Migrants' Effects on Singapore

Singapore is one of the most economically prosperous country in the South East Asia region. There has been a influx of foreigners in the country in recent years. I think the foreigners bring about a positive impact in the economical area, however in other areas such as social and environmental area, foreigners may bring about a negative impact instead.

Migrants bring about a positive impact in the economical aspect of Singapore. They provide for much cheap labour. Manual work and low status jobs are generally disliked by locals because of the social stigma attached and its low pay. For example, Chinese migrants are often employed in construction firms which are jobs despised by Singaporeans. When jobs such as these are taken up, jobs are more efficiently taken up and this will promote the economic growth of the country in the long run. Singapore will thus be likely to benefit from foreigners coming to Singapore economically.

Migrants brought about a negative impact in the social aspect. Singapore, with its high percentage of foreigners in it population will inevitably face with social issues such as the erosion of the Singapore culture and racism. Over the years, many cases of racism, especially through online multimedia websites such as twitter has occurred. One example would be the recent case of a teenager tweeting on the train “ the Indian beside me was extremely smelly” Such cases occur continuously in Singapore. The lack of any statistics on the internet regarding racism in Singapore further proves that the government was trying to cover it up. Whether this is true or not, it is doubtlessly agreeable that racism is a increasing issue in Singapore. Therefore, in the social aspect of Singapore, foreigners bring about an undesirable impact.

Migrants also bring about a negative impact in the environmental aspect of Singapore. Singapore is a small country with an incredibly high population density, as such, public facilities are often sought