A recent video report by the Financial Times (FT) puts the spotlight on a new wave of Chinese immigrants in Singapore and how their arrival, as well as their persistent importance to the world, has changed the city.
According to journalist Jeremy Grant, the Chinese are not only running hawker stalls, they’ve also made up a significant part of the construction worker and bus driver population, as well as taken up jobs in high finance.
One commercial banker he spoke to, Lin Wei Fang, had studied in Singapore before moving back to China to work. He recently returned to the city and will be bringing his family here to live, because he preferred the law-abiding working environment.
Another interviewee, IT professional Wong LinLin, however said she changed her mind about spending longer than two years in Singapore because despite the clean environment and nice people, the market was too saturated.
Grant also noted how the Singapore population is already ethnically 70 percent Chinese, but the importance of China continues to grow here considering it has recently become a key offshore centre for the use of the renmimbi.
The FT report reinforces the discussion about discrimination against ethnic minorities here, which recently involved Blue Diamond restaurant owner Abdul Hameed, currently facing jail time for inaccurately declaring the salaries of his Indian employees. The salaries stated in their employment pass applications had been for corporate jobs, yet they were hired and paid as service staff.
According to workers’ rights movement TWC2, Abdul Hameed only did this because the Ministry of Manpower disallowed getting lower-paid manpower from India. Service staff can only apparently be recruited from China, Malaysia and North Asian Sources (NAS) like Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea and Taiwan.
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