Expat interviewed by Financial Times unhappy S'pore prioritises S'poreans over foreigners for vaccination

Which government in the world would commit political suicide?

Belmont Lay | July 09, 2021, 03:38 PM

An article published by the Financial Times on July 9, 2021 is getting under the skin of locals and foreigners in Singapore.

The piece, "Fed-up expats begin drifting away from Singapore", contained a quote provided by an expat anonymously, which only served to highlight the sense of entitlement of some foreigners, who are not helping the local-foreigner divide here.

The one line in the FT piece read:

"It’s just one of many ways in which Singapore showed it’s not super friendly to expats, and that they will always prioritise their own citizens ahead of foreigners," the consultant, who wished to remain anonymous, said.

Context of quote

This quote refers specifically to Singapore's policy of getting locals vaccinated first, given the previous shortfall in Covid-19 vaccine supply.

For the record, Singaporeans aged 12 to 39 were given priority to reserve a jab just three weeks ahead of expats younger than 40.

Bookings for vaccination were opened to these non-Singaporeans by the first week of July 2021.

Fuller context of article

The FT piece comes amidst news that Singapore is still slowly opening up its economy and laying out a long road map for overseas travel to kickstart again to get back into a new normal, business-as-usual mode.

As a result of some of these measures that make it onerous to travel freely with many restrictions in place primarily targeted at keeping Covid-19 at bay (i.e. stopping warm bodies from crossing borders unnecessarily as they are the vectors of the virus), expatriates have found it difficult to fly in and out of the country at a moment's notice or as frequently.

Occasionally, those who make the decision to fly out of Singapore for a short-term business trip might find it difficult to come back here.

One expat FT interviewed had his re-entry pass revoked and could not reunite with his family in Singapore, and supposedly, with no return date in sight.

Caveats missing from the FT piece

A glaring omission from the FT piece are caveats.

It could have made two points.

Firstly, not all expats feel as entitled and expect to be treated as equal to locals, given that governments have an obligation to serve and protect their own people.

Or else, it is akin to committing political suicide.

With regards to the job market situation, the jolt that Covid-19 served to globalisation has made countries, in particular, Singapore, realise that jet-setting, border-crossing practices of yesteryear might have to give way to cultivating a stronger Singaporean employee core that still remains connected with the rest of the world.

Secondly, an acknowledgement of the wider effects that Covid-19 have had on Singaporeans will allow readers to make baseline comparisons with the woes experienced by expats.

In other words: Singaporeans will commiserate, not hate, because job losses experienced by expats in Singapore are also real on top of job losses experienced by locals.

Reporting expatriate job losses in the midst of even greater job losses suffered by locals will highlight the symptoms of a much wider unemployment and retrenchment phenomenon.

However, the FT piece did highlight the pay and designation employment pass holders command in Singapore -- senior director role, at least S$4,500 a month -- which delays the breaking out of the world's smallest violin to play the world's saddest song.

Singapore, on its part, has been doing what it can to strengthen the Singaporean core.

The FT piece noted that in 2020 alone, Singapore raised the qualifying salary for employment passes twice -- a measure that makes it more difficult and costly for employers to hire non-locals.

So is Singapore same or worse for expats?

The overall message of the piece will leave readers -- both locals and expats -- confuzzled because even though the situation on the ground is not as rosy for foreigners, they are still moving here from places such as Hong Kong, which is painted as ostensibly worse off.

The two contradictory points from the FT piece when put side-by-side leave readers undecided.

The first part:

Frustration over travel constraints, vaccines and, perhaps most tellingly, fears over jobs have prompted expats to abandon the island for either their home countries or other financial hubs, such as Dubai.

And then this:

Some expats, however, are still moving to the city-state including from Hong Kong, which has been rattled by protests, school closures and China’s imposition of a tough national security law. 

One Hong Kong executive making the move said that “from a career perspective Singapore is far more attractive than Hong Kong. And obviously it’s safe, convenient, more affordable and is a more international city.”

Another attraction is Singapore’s efforts to craft a coronavirus exit strategy.

Top photo via Unsplash