Foreigners formed a substantial part of the workforce in Australia. In Sydney, one can see at least two Asians to one white when you walk around in the city with the racial proportion even higher in Asian- dominated surbans in Hurstville, Newtown or Rockdale.
However, after the Howard government fell in the 2000s due to voter resistance against pro-immigration policies, elected governments continued to scale back the number permitted each year based on the skills-based 457 work visa and humanitarian programmes.
Currently, only less than 80,000 fresh work visas are issued annually and they have to be approved niche skills unavailable in the job market.
Moreover, employers have to advertise for a minimum of 6 months before they can apply for a 4-year 457 work visa for a foreigner to work in Australia.
Its also difficult to find any supervisor or manager who is a foreigner - the Aussies try to preserve their power base in the workforce by appointing their own people in supervisory positions.
I worked in a nursing home before and all the supervisors are white. This is so different from Singapore wheteby many of us find ourselves reporting to foreign managers.
Unless the foreign labour situation improves here, Singaporeans will continue to search for greener pastures abroad.
Gilbert Goh