Discussion Topic #2

Currently, there are about 1.2 million foreign talents (skilled and unskilled) in Singapore.

Do you think that the introduction of foreign talent in Singapore is beneficial to Singaporeans? Does it bring more benefits or harm?

i think is not very beneficial to singaporeans as it will be more competitive between foreign talents and singaporeans in work force. Especially those who have just graduated from the university and is new in the work force. Beside competing with their own local people, they still need to compete with foreign people.However,it will be beneficial to Singapore as there will be more talents help to build up the industries and boost the economy. When Singapore's economy is good, singaporeans will be the one benefitting. So basically, it brings more benefits.

Foreign talents do contribute to our economy, but the government's primary responsibilty is to nurture and ensure that locals are the ones that contribute to a better economy. The government treats foreigners fairly so i feel that only the best should stay. But what if one day Singaporeans become second to foreigners. These foreign talents are not only snatching jobs away from locals, they are also using Singapore as a steeping stone to go to another country which they will have no chance of even going to visit as a tourist. Another problem is that foreign students come here to take places in schools,they don't want to serve NS, plus they expect us to serve for them and they take our jobs. I do not understand why Singapore is letting this happen.

To a certain extent, foreign talents are beneficial to Singapore. Firstly, they increase the amount of workforce in Singapore. This will boost the country's economy somehow or rather. Furthermore, with the amount of experience and skills they (IF) have working back at home, they can exchange ideas of it with the local talents and it may improve how the workforce operate. Salaries, though may be cut by abit, will be equal, no matter to the outsiders or the locals. Thus, the issue of unfairness of wages should not be a problem. Foreign talents that are professionals in fitness and sports can also join international competitions and make Singapore proud. The population of Singapore will also expand due to the number of foreigners coming into Singapore.

On the other hand, this issue could also produce some harm to Singaporeans. For example, local students may feel pressured to study and get scholarships as foreign students seem to be doing better academically and getting scholarships easily due to this. Thus, Singaporeans must work harder to achieve it. The increasing amount of foreigners joining the workforce also may cause hardship for Singaporeans as getting a job may be more difficult due to the competition posed by these outsiders. Furthermore, the salaries that Singaporeans will get, even though equal, may be lesser as there are more people working in a certain company and the company may want to cut it's costs due to the large amount of workforce it has.

Therefore, I think that foreign talents do more good than harm for Singapore as a whole. Not only that they can expand Singapore's economy but also the population. Furthermore, they are more willing to work harder in their jobs. Unlike Singaporeans who have families here, they do not. So, have more time to do overtime work, while Singaporeans are busy spending time with their families. Therefore, they somewhat deserve to be working here. Local firms need hardworking people. As for academics, Singaporean students will also be more motivated to work harder to be on par with the somewhat smarter foreigners.

I think that the introduction of foreign talent in Singapore is beneficial to the Singaporeans. The reason why i feel this way is because with the introduction of foreign talent, it will help to boost the economy and when the economy improves, it will in turn benefit the Singaporeans. When we have foreign talents in Singapore, it will also creates more competitive for the Singaporeans. With no presence of competitive, people will be lazy and not find ways to improve themselves and with it, the locals will then try to strive for the better. Hence, with foreign talents is actually beneficial.

I think having the foreign talents will benefit singaporeans only to a certain extend.

In terms of foreign talent, its beneficial for our country. The way i see its like we're buying people to get medals for us. there may be arguments that we have less talent people from our own country, hence the recruitment of foreign ones. Isnt it high time we start to have our own talents too? Then again, the expatriates do help singapore to gain knowledge because of what they had acquired overseas, they get more experience and knowledge, exchange of culture as singapore is like a country of diverse cultures.

I I think that the reason why singapore government would want to have loads of foreign workers is because when you have cheap labour it leads to lower production cost and more profits for the government resulting in more profits from taxes. It just helps to boost the economy to a certain extend. Jobs are still taken from the locals as these foreign talents present to have a better background compared to locals as explained earlier on.

overall, it only benefits us to a certain extend.

I think that the introduction of foreign talent in Singapore is beneficial to Singaporeans as foreign talents would help to boost up the economy in Singapore. As most foreign talent they would have a better knowledge and background on certain area for example IT or Chemical plants. Furthermore, foreign talent requires much more lesser pay than local Singaporeans. This result in lower production cost thus, earning more profit than usual. But however, with this much foreign talent around it is difficult for Singaporeans to find a job as they not only have to compete among local talents they now have to compete with those foreign talent who offer company with lower salary and with the same efficiency.
But still, there are some companies which prefer local talents than foreign talent, this shows that there are still talented people in Singapore and they do stand a chance in competing with those foreign talent.

