When did Singapore Expats Become so Egotistical?
I came across this gem tonight on the ExpatSingapore forums (via Salary.sg):
What are you upset about? This is an expat site for the Singapore expat community to discuss matters of common interest. It is not for “journalists” to try find people to do their research for them, especially for stories that will increase local heart-landers’ negative feelings and disdain for the foreign talents who actually drive this economy. (emphasis mine)
This was posted by a dude named Kubes.SG in a series of responses to a journalist’s request to comment on how the current economy is making life difficult for expats.
Wow. Is this guy for real?
I work with expats everyday for the past four years, and pretty much all of the expats that I’ve encountered so far in Singapore have been nice, humble and pleasant people.
So although I’m inclined to think that Mr. Kubes’ opinion is of the minority, it’s still disturbing to think that there may be a segment of the expat community here who are egotistical enough to think that they are indispensable to the Singaporean economy, and local “heart-landers” somehow need to be protected and fed propaganda from our “nation-building press” so we can feel much better about ourselves being inferior to the “rich Ang-Mohs”.
Yes, I took some liberties with words, but do read the forum thread for yourself, and see if you walked away with the same feeling I described above.
Anyway, that is just wrong on so many levels.
Here are some questions I would ask:
- Do well-compensated foreign talent really play that much of a bigger role in driving the Singaporean economy than Singaporean heartlanders?
- If that is true, do Singapreans feel inferior to foreign talent because of this, and therefore feel disdain towards foreigners?
- And if that is true, does the Singapore government (by proxy through the media) feel it’s in the country’s best interest to continue encouraging negative feelings in Singaporeans towards foreign talent?
It’s pretty insulting to think that there are actually some people that believe the answers to the above questions are all “Yes”.
It’s a shame, really. Perhaps this all could of been avoided if the government didn’t openly sing the praises of foreign talent so much during the past few years. Or even stop the prevalent use of the term “foreign talent”, which according to Mr. Biao, has contributed to demoralizing Singaporeans and over-qualifying foreigners.
If you constantly tell your firstborn son how much better his adopted sister is, naturally he will start hating his sister. Start showering the adopted sister with love, toys and perks that the son doesn’t have, and naturally she will develop an ego and a superiority complex.
What do you think? Is the foreign talent vs. heartlander dynamic really more pervasive than we think?
I believe Singaporeans are well-educated and have the opportunities to be experienced enough to rival expats anytime.
As one of the expats having worked with you….
stw
(Actually I see myself rather a migrant). The whole native vs. Expat discussion is rife with Cliche. Our own comedians poke fun on that (where “our” means Singapore’s). What might be at the root of it? First of all, Cliches take decades to form, so a current Cliche might reflect a 20 or 30 year old situation. When I compare myself with Singaporean I can’t see differences in the level and quality of education today (other than they typically have more papers to show). However I see a historic difference on two accounts. Singaporeans in general haven’t been the most adventurous type (and a set of outstanding individuals won’t disprove the general fact) and looked after by the government, while to become an expat you had to have some readiness for adventure. Secondly companies tend to send experts overseas, so the sample of people you compare is distorted. Once a cab driver told me: “Boh, all Euroeans are so smart”, where I had to reply: “We have our fair share of dumb ones too, but they will never make it to Singapore”.
Once you compare similar samples of people (same educational background) only the readiness for adventure (like speaking up) would remain as distinctive factor. And there I can’t see a difference with the current generation anymore.
My 2c
I agree with Stephan – however there is another side. I have been here 18 years and it’s now that I have started seeing discussion in newspapers etc on the role of the expats (especially PRs) and the government defending it. The defense is nice – but why the question? Is there some discontent among Singaporeans on the expats value-add? I don’t understand why that has happened. For me, after being 18 years here – this is home.
Interesting thoughts. I’ve been in Singapore for the past 17 years. Being from Malaysia, I don’t consider myself as ‘foreign talent’ (this really needs proper definition — how far away is foreign?). In reality, Singapore, like many young nations, has a population that is mostly made up of immigrants. A HDB heartlander today was probably an immigrant 1 – 2 generations ago.
Personally, I think the comments by Mr. Kubes are off, esp on the second reply (yes, I read the forum thread), it’s not an uncommon one by any immature and probably young person, regardless heartlander or expat.
All valid points.
I agree that there really isn’t much that separates an expat from a local today, if you only consider raw ability. What difference there may be, is entirely psychological or stereotypical.
And while it’s convenient to blame the government for everything, this expat vs. local thing really in my opinion is the doing of poor government social policies over the years.
It’s the government that tailors our education and social policies to groom a generation of obedient, risk-adverse workers. It’s the government which miscalculated population projections a decade ago. It’s the government which decided that it was a good idea to give university scholarships to foreign students over local students.
I also agree that if discontent towards expats did exist in heartlanders today, it’s not entirely reasonable. However, years of sweetening the deal for foreigners to come over with special perks perhaps helped contribute towards this phenomenon. The government “defense” is purely trying to address the symptoms way after the fact.
I once worked with an Indian colleague (from India). She was very condescending and had the cheek to tell me (& other locals) how smart she was, and how stupid Singaporeans are. Frankly, the effort she put in, while not little, was not enough to put her in a “talent” category. There should be tighter controls to ensure that such fake talent like my ex-colleague and Kubes are not even granted an E-pass in first place.
Jenny, I certainly can relate to your sentiment.
However, I’m not sure if there is any feasible way to screen employment pass applicants based on their actual “talent” or “skill” level.
Also, you have to remember that there are two reasons why companies here hire foreigners: a) because they have skills that locals here don’t have, and b) because they are cheaper than comparable local talents.
It is possible that the foreign colleague that you mentioned above falls in the latter category instead of the former…
Are you sure you could understand the accent??