# immigration



## kmt (Jan 24, 2011)

Hi

Is it because of foreigners that the house rent prices and transportation is crowded ?

Or is it because of 

- rising china 
- the difference in US dollar - Singapore is slimming
- the infrastructure update is not perhaps meeting the rising the population

factors contribute to the factor

If i read the news , singapore seems to no more welcome foreigners !!!

I do understand that the city state has a limit on number of people it can intake but putting all blame on foreigners seems not so right signal i think

Looking at all these , i doubt if it will be possible to get work in singapore as a foreigner

Regards
kmt


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## sgporc (May 14, 2012)

Hi,

I must say that the current situation you brought up is rather complex, and may not be easily appreciated, especially when viewing from afar. I can try to break down some of the perspectives to explain the situation. I cannot cover everything in a single post, but I welcome comments/discussions if anyone is interested. 

First, some statistical facts (http://www.singstat.gov.sg/pubn/reference/yos12/statsT-population.pdf).

In 2000, there were 3.27 million citizens/PRs and 0.75 million foreigners.
In 2005, there were 3.47 million citizens/PRs and 0.80 million foreigners.
In 2011, there were 3.79 million citizens/PRs and 1.39 million foreigners.

So you can see there has definitely been a disproportionate increase in foreigners in the past few years. 



> Is it because of foreigners that the house rent prices and transportation is crowded ?


You cannot deny that there would be an effect. Are foreigners ONLY to blame? of course not!




> Or is it because of
> 
> - rising china
> - the difference in US dollar - Singapore is slimming


These could be factors. There probably are many more...




> - the infrastructure update is not perhaps meeting the rising the population


Bingo! This was a critical factor. But as you can see from the numbers above that the rising population was disproportionately heavy on the foreigner side. Do we blame the infrastructure or the increasing population? it is sort of like a chicken and egg problem. We cannot simply attribute the blame to a single cause.




> If i read the news , singapore seems to no more welcome foreigners !!!
> putting all blame on foreigners seems not so right signal i think


You probably read a lot about this issue, but you may not realize that most of the discontent is directed at a combination of the governmental immigration policies being TOO lax, and the government NOT investing enough on infrastructure to keep up. So Singaporeans are not against foreigners per se, but more on the inappropriately managed policies. There has always been foreigners in Singapore and we have always appreciated the multi-cultural interactions and relationships between people from everywhere. It is unfortunate that the signal being sent out is not reflective of true rationale sentiments.



> Looking at all these , i doubt if it will be possible to get work in singapore as a foreigner


It will definitely more difficult compared to the last 5 years, but the situation is not as dire as you might think. In fact, it is probably still much easier than many other advanced economies of the world.


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## AnfieldKnight (Jan 30, 2013)

sgporc covered the topic with headlines and basic info.

Such topics cannot be covered within few posts and many issues to be brought up.

But Singaporeans have nothing with the foreigners coming in. It's the policies of the government that they are targetting at.

Such, companies are suppressing pays of the locals to match the foreigners which is not a right thing to do.
With higher inflation and suppressing pay scales, it's hard to live by in Singapore.

The foreigners will save up and go back to their country to live withthe savings they have. Looking at the exchange rate, they will be laughing at their bank account.


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## kmt (Jan 24, 2011)

The transport system needs a boost , i dont know how but has to be done , if the population rises

Last time i visited Singapore , after shopping we had to queue for getting a Taxi. 
And people were trying to break line and get the taxi which approaching the queue.

Looking at the developements in Malaysia - Iskander - Johor , may be Singapore can buy off some piece of land from either Indonesia or Malaysia 

after all Singapore Politicians are good managers compared to Malaysia 

Regards
kmt


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## AnfieldKnight (Jan 30, 2013)

BBCWatcher said:


> There's certainly that perception, but I don't think it's reality. Singapore's labor market is (still) extremely tight, with a very low unemployment rate. That situation tends to promote high wages for everyone, including especially Singaporeans who are easiest to hire, who have known qualifications, and who would have comparatively little trouble adapting to a new workplace in Singapore.


Hmm.. I don't think the point where you mentioned about promoting high wages to Singaporeans will be true enough.

In fact, their wages have been suppressed rather pathetically.


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## AnfieldKnight (Jan 30, 2013)

Sorry.. But we normally don't believe from those sites.. 

They can always show rosy numbers.. just like our Straits Times..
Only the dafts in Singapore will believe
But the actual fact that many Singaporeans are facing are the pay not matching with inflation.


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## sgporc (May 14, 2012)

Hi BBCWatcher,

Nice that you've provided some data too... I wouldn't go as far as to simply brush them off as unbelievable, but to expand the discussion...

You have precisely shown that with some restraint in immigration policies over the last year or so, demand is pushed up and employment increased. If almost unfettered immigration had been continued (especially people from places who would be willing to accept lower wages), wages in certain sectors would stagnate or even drop. Going by aggregate, nationwide numbers gives a sense of the direction of growth, but would not reflect the inequalities between different segments of the population. As a country, we wish for everyone to benefit, not just our own selves. 

Nominal/real wages increasing - It will be good if it is evenly spread across the entire workforce. But probably the increase is also likely more heavily loaded on the more educated/affluent. The richer-poorer divide is getting wider, as is the case across the world, and unfortunately singapore is among the top of this list, which I don't see as good. 

Total local employment increasing - again in general this might be a good situation, but more in-depth resolution of the data would be insightful. What are the wage profiles of the increased employment? Is it that the poorer are having to work till an older age, or more stay-home mums having to sacrifice child-caring to find work now, just for survival? These scenarios are subsistance driven employment increments, which is not as desirable. We would be more glad if we was able to see for example that more stay-home mums, those with desire to return to workforce (maybe because children are grown), are part of the employment growth. This would be productivity-driven growth, from people wanting to make better use of their time now that their child-caring priorities have been taken care of. 

We don't have access to these sort of data for analysis, so falling back to on-the-ground feel is just as important as the numbers. A significant proportion of Singaporeans are probably worse off today than a decade ago. Just looking at starting salaries and cost of living would be a clear indication. 

Finally, yes, Singapore is better off than many other economies right now. But that doesn't mean we don't longer want/need to improve. It'll just lead us to their situations sooner or later.


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## kmt (Jan 24, 2011)

does all these new measures make singapore less attractive for expats ??


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## sgporc (May 14, 2012)

The maximum percentage of foreigners criteria is only relevant to work pass employees and do not involve employment pass holders (generally white collar workers). 

So for example all these enquiries that we normally get on this forum (often IT or finance people), as long as there is a company willing to hire, there are practically no restrictions at all for the foreigner to come in. Though as BBCWatcher mentioned, long term residency is harder to qualify. But still there are no legislative limits restricting how long you can be here on an employment pass (unlike say the US H1B visa limit of 6 yrs).


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## sgporc (May 14, 2012)

BBCWatcher said:


> They know how many foreigners they would like to see come into Singapore, and they can adjust the rules to calibrate the flow.


Haha... You are correct!!! They'll adjust it like they adjust the ERP rates...  But not good for long term planning...


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