There is a perpetual buzz about FTs in Singapore, and this is super understandable given that they compose of 40% of all people living in Singapore. This is a complex issue. I am going to try to dissect this issue as simply and effectively as possible and provide my own analysis.
Before we go into the type of FTs, I am going to define my own rating called zai-q (zainess* + IQ) or a rang of 0 to 100. Basically this is a rating to represent the distribution of overall talent + ability + IQ of individuals in a population. For an individual to get a high zai-q score, he may be a good combination of all three factors, or just really high in one. Either way, the higher your score, the more valuable and high up you’ll be in a society.
Now we need to understand that in every populations, there is a (normal) distribution of zai-q. That means some people will be really awesome (high zap-q) and some people will be really shit (low zap-q). This is a NATURAL distribution, and not everyone is the same. That is fundamentally why some people are more successful than others, even if they come from very similar – or even disadvantaged- socioeconomic backgrounds. In more advanced/ educated populations however, the average of the distribution may be shifted higher, but the distribution still exists.
Now I’m going to break down FTs into 3 categories. I will then propose wheter we should ‘Want/Need or Kick’.
1. Upper Tier (zai-q 80 – 100)
Upper tier FTs are those really brilliant people in the world.. people like co- founder of Facebook, like people who graduated from Oxbridge/ Harvard.. or brilliant businessmen. People who are physically ‘rare’ in this world and in the whole world, there are probably only 100, 000 of them? Just an arbitrary number. (There are only (officially) about 1500 USD billionaires in the world as of date- however zai-q does not only count how much money you have.. you could be a brilliant scientist ect..).
Keep or Kick?: I propose we not only keep, but attract. Namely for three reasons. 1. this tier of people definitely create jobs all around them wherever they go.. be if chaffers, room service.. entertainment industry.. setting up their own businesses, support staff (like PA, accountant ect.) 2. Even if you want to be super cycnical and reject the jobs they create, you cannot reject the millions of tax they pay! FYI, to those who don’t know, like MOST (or 80%) of the tax money collected comes from the top 20% of earners.. the rest of us just contribute to 20% of the tax.. so more super rich ppl here means more money we can take from them to spend on the rest of us! 3. These people put us on the world map, create opportunities like working with a nobel laureate (one just moved to NUS if I’m not wrong- the graphene sheet guy). Now that he is working in Singapore, Singaporeans have a chance to learn/ experience his genius!
2. Lower Tier (zai-q of maybe 20 and below)
This refers to the bangla/ cleaner/ servant tier of FTs.. basically the kinda low-skilled jobs that Singaporeans don’t want to do… or in my opinion should not have to do anymore given our state of advancement. Their objective economic worth is very little in the context of a developed country because there is an ample pool of people (in the world) who can acquire the skills needed to perform such jobs. In fact, I really hope that no Singaporean will ever have to stoop to being a bangla or maid for someone else.. this would be a sign on ultimate regression of everything we have accomplished in the last 48 years!
Keep/Kick: Keep, but make sure they don’t stay! I am not super pro PAP or anything, but here I’ll have to give credit- we have one of the best policies in the world when dealing with this lower tier of FTs. Basically we keep them on short-term contracts, and before they get too comfy and think about settling down in Singapore, we ship them off somewhere else. In fact, I think we make it (almost) impossible for banglas and maids to become even PRs here.. and if a maid gets pregnant, we straight away fly them back so that the child doesn’t get born in a local hospital and become a citizen automatically. The anchoring of low tier FTs is a big problem in other developed countries… and due to their low zai-q score, they almost always end up leeching off the system they anchor onto. We don’t need or want this tier of migrants becoming part of our society.
Keeping them also helps keep business costs low- that is make it easier for young Singaporeans to try their own start-ups to strike it big! Remb, if you make it expensive to employ people, it will just make it harder for fresh grads to try making their own businesses.
On a side note, we must continue to ensure that this tier of FTs stay in isolated segments (even physically) of our society. Do not let them become part of the ‘Singapore scene’ as much as possible as having them fill up our parks (like Chinese gardens of a Sunday!) does invite avoidable negative image and social-related consequences. Make sure they stay in containers ect. and not in our HDBs/ (visible) public spaces. As long as we keep then in their place, isolated and make sure they are transitional, we can be ok with their ‘presence’.
Middle tier (zai-q 20-79)
This is the MOST PROBLEMATIC tier, and perhaps the root of unhappiness for most Singaporeans. It is the tier which does ‘normal jobs’ that Singaporeans also can do. Now we have to understand why some FTs can displace Singaporeans in this tier.
1. They are cheaper- this is due to policy. However this can be changed and I believe the more Important and problematic factor is 2. They are better.
Before you jump the guy and say FTs such or something, remember the normal distribution of zai-q scores in a population? Remember that in every country there are people with high scores? Now the problem arises when FTs with a higher than needed zai-q score apply for jobs which require a lower zai-q score in Singapore. We’ll start with a little extreme, but real example.
Lets say Nursing in Singapore is a zai-q level 40-50 job. Lets say being a Doctor in Indonesia for example needs a zai-q score of 60-65? (I mean Doctor anywhere also needs to be quite zai right?) Now the phenomenon that happens, that suffocates middle-tier Singaporeans, is when people like the Doctor from Indonesia is willing to come to Singapore to be a nurse. Of course the Indonesian Doctor will be more trained and skilled for the job, from a quality pov. I’m sure if you were in a hospital, you’d prefer/ feel safer with an Indonesia indonesian Doctor as your nurse than a typical local nurse. This does happen, and not only in the medical profession. The root of this problem is not about the pay (they can be paid the same, or the indo doctor could be paid slightly more), its the fact that the FT is really better.
There are a number of reasons why A doctor in Indo will be willing to work as a nurse here, but that’s not the focus of this piece. Basically its because of the state of Indo. but the point is what do we do from here? I propose that we have two options.
1. Forcefully hire locals at the expense of quality.
This means that even if a significantly more qualified and experienced foreigner applies for the same job, we reject the foreigner. This is doable, but it takes not only an economic toll, be a quality toll on our society itself. We end up with second-grade workers filling up the middle-tier jobs in Singapore.
2. Create more/ Enhance current Protected jobs and ‘Bubble’ jobs.
Generally, this is my preferred solution as it does not affect our economy, nor our industries’ quality adversely.
Protected Jobs: Protected jobs are jobs than (almost) only Singaporeans can do. These include jobs like teaching, taxi-drivers, military, upper level government jobs ect. Even if there was a foreigner who was better, you could not hire them for these jobs. So we should maximise the number of these jobs as much as possible and push their pay as high as reasonable- letting Singaporeans- only- benefit.
Bubble Jobs: I’m less favorable to this, but acknowledge that this will be a necessary supplement to those who can’t make it to protected jobs. That is to creat bubble/ inflated positions for Singaporeans to do in some mediocre jobs where they’ll have low responsibility and low impact of quality and productivity. An example of this would be additional security personnel in schools… pay people to volunteer/ spend full days at homes.. ect. Not overly complicated stuff. We must make sure this does not tax our economy too much too. And if possible, make their efforts add value to our society.
Conclusion
Thanks for reading, hope you have a clearer framework of FTs in Singapore. Problematic issue but we can have forward moving solutions which should be looked into instead of blatantly trying to ‘kick-out’ every type of FT
*zainess = awesomeness
SgBangala
*The writer blogs at http://sgbangla.wordpress.com