Foreign worker population ‘may fall’

Foreign worker population ‘may fall’ 

PM expects numbers to stabilise or drop in most sectors because of slowing economy 

By Aaron Low 
  
PM Lee speaking to members of the Fuchun Malay Activity Executive Committee after his dialogue with Malay grassroots leaders. During the dialogue, he touched on the Government’s policy on the ethnic balance of the population, saying drastic changes are not carried out as they are unsettling for people. — ST PHOTO: ALBERT SIM

Some Malay grassroots leaders worry that the large pool of foreign workers in Singapore will compete with lowly skilled Malays for scarce jobs as economic growth slows.
They are also concerned over a possible shift in the population’s ethnic balance, given the large number of Indian immigrants.

These were among the issues that came up at Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s dialogue yesterday with 350 Malay grassroots leaders.

He acknowledged that the number of foreigners here had gone up very quickly in the past two years.

‘Maybe a bit too fast, and then they become very visible. You see them in Sheng Siong, in supermarkets. So people feel unsettled,’ he said.

But now that economic growth has slowed, Mr Lee said he expects the number of foreign workers to stabilise or fall in most sectors.

He also reiterated the Government’s consistent stand that foreigners help the economy and Singaporeans.

They do jobs that many Singaporeans shun.

They help keep jobs here because their lower wages mean lower costs for companies. To protect Singaporeans, there are quotas in place.

In factories, for example, the Government requires employers to hire one Singaporean for every foreign worker.

Mr Lee said the wrong thing to do in the current economic climate would be to tell companies that they cannot hire foreign workers.

Many firms are already in financial difficulties, he noted.

‘Costs will go up and the company may close. So even the…Singapore workers who now have jobs will lose them.’ he said.

‘So, I don’t think it’s that simple - you send out the foreign workers and the Singaporeans will take over the jobs and you get paid more.

‘I think our interest is to protect the Singaporeans and look after the Singaporeans, but we must do it intelligently, we cannot just react and just do something without thinking.’

Instead, people should upgrade themselves through training programmes so they can find better jobs, he said.

The Workforce Development Agency and the labour union are preparing a new training programme to help such workers, which will be released soon.

On the ethnic balance of the population, Mr Lee said that overall, the proportion of the different races has not changed much.

Although there is Chinese immigration, the birth rate of the Chinese is low. Hence, the share of Chinese in the population has not gone up.

Currently, Chinese make up 74.7 per cent of the population, while the proportion of Malays stands at 14 per cent.

Likewise, Indians now make up 8.9 per cent of the population, up from 7.9 per cent in 2000.

‘If you take all things into account, the immigration and population replacement rates, the change is not very drastic.’

The Government’s policy is not to have major changes in population distribution as it is unsettling for people.

‘So, we cannot guarantee that the Malay proportion is 15.125 per cent, as from year to year it goes up and down a bit, but big changes are not our policy,’ he said.

He added that he hoped well-to-do educated professionals would have more children, while those with fewer resources should have fewer children and focus on giving them the best opportunities in life.
Source : Straits Times - 09 Nov 2008

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