Therefore i think that by introducing foreign talent to Singapore, it is only beneficial to a certain extent as foreign talent help the economy but they also sever as a threat to Singaporeans.

There are definitely benefits and harm from introducing foreign talent to Singapore but I think the benefits heavily outweighs the harm.

Skilled foreign talents like athletes and professionals in other areas helps boost Singapore’s image by winning medals or by helping us improve with their professional expertise. They help boost our economy through their expertise and help us improve our current systems by giving us their advice. Unskilled foreign talents like construction workers take on jobs that Singaporeans are just unwilling to do because of the low pay or the high amount of physical labour involved.

However, bringing in foreign talents will often cause locals to feel that the government is treating the locals unfairly as the foreign talents take away the amount of jobs available here. It also brings about more stress to the already stressful lifestyle of Singaporeans. Though stress brings about competition, making Singaporeans strive to do better, too much stress may have undesirable results like Singaporeans giving up and immigrating to other countries.

In conclusion, I believe bringing in of foreign talents does more good than harm as the government can rectify the harm by being transparent in the way they treat both Singaporeans and foreign talents. In addition, the government can allocate a certain percentages of jobs to foreign talents which would reassure Singaporeans that they will have jobs in the future.

i felt that having more foreign talent will brought harm to the singaporean as it will be very completetive for jobs for singaporeans. but on the other hand, it will benefit the goverment as they will help singapore to earn money as well as boosting in their economy. in other countries, the educations and the knowledge might be better then singaporeans and they might share those it with us, thus, boosting our understanding.

I agree to a large extent that the introduction of foreign talent in Singapore is beneficial to Singaporeans, as it will boost the economy by working for us. We can exchange ideas with the foreign talent which helps singaporeans in the future too.I think that foreign talent can help Singapore economically, socially and culturally.

But to a small extent, it may post a threat to singaporeans because foreign talents are paid lower and generally more hard working than singaporeans. Therefore, most Singaporean would find themselves working for or under foreign talents. A small percentage singaporeans would be competitive.

In conclusion, Singaporeans just need to work harder rather than blaming the foreign talent for stealing our jobs.

I think it is beneficial to introduce foreign talent into Singapore because they will help us to improve the economy and bring benefits to us. However, the economy is currently having a recession, making it more difficult for us to find a job with the addition of these foreign talents. So I think having foreign talent here will be beneficial but there is also so disadvantage.

To a certain extent that the introduction of foreign talent into Singapore is benefical.From what i heard, it is usually people from overseas that bring talent into the locals no doubt these talents are beneficial.For example an
experienced chemist whom has more background knowledge of chemistry compared to local chemists.

However there are some disadvantages, since there is a such a drastic increase in Singapores' population, out of which 1.2 million are foreign workers, there will be competition over being employed.Definitely, the more talented foreigns will usually be employed compared to an average Singaporean, these would cause Singaporeans to lose out.
Similarly, non-skilled workers in Singapore, for example those who work in construction sites, and because they work with a low income salary, Singaporeans might also lose out.

With this i conclude that with foreign talent, comes both advantages and disadvantages.However it is best to lower the amount of foreign talent comiing into Singapore, as there will certainly be competition in the workforce.

Currently, there are about 1.2 million foreign talents (skilled and unskilled) in Singapore.

Do you think that the introduction of foreign talent in Singapore is beneficial to Singaporeans? Does it bring more benefits or harm?

Firstly, there is a big difference between skilled and unskilled thus not all of the 1.2million "foregin talent" are talented. my defination of skilled is academically incline and they are people to help to bring singapore to a new height, while unskilled to me are those who are not as academically inclined.my stand is i belive that singaporean need this people for singapore to scale to newer and greater heights. for the unskilled workers, we want them as they can aid us as in doing labour intensive jobs such as,building of our homes, roads etc, they are also useful in our horticultural activities and even in our own homes. in this instance it all about benfit as this allows singaporean to go out and work in other area that will genrate more for the economy.

on hindside,the skilled talents usually from develop country such as japan, the us and europeans or fast developing country such as india nad china pose a threat to us singpaorean. i will touch more on the developing countries talent. these talent from these country are usually good,cheaper to employ compared to singaporean and are equally as competitive as singaporean. sometimes we lose out to them and they get the jobs instead of us. this increase our unemployment rate and we feel that in our own country we dont get jobs because of these people. we get angry with the goverment for introducing them to the society.however we dont think about foregin talent as hinderance when the "ang mo"'s or the japanese are here, we look up to them as "gods" as we want to be like them. but arent they here also to steal our jobs? on a brigther note, with the influx of this growing soceity of foregin skilled talents,we singaporean should be constanly upgrading our skills to be an edge above the the foregin skilled talents.this would increase our competitivness and thus grow the economy and there may be a day that we do not need foregin talents to help us continuosly reach to greater height, one example is the breakthrough in our water technology.the europeans and other countries come and study our water technology advancement, this show that singapore is on the right path to success.

vinod misra

Firstly, I would want to differentiate between foreign talents( FT) and foreign workers. Foreign talents are those people who have achievements or are skilled in their jobs especially in the field of science, technology and research, etc. Student who have great potential and migrate to Singapore to study also fall under this category. On the other hand, foreign workers are those who migrate to Singapore and hold menial jobs.

I agree to a large extent that foreign talents are beneficial to Singapore. Ft’s were first introduced to Singapore to boost the population and also to increase the workforce and hence the economy. Up till now, they continue to add value to the workforce. Furthermore, having Ft’s can enhance the knowledge of the locals as they are able to learn from these people and can even exchange great ideas that they have learned from their respective countries.

However, this introduction of the FT’s also has disadvantages. The locals feel threatened and insecure about their jobs. The same goes for attaining that spot in the university or getting scholarships. Locals feel that they are being stressed so much that they take the easy way out of just giving up on their jobs or migrate to another country.

To conclude, I feel that foreign talents are more of a benefit than a bane to Singapore. Singaporeans just have to keep up with the foreign talents in order to have a Singapore that would be competitive in the world stage.

I think that having foreign talent is beneficial to a certain extent. Foreign talents can exchange useful knowledge and experience which they have learn in their home country with the locals. This in turn will benefit Singapore in terms of work efficiency which also help to boost the economy. Foreign talents also tend to be settle for low paying job which is more labour intensive. I think this can help to slow down the demand for higher paying job which will keep the economic competitive.
However, there are also disadvantages of having foreign talents in Singapore. The will be stiff competition between the locals and the foreign talents. They tend to be more hard working than the locals plus they are likely to be hired than the locals due to cheap labour. Also foreign talents tend to be more competitive than the locals. They usually do well in studies thus there will be competition between in obtaing scholarships.
In conclusion, foreign talents help to create competitiveness among the locals. Which help to motivate them to work hard to achieve greater heights.

Firstly, benefits of foreign talents have been heavily outlined and emphasized by many others thus the effects of them on our industries have already been repeated so many times. They bring over their skills and expertise over to our country and improve operations over here, this allows us to provide better services for others and leave a better impression.
Secondly, those that come over to study here have a more determined attitude to do well ...whether by hook or by crook it doesn't really matter and they would tend to be protective of their work in order to do well enough to hold on to their place here.
Finally, i wish to address the problem of foreign talent winning awards on behalf of our country, although they did achieve great thing in the olympics or other competitions of such high standards. Would locals feel happy and proud of those achievement and tell others we did win some medals or would locals be saying "we won medal, but it wasnt really us tat won it", thats one of the more common problems where we would not feel any pride in winning some medals based on using foreign players, the only one tat feels happy would most probably be those players and the sports council.

In my opinion, foreign talents are beneficial to Singaporeans. Skilled foreign talents are those who have achievements in say, technology, sports, medical research and other related fields, as well as those who come to our schools and impart their knowledge to us. As for those who are unskilled, they are not supposedly called as "talents". These people are usually found as construction workers, clerks, admin and other related jobs. They should be called as foreign workers. Both foreign talents and workers are very much helpful to Singapore and her citizens. These talents come and exchange valuable knowledge and experience acquired from their hometown to our local talents. Such cooperation will help to improve the efficiency of both the local and foreign talents, which in turn boost Singapore economy. Foreign talent will also share their expertise used in their hometown to Singapore, thus making Singapore a more competitive country compared to other countries. As these foreign workers typically head from poorer countries where it is difficult to land a job and their living conditions ain't that comfortable, they are more likely to settle for low salaries and unfavorable living or working conditions unlike the locals. Hence, jobs such as constructions worker or toilet cleaners and other related jobs will be taken up by foreign workers. For this, Singaporeans should have something to be relieved and thankful for.
In terms of harm to Singaporeans, I do not think there is any justified reason to feel threatened or unfair in regards to bringing in foreign people. Local students and workers fears and complains that foreigners always (mostly) do way better than them, making scholarships, university entry and looking for jobs more easily attained by them. I think that there is equal opportunity to both local and foreign people as long as they are hardworking enough. As for the issue of foreigners landing the job due to the fact that they can settle for low salaries, fellow locals do not need to worry or complain as we have other advantages such as capable of learning and picking up skills faster and better than them and language wise too. However, safety can be a problem as well. Perhaps the government can impose a policy stating foreigners got to have certain education and personal hygiene before permitting them to work here. Therefore, I think foreign people do bring more benefits than harm to Singapore and her citizen. Although foreign people have certain advantages, it does not mean that they have no disadvantages at all.

