Quora Answer: What are the Consequences of Expatriates Leaving Singapore?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “What will be the consequences of foreign expatriates leaving Singapore, and possibly avoiding Singapore altogether?” 

In the short term, nothing is going to happen.  Singapore is undergoing a lockdown, and had a recent economic contraction, the largest in the nation’s history.  Uncertain revenue, and contractions on the labour market mean that companies are reluctant to hire anyway.  The increased unemployment and underemployment among native Singaporeans is also a cause of tension.  This is cyclical. 

Within the Singapore context, an expatriate is a person that is living in Singapore for a short, but undefined amount of time, who is a citizen of another nation, and is employed in a job that requires technical or management skills.  Singapore is, and will continue to be, in the near future, an attractive destination for the ambitious, the upwardly mobile, and the adventurous.  Money talks, and when the economy grows again, there will be talent coming here for their own reasons. 

There are a variety reasons why companies hire expatriates.  From a national perspective, expatriate fulfilled the role of borrowed talent while we develop our own human resource, or as a means to grow our access to other markets, or a possible source of future citizens.  Like any nation, it makes sense for Singapore to prioritise her own citizens.  Citizenship should have privileges, and this extends to vaccination, economic opportunities, and access to infrastructure.  This does not mean that we discount expatriate talent.  It merely means that in times of scarcity of resources or opportunities, Singapore and Singapore companies give priority to Singaporeans.  There is no controversy there.  When there is a a threat, we do not expect them to stay around to defend this nation.  They are not equal, and no expatriate should demand that sort of equality. 

All that aside, xenophobia of any sort is irrational and hypocritical.  Most Singaporeans are descendants of earlier immigrants.  Going back a generation or two, many of us came from immigrant stock.  Blaming these people for perceived or actual policy failures of the government, or exploitation of corporations, is unjust, and should be condemned.