By IPS Correspondents
SINGAPORE, Dec 26 2002 (IPS)

The prolonged recession in this affluent South-east Asian city state has begun to bite into the migrant labour market, affecting highly paid financial sector and information technology professionals but hurting foreign domestic workers the most.

Likewise, as hard times push down incomes, the government is trying to wean residents of this newly industrialised economy off their reliance on foreign domestic help, work that many shunned decades ago after getting used to foreign migrant workers running their households.

The latest government figures show that Singapore has seen the biggest contraction in the foreign population working here in 16 years. Some 27,000 foreigners have left the recession-hit island in the year up to June.

At the top end of the market, thousands of accountants, financial experts and information technology professionals have left the city state’s shores, many of them able to find opportunities elsewhere.

At the other end, the dip in the construction and hotel industries have seen the departure of large numbers of foreign unskilled labour who had come from other Asian countries, many of them earning between 600 to 700 Singapore dollars (337 to 393 dollars) a month.

While changes to the labour market in these areas have been taking place almost unnoticed, one area where the departure of foreign labour may have a significant social and economic impact is the employment of foreign domestic workers.

Singapore, which has a population of 4 million people, employs an estimated 140,000 foreign domestic workers, making the island republic the second biggest employer of migrant domestic workers after Luxembourg. Most of the workers come from the Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Burma.

They earn between 200 to 350 Singapore dollars (112 to 196 U.S. dollars) a month. The employer has to pay the government a levy of 345 Singapore dollars (194 U.S. dollars) a month for very foreign domestic worker he or she has.

When the government’s Economic Review Committee’s sub-committee on domestic enterprises suggested in October that the domestic worker levy should be increased to make it more attractive for local workers to take up these domestic jobs, there was a flood of protests by the population.

During over two decades of economic growth, most Singaporean families have become accustomed to having a live-in foreign migrant worker at home to look after their children, the old parents, cook for them, clean the house and often, tutor the children as well. Thus, they are not prepared to let go of their foreign help that easy.

“The government encourages us to have more children and, after we have them, plans to increase the maid levy so that we hire Singaporeans,” protested Amarjeet Singh in a letter to the English-language daily ‘Straits Times’.

“Which Singaporean is prepared to work for less than 1,000 Singapore dollars (572 U.S. dollars)?” she asked.

“The fact is that many families have become so dependent on live-in domestic help that they cannot imagine life without it” observed Susan Long, a socio-economic analyst for the ‘Straits Times’. “The government however, is wary about the growing army of foreign maids and wants to wean Singaporeans off this dependency”.

Also, right now, the government needs to find jobs for some 100,000 locals who have been left unemployed by the current recession. Many of them are former factory hands, in their 40s and 50s, who have no formal educational qualifications.

Thus, the state believes that developing a domestic services sector with part-time pay-per-hour domestic workers, laundromats and creeches would create jobs for these people, and create a service industry that could be a money spinner.

But the question is whether locals would want such jobs and work for the type of pay foreign domestic workers earn.

“After a lifetime of equating domestic work with cheap foreign labour, what remains to be seen is whether this target group of above-40 Singaporeans can bridge the psychological barrier to wash their fellow Singaporeans’ clothes and toilets,” said Long.

A survey by the National Trade Union Council (NTUC) income group last month showed that only four in 10 of the respondents would do these jobs if the monthly pay is at least 1,300 Singapore dollars (730 U.S. dollars).

NTUC Income’s chief executive officer Tan Kin Lian believes that many unemployed Singaporeans could be trained to do the work done by foreign domestic workers here, if these jobs are raised to what locals consider a ‘respectable’ level.

He argues that organisations like his must look at establishing professional home-cleaning services, child-care centres and elderly-care centres.

One organisation that has done this is ‘Amahs (Housekeepers) On Wheels’, which is offering part-time domestic services at 80 Singapore dollars per four-hour session and babysitters at 13 Singapore dollars per hour.

Once-a-week domestic services will cost 280 Singapore dollars a month and thrice-a-week ones, 680 Singapore dollars a month.

But “these part-time services are not very practical because they don’t live in,” Eddie Chong, who runs an agency specialising in providing Filipino domestic workers, told IPS. “Most people, when they apply for maids, their main concern is to take care of children or the old-aged, not really housework”.

Chong says his business has dropped by between 10 to 20 percent since the recession hit Singaporean households.

Over a half of foreign domestic workers here, or more than 70,000, come from the Philippines. Many remittances and cargo companies that specialise in serving Filipino workers here say their business has declined this Christmas season.

“People are thinking twice before sending gifts home, because they are not sure if their jobs are there after Christmas,” said Maureen, a cargo company manager at Lucky Plaza, a shopping mall where many foreign domestic workers hang out.

Singapore’s government would not mind if these jobs go, but its problem is how to get locals to take over from them.

“We recognise that maids help families meet their domestic needs,” the Ministry of Manpower said in a statement. “But, a heavy dependence (on them) will undermine our efforts to create jobs for Singaporeans,” it added.

