Singapore's
Asian expats
They're paid 50-70% of local salaries but able ones can climb as high as Westerners. By Kalinga Seneviratne. IPS
Dec 18, 2004

Everyday in this tiny island republic of four million people, thousands of well-educated and highly-qualified Asian expatriates quietly go about their work, often mistaken as locals.

The number of Asian professionals working here, the bulk of them Indians and Chinese, has increased tremendously in recent years.

Yet the public image of the expatriate here is largely that of a Caucasian on a well-paid job package that includes free housing, car, domestic help and schooling for the children.

In a country whose citizens are about 70 percent ethnic Chinese, 12 percent Malay and seven percent Indian, thus making a rich Asian ethnic mix, it is often difficult to distinguish the Asian expatriate from the locals.

For Ravi, a Indian business analyst, this local tag gives more breathing space and helps a person feel more at home. But Filipino engineer Raoul is not happy about being asked often, because of his Filipino accent, "are you not local?"

While it is difficult to obtain latest statistics or trends in foreign talent profile in Singapore, from media discussions and other sources what emerges in the last two or three years is that the typical expatriate in Singapore is no longer from Western countries, but from Asia.

Arun Mahizhnan, deputy director of the Institute of Policy Studies, agrees.

"The image of the expat has definitely changed," he said in an interview with IPS on the eve of International Migrants Day, which falls on Dec 18.

"Colour is no longer white, because of the resulting influx of Indian (South Asian), Chinese and other Asian professionals."

Yvonne, a regional human resource consultant working for a large multinational company and who hails from the Philippines, is an example of the new breed of Asian expatriates - sometimes called 'invisible expats' - working here.

She was hired by her company in the Philippines 15 years ago, then moved to Hong Kong and Sydney, before she was posted to Singapore three years ago when the company moved its Asia-Pacific headquarters to this city state.

"Our office is so multicultural here. I work with Pakistanis, Indians, Japanese, Australians, Malaysians and Singaporeans," she told IPS. "I tend to interact with professionals at work and socially and I rejoice at the fact that I'm in Asia. My heart is close to Asia."

But, the popular image of a Filipino woman here is that of a domestic worker, since there are some 140,000 Filipino women working in that sector here.

Thus, when she took a taxi from Lucky Plaza, a popular gathering place for Filipino domestic workers on Sundays, the taxi driver asked her if she had come to remit money home.

"I saw it as a recognition of reality. I didn't take it as an offence," Yvonne said, adding, "since my features are very Chinese, people often talk to me in Chinese. I can use that to my advantage."

When a severe recession hit Singapore two years ago, there was much debate in the media about the influx of foreign professionals into the country.

Many local professionals who lost their jobs feared that in the long term, the Asian expatriates might take over their jobs.

Many of the Asian expatriates are found in the tertiary education sector, engineering, information technology, business, banking and financial sector - professions many locals with degrees strive to get into.

Many local professionals fear that Asian expatriates working for lower wages may drive down the salary scales in the country, which has one of the highest professional pay scales in Asia.

"Singaporeans are not frightened of fellow Asians," argues Mahizhnan.

"International labour migration, however, tends to even out wage disparities and some Singaporeans are concerned that their wages will fall. This includes academic and IT professionals, where you could get other Asians to do the job at 70 or even 50 percent of the going wage," he said.

"It's true that we work at lower salaries," said Francis David, an IT professional from India who teaches multimedia at a tertiary institution here.

"How we look at it is this. If we get S$2,000 Singapore dollars a month and can manage with it, we will still stay, even though the going rate may be S$4,000 dollars," he added. "The lifestyle here is better, I can still save."

David argues that in a market-driven economy such as Singapore, employers will go for the lower salary if they can get better value for the money they spend.

"Low-cost IT professionals are a product of the market system here," he said.

Explained David: "India gets outsourcing jobs because the companies don't want to pay huge costs to get the job done at the same high quality."

Yuki, an IT-network support professional from Japan, said that many professionals like her moved here when Japanese and other multinational firms started shifting regional offices from Tokyo to Singapore.

"Singapore is now a major hub for IT," she said. "Many Japanese come here for freedom in their social lives, especially women professionals."

Senaka is an IT expert from Sri Lanka who moved here six years ago. He is now a regional manager with a leading multinational IT consulting service here, but admits that he was initially employed at a pay lower than a Western expatriate.

"It was not the colour, but they knew I needed that opportunity and they got the best deal at lesser than market value," he explained. "But one good thing in this country is that once you prove yourself, they don't hesitate to bring it to par (with Westerners), (there is) no difference thereafter."

Senaka has now taken up permanent residency here and his son, who is in primary school, is already learning and speaking Mandarin. "All his good friends are Chinese, he is a prefect at the school and plays badminton," he noted.

In spite of some scepticism by the locals, the Singapore government has been opening its doors wider for Asian expatriates, hoping they will take out permanent residency and settle down here.

This adds to both Singapore's population base, which is declining because of lower than replacement rates, and the talent pool.

"When you open the door to international migration flows, that creates new equilibrium," said Mahizhan.

"Basically, Singapore can no longer have the door closed, if it is to be internationally competitive."
Inter Press Service