Foreigners not as wanted as before in Singapore - Asia Times
▻https://asiatimes.com/2020/09/foreigners-not-as-wanted-as-before-in-singapore
Singapore’s success as a global business hub has hinged on its openness to global capital and labor flows, a formula that is under unprecedented strain in the Covid-19 era. The pandemic has put a spotlight on low-wage migrant workers often employed in the construction sector who account for around 95% of the city-state’s recorded 57,500 infections. Issues related to rising immigration and skilled foreign labor have, on the other hand, stoked a polarizing debate and stirred exclusionary sentiments, particularly toward professional migrants from India who some critics and netizens view as being overrepresented in well-paid sectors such as information technology and banking. “Attitudes towards middle-class migrants are similar to global sentiments under these pandemic conditions and are characterized by heightened xenophobia in many cases, seeing migrants as competing for scarce jobs and resources with citizens,” said Laavanya Kathiravelu, a sociologist at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.
Opposition parties notably increased their vote share at the polls after pressing the PAP on immigration and foreign worker issues on the campaign trail. At the first session of Parliament since the polls, Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh called for anti-discrimination laws to punish companies that discriminate against hiring Singaporean workers.
Prior to that, in August, the government said it would raise the minimum monthly
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