The life of foreign workers in S’pore

I refer to the article “Life after Singapore” (Sunday Times, Dec 12).

It states that “The numbers tell the story.

39% of the labour force are foreign workers?

There are 1,368,200 foreigners working in Singapore, out of the 5.535 million population and 3.531 million workers in the labour force.

9% of the labour force are PRs?

The numbers will be even higher if permanent residents are counted as foreigners. Statistically, they are considered part of the resident population and workforce.”

The estimated percentage of PRs is about 9 per cent of the total workforce.

48% of the labour force are non-Singaporeans? An all-time high?

So, does this mean that the percentage of non-Singaporeans in the workforce is about 48 per cent? Is this an all-time high?

No statistics?

“The Ministry of Manpower does not publish a breakdown of the nationalities of foreign workers here or statistics on the number of foreign workers who leave Singapore each year.

But since foreigners work here on renewable work passes that are typically of between one and three years, and assuming that 20 per cent of them – or 274,000 – leave each year, some 2.7 million of them would have worked in Singapore in the past decade.”

S’poreans competing with millions of foreigners?

If we take into account the estimated 20 per cent (274,000) who leave every year, foreign workers on short-term project basis, the hundreds of thousands who come as tourists to look for jobs, foreign interns (not counted in the foreign workers quota) and foreign spouses on long term visit passes who can work with a “letter of consent” (not counted in the foreign workers quota), and an estimated 300,000 PRs in the workforce – the competition for jobs against Singaporeans may be very fierce.

In view of the above, is it any wonder that stories are abound about so many Singaporeans who may have been struggling to find a decent job?

Foreign workers – “fuel that drives the economy engine” or “cancer that eats into Singaporean society”? 

So, instead of “If the labour force is one of the engines that power the economy, foreigners are a key ingredient of the fuel that drives the engine” – our liberal foreign labour policies may be like a growing cancer that eats into the very fabric of our Singaporean society.

Leong Sze Hian .