Influences Brought by Foreign Manpower on Locals in Singapore (Final )

According to the TED talk by Goldin(2009), the globalization encourages more and more developed countries to seek foreign talents and manpowers of various ranges and in different areas to help them grow and drive innovation. In this global trend, Singapore is no doubt one of the most popular countries which welcome and attract inflows of foreign manpower. Each government wants to explore the advantages of foreign manpower to the fullest. In my opinion, the inflows can bring more benefits than adverse effects on Singaporeans in the long run under closed attention paid by government. The Singapore government should take the responsibility to implement feasible as well as flexible policies to supervise the inflow.

To analyse this issue, we should first have a clear idea about the reason why Singapore is an ideal destination for foreign workers, meanwhile, how much Singapore government needs from foreign manpowers.For the former ,Singapore is regarded as a free global market with one of the busiest port and world-class infrastructure. Many appreciate the meritocracy policy insisted by government a lot since such fair competition environment is beneficial for the development of individual talents. Moreover, the low rate of corruption makes Singapore outstanding among its competitors. As for Singapore itself, baby blues (people do not want to have babies) tend to be aggravated, adding the fact that Singapore has limited lands and resources.To alleviate these problems, Singapore is focusing on strengthening human capital, which includes embracing the foreign talents.

Regarding the influences brought by foreign manpower on locals, economic boost is one which can be easily observed, thanks to the increasing productivity with the help from the foreign manpower. However, this may also result in the vicious cycle that local citizens do not bother to take low end jobs due to low pay. In contrast, companies tend to be more pleased to hire foreign labourers because they can bring down the salaries as they like.Furthermore,  more intensive and cruel competition for limited opportunities is likely to appear. Under such great pressure, more and more local talents are considering going abroad for job seeking, causing serious brain drain.

Culturally speaking, a working environment involved with colleagues from different backgrounds tends to equip the company with strong and integrated soft powers when developing into a multinational corporation. Nevertheless, racial discrimination  as well as inequality are likely to form due to misunderstanding and political issues. This will definitely harm the the relationship among colleagues even the performance of the whole company. According to Goldin(2009), the steady increase in imported manpower is also very likely to cause immigration problem as well as social ones regarding pension and retirement.

In order to maintain the social and economic order and stability, Singapore Ministry of Manpower has introduced Employment of Foreign Manpower Act. It has received fairly good feedbacks from the society for it has effectively protected the common good. Many policies are included such as setting a quota of incoming foreign manpower and imposing high-salary levies. One recent amendment to the act is "Establishing administrative penalty regime" in order to discourage criminal prosecutions such as illegal import of foreign labourers, misdeclaration of cost on hiring foreign workers and exploiting the work pass framework  for financial gain.The aim of this act is to help local employees gain back their employment chances and protect their rights by law. 

I think it a wise choice to settle the problems under the law.No one is above the law. By prescribing the responsibilities and obligations pertaining to the employment of foreign workers, both the companies and the employees will have a guideline to follow, making the process more well-ordered. Besides, in order to come up with a long term and efficient regulation, the government should take steps to make amendments according to the status quo and social needs.Meanwhile, public consultation is a necessity to update the public and the government itself from the public.

Apart from the act being implemented, Singapore government is also dedicated to integrating the local employees better by organizing the class for teaching them necessary skills like operating computer software so as to increase their competitiveness and productivity for meeting demands of present job markets. From my perspective, this is a reflection of sense of responsibility of the government to be thoughtful and facilitate its citizens in different area in the aim of ensuring that everyone is involved in a fair play.This also effectively brings the hearts of the populace closer to the government and avoid more complains,which is convenient for implementing government actions in other areas.

Last but not least, I suggest Singapore government should let the employers in the private sector speak up for the freedom of their foreign workers.The legal rights of foreigners working in Singapore should be guaranteed.Thus, Singapore can remain attractive, resulting in the improvement in the quality of foreign talents.

To conclude ,this phenomenon tends to be a double-edge sword.  I want to once again state my point of view that importing foreign manpower can bring benefits to Singapore's long-term interests overall. In order to make it benefit as many people as possible, government intervention is rather important.


Reference:
 Goldin, I. (2009). Navigating our global future.Retrieved March 2, 2014 from http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/ian_goldin_navigating_our_global_future.html