Did it ever occur to you that someday, your job might be stolen by them? I had never thought of this before as our Government have strict rules on the number of foreign workers a company can hire. But after reading this article from Sunday Times send shivers down my spine. Our children are competing with them for a place in school and now, I have to cross swords with them.
They are every where, from different industries. From factories, constructions, sales, retails, food etc.. When you walk into a steamboat restaurants in Bugis, chances of the waiter/waitress serving you are from China. After all, the owners are from China themselves.
How about when you go shopping at department stores like Isetan Scotts? They are there as well. Any place or industries that you can think of which are not infested by them? I can’t think of any.
Taken from Sunday Times.
The Sunday Times visited 23 coffee shops and foodcourts in the past week and found China workers serving in at least eight eateries. At a coffee shop in Braddell, up to 10 of the 25 employees were China nationals.
I am very rude and harsh here because they are taking away our jobs, our rice bowls. I am not spreading my hate for this foreigners. They are earning a decent living after all but given a choice, would you as an employer hire a local to be a cleaner or a foreigner who are asking for a lower wage, are younger and can work longer hours? Think about it. The threats are real!
With the Government increasing the CPF draw out date, it means that Singaporean have to work longer and harder just to retire in comfort. With the rate that inflation is going, do you think we can retire in comfort 30, 40 years from now?
The question of getting re-employment when we are 50 years old becomes an issue. Even if we lower our expectations and want to find a job in a fast food restaurant or cleaner, will the company hire us? It just make so much sense to hire a foreigner who are younger, ask for lower wages and able to work much longer hours compare to a 50 year old Singaporean.
Our Government encourage us to upgrade ourselves and be more competitive. Is that feasible for senior citizens to fight off the threat coming from foreign workers from China, India, Bangladesh and Malaysia?
Source from Dec 9, The Sunday Times
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This is inevitable. Globalisation is very REAL and you have to face it. Not just in Singapore. It’s happening everywhere. The Government encourage citizen to buck up and that’s correct in every aspect. Because since Singapore is meritocracy country, you have to perform and be at your best to earn what you want to get.
Well, it’s impossible to have the Government to impose rules to have foreigners out of the job market in Singapore. Yes, I do agree with you that some part of the job market is taken up by foreigners. Why? Because locals are not willing to do it or in many cases think that the wages are not high enough. Yes, inflation is going up, wages are not going up in line with inflation but what can normal average income family do about it? NOTHING.
It’s very hard to debate about this as more and more people move around globally to search for better jobs and income that their country couldn’t provide them.
I don’t think you should look at the situation this way. I have heard a lot of people complain about the increasing presence of Chinese nationals in the hawker centers. But let’s face it, as our country gets more prosperous, no one wants to take up those jobs anymore.
Do we think that any of our children will run hawker stalls much less be a helper in one? I don’t think so. Do we hope and pray that when they grow up there will still be waitressing and sales jobs left for them? No, we don’t. We expect them to have better paying work with their education.
So he will fill up those jobs? People from countries who cannot find jobs. This situation is nothing new. It happens to all developed countries. The more labour intensive work goes to new immigrants who have come seeking for a better life.
As for thinking that foreign workers are taking jobs away from our senior citizens, I am reminded of a remark made by a Singaporean student while we were in China. How come none of their workers are old? How come the older folks we see are often just playing or exercising in the parks? And a retired Chinese (60 years old) wondered why our students were so perplexed and responded with the same confusion- “You mean Singapore is so poor that people my age and older still have to work to survive?”
Why are our Senior citizens forced to work these menial jobs?
@Tommy
I agree with your points. It’s either we buck up or get axed. The options are running out for senior citizens besides waiting for help to come to them in the form of welfare funds.
I agree with Entrepreneur. Why is it that some of our old folks are still slogging at the age where they should be just exercising (tai-chi or whatever) or playing with their grandchildren?
On one hand they are expecting our aged to work, on another, two different things are happening:
1) You have a difficulty trying to get a job after 35 years old. You maybe able to get a job, and lower your expectations to that of the pay of a fresh graduate. But realistically, at 35 you will have a different level of commitments, will you be able to sustain at that kind of pay for long and in fact, have enough money to even pay for your HDB flat and still have enough money to retire when you are old? And so what if you upgrade till you can compete with the fresh grad? In reality, no one gives a shit about the load of experience you have anyway.
2) Cheap foreign labor is taking up job that traditionally is done by our less achieving fellow citizens or our old folks. I am not talking about the construction workers that Singaporeans are now not willing to work as anymore due to the hardships, but your coffee shop helper and the cleaner (I saw this young man from China sweeping the corridors in a shopping mall and the airport.)
The future for us Singaporeans is indeed bleak. But is our million dollar mini$ter$ in their ivory towers aware, and do they even care other than making it sound like if you screw up, it’s your own fault?
Jobs go to those who deserve them more.
They are invading the civil service as well …