Quora Answer: What are the Differences Expatriates Face between Staying & Visiting Singapore?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “What do you think are the differences expatriates face, between staying and visiting Singapore?”

Just like anywhere in the world, the situation is the same.  When you are a tourist, you are a source of revenue, and people tend to welcome you.  When you stay, you are viewed as competition for jobs, and there will be resentment.  The latter is despite the myriad realities of the situation.

Within the Singapore context, this is mitigated somewhat because we have a large expatriate community, and many Singaporeans are themselves the descendants of immigrants, some very recent.  As such, the populace is generally welcoming of expatriates, because they are uncommon, not rare.

The nature of the economy and the success of national education is such that the average Singaporean understands that we need expatriates.  This is because there may be a skills shortage, or an outright labour shortage in certain industries.  Where resentment arises, it is due to differences in cultural sensitivities, internal pressures due to the short-term consequences of long-term government policy, and a challenging market that some are unable to navigate due to their own constraints.

The expatriate community, by and large, suffers in that there is this tendency to live in their own bubble, separate from the wider Singapore community, and that is to their loss.  Living in another country also means trying to experience their culture, their cuisine and their festivals; instead of trying to import and recreate “home”.