Jamus Lim: Resident shares concerns over migrant professionals crowding out locals©
Provided by The Independent SG
SINGAPORE: Workers’ Party MP Jamus Lim (Sengkang GRC) shared in a social media post that in the course of the visits he conducted at 302C and 303 Anchorvale of late, one man expressed concerns about Singaporeans losing out on good jobs.
“One resident shared his concerns about how he felt that migrant professionals appeared to be crowding out local ones. This, he shared, was evident in ICT (information and communications technology), but also in other high-skill areas, such as engineering (which was his background),” wrote Assoc Prof Lim in a Facebook post on Sunday morning (Oct 8).
The resident told the MP that, “like many Singaporeans”, he does not begrudge migrant workers who are taking jobs in sectors where the supply of locals is limited, such as conservancy, construction, or nursing. However, the man “found it unfair that Singaporeans like himself were relegated to jobs such as driving, despite possessing a professional qualification.”
Assoc Prof Lim explained to the resident that while there the recent changes the government has implemented to manage the inflow of foreign professionals through insisting that firms demonstrate diversity in their hiring, he added that “any enduring solution will need to do better at pipeline issues: basically, ensuring that enough Singaporeans are able to train and acquire qualifications in sectors that had manpower needs.”
The Sengkang MP underlined that this particularly holds for sectors requiring highly-skilled workers, saying he believes “we needlessly shoot ourselves in the foot by making qualification criteria excessively stringent” only to find out that there are not enough workers to fill positions.
“This, in turn, necessitates hiring from abroad, including those who may possess certifications from institutions that may not be as good as our own,” wrote Assoc Prof Lim, and added, “Why not expand the intake—even if it means taking on students that may seem somewhat weaker, but only by dint of our insanely high academic standards—instead if lamenting a local skills shortage?
This strikes me as a better solution, and need to result in any reduction in quality, so long as we select potential students on the basis of absolute (rather than relative) performance, and train them well.”
In a speech in Parliament in February of this year, his fellow WP MP Gerald Giam (Aljunied GRC) said that Singapore needs to attract Singaporeans to work in industries that are currently over-dependent on foreign workers.
Mr Giam noted that the Government has implemented different work pass restrictions in the past few years to manage the flow of foreign workers and professionals into the country and has also allotted funds to aid local businesses, increase productivity and become more manpower-lean.
“However, there needs to be more emphasis on attracting Singaporeans to work in industries that are currently over-dependent on foreign workers, such as the marine, manufacturing and construction industries,” he added. /TISG
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