Thought for the day: PM Lee keeps exhorting the locals to make an effort to integrate with foreigners who are expats and PRs and new immigrants. He neglected to ask just how much effort are the foreigners making to really integrate with Singaporeans? What I am seeing of late is very unhealthy - many foreigners are hanging out with their own kind and making little effort to make local friends.
We see foreigner enclaves in many places from Clark Quay to Dempsey from PRC Chinatown to Rochor and Geylang. I am also seeing many businesses set up over the past 5-10 years catering mainly to foreigners from restaurants to healthcare clinics (for adults and those for children) and even physiotherapy centres.
Many of these foreigner-run businesses tend to hire their own kind. When I asked one such Angmoh PR why he didn't hire any Singaporean in his clinic (except as receptionists), his excuse was that they do not speak good English and do not have the qualifications he wants. As to why so many Angmohs like to go only to angmoh-run clinics, he said it is because they trust their own people more. Really? We didn't have such a trend in the past. But clearly we do now because there is a large enough foreigner population here for them to dictate the terms, to form their enclaves and to live their own lifestyle away from the local norm.
Another thing that is disturbing is hearing some of these expats/PRs/new citizens who have lived here for many years say that they do not really have Singaporean friends that they hang out with as they are more comfy with their own kind. To be fair, there are foreigners who do make an effort to mix with locals. To such people, kudos to you for making the effort to understand us and to integrate with us.
Min Zheng
*Comment first appeared on https://www.facebook.com/jentrified.citizen/posts/346292855551954