esteem goes with it. The disruption of our economy is going to continue unabated and we really need to move and upskill ourselves. We really have no choice. To pine for the good old days of brick and mortar jobs is natural but they aint ever coming back.
For people in their 40s, and 50s, we are still young old. If we relearn and upskill ourselves, we can and be relevant in this new economy. There are many short courses in digital marketing, python programming, coding and numerous others for us to take advantage.
To sit back, and be a keyboard warrior and whinge for every wronged uncle being bullied by a foreigner is not going to change a thing.
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