Expat life is hardly a hardship (Today 9 Oct)

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Expat life is hardly a hardship

05:55 AM Oct 09, 2009
by Tabitha Wang voices@mediacorp.com.sg

LATELY, there have been rumbles about how Singaporeans feel like second-class citizens next to the nearly 1 million foreigners in the country.

While I know how frustrating it is to watch some foreigners (read: expats) get plum jobs and earn more money, I must say, though, that I buy most of the arguments for welcoming expats in Singapore.

I get the “Last of the Mohicans” argument. With Singapore’s birth rate down to a pathetic 1.28, we can’t replenish ourselves fast enough to satisfy the manpower market. Multi-nationals looking for large numbers of employees and talent are going to be tempted by people-rich countries like India and China.

I also understand why some foreigners are paid handsome wages – they have better skills, more international exposure or more specialised knowledge than Singaporeans. Fair enough.

But what I don’t get are the huge expat packages that many get in Asia: One maid per kid or pet, children studying in posh international schools, company BMWs with drivers, home in a black-and-white bungalow … the list goes on.

And the company picks up the tab – to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. That money could have been spent hiring a local (perhaps 10) who would give better returns to the company than one kid in an international school.

Some claim the package is hardship allowance. They have been taken from modern Europe or the United States and dumped in this disease-ridden, rodent-infested place that is Asia and need to be compensated for their sacrifice.

Hardship? Really?

I get that in the old days, it was a sacrifice to be posted to Asia from a developed country. You had no running water or proper sewage system, disease was prevalent and healthcare was almost non-existent.

Walk through Happy Valley cemeteries in Hong Kong and you find proof of this. You see graves of the early expats who died in their 20s from illness or accidents at sea.

In the summer of 1843, malaria killed 24 per cent of troops and 10 per cent of European civilians in Hong Kong. Other big killers were beri beri and tuberculosis.

Then there was the plague. The disease, which reached Hong Kong shores in the 1890s, was eradicated only in 1929.

So yes, Asia was a dangerous place in those days.

But look at the statistics now: Singapore is No 1 in the World Bank’s survey on ease of doing business for the fourth straight year. Hong Kong is third. Of the 20 top countries voted best for doing business in, five are in Asia.

As for healthcare, Asia has some of the best and cheapest hospitals around, with people from developed countries flying over here to get procedures done.

Where is the hardship? Expats should be paying for the privilege of working here.

If anything, the ones who should be paid extra would be the foreign construction workers living in cramped dormitories. Now that’s real hardship.

Others say that the package is to keep the expats in the lifestyle to which they were accustomed back home. Back home in Harrow – where the commute was a cramped one-hour Tube ride each way, the kids went to local schools and there was no live-in maid?

How many of these expat enjoying the high life here could have the lifestyle back home?

Take rogue trader Nick Leeson for example. The working class son of a plasterer from a Watford council estate, he hit the big time when he was transferred to Singapore.

Suddenly, this former bank clerk was looking at a salary of £50,000 ($111,500) with bonuses of up to £150,000, weekends in exotic places, a smart apartment and frequent parties.

A giddy rise from working class to almost royalty like that will be sure to turn anyone’s head.

The world is changing and so should expat packages. In fact, why have them at all? If employers feel the need to “compensate” their expat employees, factor that into their pay.

This will bump up their pay packet into another bracket and force them to pay higher taxes. Make them pay for the top-notch roads, transport and healthcare they are getting.

And why shouldn’t they contribute to the Central Provident Fund? Then we can use their money to invest for the nation.

Let them live like a local – then they will know what real hardship is.

Tabitha Wang wonders if we should have a expatriate levy just as we have a maid levy.