Expat Vs Foreign Talent

Its a pretty addictive experience being an expat. Almost all your basic necessity is taken care of. You have a better pay cheque as compared to working in your native country and you get to experience a different culture and lifestyle. An expat is someone hired out of their own native country to provide a skill to a company that they can't get locally.

Now thats an expat. A foreign talent is someone from anywhere in the world. Thats where the similarity ends. The term "foreign talent" is coined by the Singapore government to replace the term "Foreign labour".

Recently, the government has been allowing these foreign talents into Singapore, with wide open arms, to increase the GDP. These foreign talents can be the lady behind the Starbucks cash counter or he can be the waiter, who can't speak proper english, serving you at the restaurants to that telemarketer thats trying to sell you some banking products.

With an influx of these foreign talents, it has caused certain displeasure amongst the local population. The public transport for one, has been strained to the max. In a recent conversation with a client in Singapore, he mentioned about how taking a public transport every morning is a gamble for him. "Every morning, the trains will be packed lo. Sometimes, I wait for 3 trains, sometimes 4 or 5 trains before I can get into the train."

When i was a student, I remember that the trains being packed, but never will I have to wait for 3-5 trains in Ang Mo Kio like my client have to.

I would have say, however, that expats would benefit the economy as it would create more jobs for the locals. However, foreign talents usually compete with the lower tier Singaporeans for job. For one, employers can hire a foreign talent for a fraction of what they have to pay a local. They don't have to contribute to the CPF for the foreign talent and they don't have to worry about the foreign talent going to the army for reservist. The locals are already losing out in competition because of these factors. Many of my peers from NTU, SMU, NUS, are having difficulties looking for job in the current market. Employers can choose to hire someone from a random university at a cheaper rate.

Even the old lady on the streets picking cans and cardboard boxes, faces competition from a foreign talent.

People in Dubai would always ask me why would I want to go overseas to work when the whole world is flooding into Singapore. And I told them that it is exactly the reason that I left Singapore. I felt like a foreigner in my own homeland. Singapore, I felt, was losing its flavor, identity and slowly becoming a city without a soul.

In my recent trip back to Singapore, I overhead a conversation of two middle aged "Aunties" on the bus.

Aunty A: Eh, who u voting ar?

Aunty B: PAP lo

Aunty A: but my daughter ask me vote another party le

Aunty B: why le PAP good what!

Aunty A: My daughter say that PAP let a lot of foreigners in.

Aunty B: Really ar?

Aunty A: Yeh, even the toilet uncle near my house has been replaced by a china man. Now he selling tissue. He say no choice.

Aunty B: Huh? So charm ar?

Many Singaporeans are quick to point out that we are displaying a xenophobic behavior when we do not welcome foreign talents. However, it is difficult to welcome them when there were many people in Singapore were already having difficulty making ends meet without the competition.