What are foreign Talents?
According to the definition by the Ministry of Manpower, Singapore, ‘foreign talent’ generally needs to satisfy the following so as to obtain their S Pass Permit (people who have S Passes are generally considered ‘foreign talent’ as it is the highest type of Work permit available; People who have obtained PRs are considered as locals already):
S Pass applicants accumulate points based on how far they meet the criteria. As a general guide, these criteria can be broadly described as (for illustrative purposes only):
• Salary - refers to a minimum fixed salary of $1,800.
• Qualification - generally refers to degree or diploma level educational qualifications.
Technical certificates can be considered. These are, very broadly, courses that train the applicant to be a qualified technician or specialist in their chosen field. The certification should comprise of at least 1 year of full-time study.
• Job type - generally refers to professional, specialist or technician level jobs.
• Years of Work Experience - generally refers to the number of relevant years of work experience that the applicant has for in the job being applied for.
Adapted from: http://www.mom.gov.sg/publish/momportal/en/communities/work_pass/s_pass/about_the_s_pass.html
This meant that by definition, ‘foreign talent’ are people who include foreigners from the ages of 17-30 with a Degree or Diploma obtained from a recognized Tertiary Institute and mid-skilled technicians with foreign diploma education earning at least SGD$1,800 a month.
Annually, Singapore imports many foreign talents in aim to mainly help boost its economy. Imported Foreign talents can account to a number of 50 000 per year as estimated by The Straights Time. (http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/ftinterface~content=a713677039~fulltext=713240930)
In my discussion, I will mainly be analyzing how the foreign talents will affect Singapore and what advantages and disadvantages they promise.
With foreign talent introduced to the workforce, many would view them as foreign people that are here to “snatch our rice bowls”. However, thinking on the other side of the coin, one can actually view that the introduction of foreign talent would speed up competition for job and entrepreneur opportunities, this would force Singaporeans to learn how to maintain commercially competitive so as to achieve a strong foothold in the society and catalyzes lukewarm Singaporeans to improve themselves. Without the introduction of foreign talents, competition would only be constrained to local people and hence, would mean low competition thus drastically decreasing the quality of Job performances and entrepreneur achievements. The society thrives on the basis of “Survival is the fittest”, Singaporeans need to learn of this so as to level up producing more “founding fathers”. Otherwise, the economy will remain stagnant.
Also with the addition of more foreign talents causing more competition, more “Ideas” will be generated for the Workforce. This in-turn generates more commercial profits and creates new work opportunities for Singaporeans as well as foreign talents. Hence, it is inaccurate to say that “Foreign talents are here to snatch our rice bowls” as they can be here to help create more “rice bowls” as well. This applies to the education sector as well. As foreign talents gain places in varsities, they will be further equipped with Knowledge to serve the workforce or their respective academic specializations, pushing Singapore boundaries further step-by-step.
With the migration of foreign talents (by families or Single) into Singapore, it will help to increase the population of Singapore greatly helping to prevent Singapore in being an aging population. Moreover, it will help increase the Citizens Army of Singapore as the descendants of these foreign talents (or the younger foreign talents) will also fulfill their responsibilities with the Defence Force if they were to decide to take root in Singapore as permanent residents. This will strengthen the Singapore’s Defence force and bring it to greater heights.
Lastly, with the addition of foreign talents to the population pool in Singapore, it will greatly enrich the cultural variety of Singapore, making Singapore a more “Globalize” and “International” city with rich history of cultures, languages and traditions. These in turn can attract Visitors to Singapore making here a Tourism City and thus not only increasing our income but also exposing Singapore to many possible prospective entrepreneur opportunities, attractive schemes and establishing better bilateral ties with different countries.
On the other hand, foreign talents can bring us disadvantages as well.
There is a possible increase in white collar crime (possibly blue colar crime also) out of their greed for money or to advance their height in the corporate ladder. Tough screen procedures can be suggested to screen for genuine foreign talents to avoid this problem.
Also, those foreign talent working for high intelligence units can have access to confidential sensitive information. Should they disclose information to their home country functioning as spies, this would land Singapore at a disadvantage.
With the review of the pros and cons foreign talents can bring to Singapore, it is still feasible and encouraging to introduce foreign talents to Singapore as they will bring more benefits such as boosting our economy, making our education system a more “international” and “globalize” one, strengthening the Singapore Defence System and increasing our performances in the sports arena and other prospective National achievements that can be brought.