Excerpt:

By IPS Correspondents
SINGAPORE, Dec 25 2002 (IPS)

The prolonged recession in this affluent South-east Asian city state has begun to bite into the migrant labour market, affecting highly paid financial sector and information technology professionals but hurting foreign domestic workers the most.

Likewise, as hard times push down incomes, the government is trying to wean residents of this newly industrialised economy off their reliance on foreign domestic help, work that many shunned decades ago after getting used to foreign migrant workers running their households.

The latest government figures show that Singapore has seen the biggest contraction in the foreign population working here in 16 years. Some 27,000 foreigners have left the recession-hit island in the year up to June.

At the top end of the market, thousands of accountants, financial experts and information technology professionals have left the city state’s shores, many of them able to find opportunities elsewhere.

At the other end, the dip in the construction and hotel industries have seen the departure of large numbers of foreign unskilled labour who had come from other Asian countries, many of them earning between 600 to 700 Singapore dollars (337 to 393 dollars) a month.

While changes to the labour market in these areas have been taking place almost unnoticed, one area where the departure of foreign labour may have a significant social and economic impact is the employment of foreign domestic workers.

Singapore, which has a population of 4 million people, employs an estimated 140,000 foreign domestic workers, making the island republic the second biggest employer of migrant domestic workers after Luxembourg. Most of the workers come from the Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Burma.

They earn between 200 to 350 Singapore dollars (112 to 196 U.S. dollars) a month. The employer has to pay the government a levy of 345 Singapore dollars (194 U.S. dollars) a month for very foreign domestic worker he or she has.

When the government’s Economic Review Committee’s sub-committee on domestic enterprises suggested in October that the domestic worker levy should be increased to make it more attractive for local workers to take up these domestic jobs, there was a flood of protests by the population.

During over two decades of economic growth, most Singaporean families have become accustomed to having a live-in foreign migrant worker at home to look after their children, the old parents, cook for them, clean the house and often, tutor the children as well. Thus, they are not prepared to let go of their foreign help that easy.

"The government encourages us to have more children and, after we have them, plans to increase the maid levy so that we hire Singaporeans,” protested Amarjeet Singh in a letter to the English-language daily ‘Straits Times’.

"Which Singaporean is prepared to work for less than 1,000 Singapore dollars (572 U.S. dollars)?" she asked.

"The fact is that many families have become so dependent on live-in domestic help that they cannot imagine life without it" observed Susan Long, a socio-economic analyst for the ‘Straits Times’. "The government however, is wary about the growing army of foreign maids and wants to wean Singaporeans off this dependency".

Also, right now, the government needs to find jobs for some 100,000 locals who have been left unemployed by the current recession. Many of them are former factory hands, in their 40s and 50s, who have no formal educational qualifications.

Thus, the state believes that developing a domestic services sector with part-time pay-per-hour domestic workers, laundromats and creeches would create jobs for these people, and create a service industry that could be a money spinner.

But the question is whether locals would want such jobs and work for the type of pay foreign domestic workers earn.

"After a lifetime of equating domestic work with cheap foreign labour, what remains to be seen is whether this target group of above-40 Singaporeans can bridge the psychological barrier to wash their fellow Singaporeans’ clothes and toilets," said Long.

A survey by the National Trade Union Council (NTUC) income group last month showed that only four in 10 of the respondents would do these jobs if the monthly pay is at least 1,300 Singapore dollars (730 U.S. dollars).

NTUC Income’s chief executive officer Tan Kin Lian believes that many unemployed Singaporeans could be trained to do the work done by foreign domestic workers here, if these jobs are raised to what locals consider a ‘respectable’ level.

He argues that organisations like his must look at establishing professional home-cleaning services, child-care centres and elderly-care centres.

One organisation that has done this is ‘Amahs (Housekeepers) On Wheels’, which is offering part-time domestic services at 80 Singapore dollars per four-hour session and babysitters at 13 Singapore dollars per hour.

Once-a-week domestic services will cost 280 Singapore dollars a month and thrice-a-week ones, 680 Singapore dollars a month.

But "these part-time services are not very practical because they don’t live in," Eddie Chong, who runs an agency specialising in providing Filipino domestic workers, told IPS. "Most people, when they apply for maids, their main concern is to take care of children or the old-aged, not really housework".

Chong says his business has dropped by between 10 to 20 percent since the recession hit Singaporean households.

Over a half of foreign domestic workers here, or more than 70,000, come from the Philippines. Many remittances and cargo companies that specialise in serving Filipino workers here say their business has declined this Christmas season.

"People are thinking twice before sending gifts home, because they are not sure if their jobs are there after Christmas," said Maureen, a cargo company manager at Lucky Plaza, a shopping mall where many foreign domestic workers hang out.

Singapore’s government would not mind if these jobs go, but its problem is how to get locals to take over from them.

"We recognise that maids help families meet their domestic needs," the Ministry of Manpower said in a statement. "But, a heavy dependence (on them) will undermine our efforts to create jobs for Singaporeans," it added.

Excerpt: