More than half Singaporeans hate Indonesian workers?

QUOTING The Economist’s news article entitled Wandering Workers in January 2007, Asia Economic Institute (AEI) in its recent analysis (2/27/2007) confirms that even in such a modern country like Singapore "over half of the population opposes more foreign workers."

This is quite alarming for the many lower skilled migrant workers like from the Philippines and more dangerously from Indonesia, as Singapore prefers “foreign talent” than these hard working maids.

Singapore is not exactly yet a safe place to work for Indonesian migrant workers.

Mid last year the Indonesian embassy in Singapore reported that 10 Indonesian migrant workers were killed. And again, from eight of them they found notes about suicide, embassy official Fachry Sulaiman was quoted to have said. Since 1999 up to now totally 134 Indonesian migrant workers were killed in that city state.

The embassy has failed then to announce complete report on this regard for the whole 2006 about how many deaths —high percentage for suicide— in that year.

Is it normal for a Singapore? Or perhaps it is a kind of vengeance of the Singaporeans to Indonesians for what happened in 1998 against the Indonesian Chinese, communal crime that we have also to condemn!

Yet, the AEI’s suggestion is quite worth reading:

Opinions might change if the public receives a more balanced picture of the pros and cons of importing labor to do the jobs that none of the locals would ever consider taking. Locals need to realize that their economies are dependent on the foreign workers for stability. These large migrations should not be thought of as a transient or temporary phenomenon. Labor receiving countries should attempt to formulate a suitable migration policy based on longer run considerations of their labor market needs and the basic human rights of migrant workers rather than ad hoc decisions. Incentives and taxes may be levied on enterprises to discourage the perpetuation of unproductive non-competitive industries based on cheap unskilled foreign workers. At the same time, migrant-exporting countries should attempt to reduce undue dependence on overseas employment through efforts to reduce labor-outflow pressure at home. It is a delicate balance that Southeast Asia has yet to strike.**