The New COVID World of Doing Business
"I was pretty heartbroken. You enter that bit of shock being away from family ... It could be an extra two weeks, two months, four months.""You feel completely helpless."Tom Meredith, Singapore tax consultant"It's just one of many ways in which Singapore showed it's not super friendly to expats, and that they will always prioritize their own citizens ahead of foreigners."Unnamed Singapore consultant"If you're made redundant and you're a senior director, it's very difficult to find something for an EP [employment pass holder] who earns at least S$4,500 [US$3,340] per month."You have to be very flexible on what you want, to stay here.""EP is almost toxic. People with EPs are not being looked at initially ... they're on the back burner for two to three months."Richard Aldridge, financial service recruiter, Black Swan Group
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| Business Standard |
Tom Meredith was taken by surprise when his stay in London -- after over a year away from his family in Singapore where his business established him -- when Singapore revoked his re-entry pass to the country disabling his plans to fly home to his wife and six-year-old twins. He had taken a 'short business trip' in May, which became extensively extended thanks to COVID and Singapore's measures to close its borders to potential virus carriers.
He became in fact one of many expats finding themselves locked out of Singapore as the city-state imposed strict travel curbs with the emergence of new, more contagious variants of the novel coronavirus causing upheaval globally. Singapore's large established expat business community found itself at the sharp end of a spear of exclusion. And for many of them the restrictions proved more than they were willing to put up with, in the interests of business.
Travel constraint frustrations, fears over the stability of their jobs encouraged expats to abandon the island to return to their home countries or to search out business opportunities elsewhere, many turning to financial hubs like Dubai. As a 31-year-old management consultant put it, uncertainty over when restrictions would "come and go and not knowing what your life will be like in the next few months" convinced him to return to Portugal.
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| A consultant said that Singapore was ‘not super friendly to expats’ Wallace Woon/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock |
Those expats under age 40 found themselves at the end of the vaccination queue while Singaporeans between the ages of 12 to 39 were given priority in reserving vaccinations for weeks on end until bookings were finally opened to non-indigenous Singaporeans a week ago. Many now struggle to find employment, stoking anxiety among the city's expat community.
Two issues have combined to make expats' position untenable in this new reality; Singapore has decided to reduce its reliance on foreign labour after an outbreak of COVID struck down crowded dormitories housing migrant workers. Employment difficulties for foreign professionals have come into collision with that move. The migrant labourers are essential to Singapore industries like construction, accounting for up to 90 percent of the caseload in the city-state.
The idea was to "strengthen their Singaporean core", as the then-manpower minister put it, calling on Singapore companies to do their part in reducing reliance on expats. Adam Sloan, a managing director at moving company Santa Fe Relocation, spoke of people leaving Singapore now outnumbering those arriving. "We are completely full operationally. We are trying our best to find additional slots and spaces to pack up", he said, with the daily number of families moving out leaping from 20 last year to 35 by June of this year.
Hong Kong's turmoil has seen executives moving to Singapore: "From a career perspective Singapore is far more attractive than Hong Kong. And obviously it's safe, convenient, more affordable and is a more international city", explained one executive from Hong Kong. Once at least half of its 5.7 million population is fully vaccinated, Singapore may allow a more relaxed atmosphere.
As for Mr. Meredith who finally returned home to his family last week, they're considering whether they should commit to "carry on" in the city-state, in the reality that in the past few months five of their friends and their families have left. For the time being, he sighs, he's just "very, very glad to be home", since home is where the heart is, wherever that is.
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| Changi International airport in Singapore: Expats who have lost their jobs are struggling to find another position in the city-state Roslan Rahman/AFP via Getty Images |
Labels: Business, Chauvinism, COVID-19, Expats, Lockdowns, Singapore, Vaccinations
posted by Pieface @ Monday, July 12, 2021
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