Update: http://therealsingapore.com/content/letter-shitty-times-journalist
Tuesday, 30 October 2012
Oh you've so gotta read this!
I thought I'd do a post as a response to this article but since I've already done a comparison of working hours in Singapore vs Australia fairly recently, I'd just direct you to this article which uncovers the bare face lies written in the Straits Times about Singaporeans moving to Australia. It's such a well written article I don't have that much to add to it - so please, read it and open your eyes to the truth. I normally find that I have far more to say when I disagree with an article - but since I agree with this article wholeheartedly, I just wanna say, please do read it. PS. Please scroll down and read the exchange of comments between myself and my reader in Canada, Winking Doll - thanks!
Update: http://therealsingapore.com/content/letter-shitty-times-journalist
Update: http://therealsingapore.com/content/letter-shitty-times-journalist
Hi LIFT,
ReplyDeleteThe original article is in the blog by "A Singaporean Son". URL below.
http://asingaporeanson.blogspot.ca/2012/10/the-truth-behind-singaporeans-becoming.html
As I commented on A Singaporean Son's blog post:
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Winking Doll wrote on 28 October 2012 07:23:
Hee hee, good reading between the lines. Why ST doesn't publish an article "MORE HEADING UP OVER" -- i.e. Canada?
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/statistics/facts2010/permanent/10.asp
Here are the PR statistics of Singapore citizens heading to Canada from the Canadian Immigration and Citizenship statistics webpage above.
Singapore: 842 (2001), 939 (2002), 716 (2003), 482 (2004), 629 (2005),
433 (2006), 1,228 (2007), 1,383 (2008), 739 (2009), 1,691 (2010)
Note 1: My guess is that the slight dip in year 2009 is due to applicants taking time to figure out the new regulations with tighter selection criteria (e.g. for Skilled Migrants).
Note 2: See the sudden jump after year 2006. IMHO, it ties to the fact that Australia tightened its immigration policy in 2006, and thus those wanting to exit Singapore but cannot meet the cut (i.e. the new Australian requirements) changed their plans and migrated to Canada instead.
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'There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.' -- by either Mark Twain or Benjamin Disraeli
Cheers, WD.
Interesting, maybe I can do something for the UK if I can get hold of he figures.
DeleteBeen doing a bit of digging but struggling to get year on year statistics - they exist, they are somewhere but I am finding a lot of stats on like overall immigration figures as opposed to Singapore-specific stats ...
DeleteWhat I do see is this:
a) There is a cycle of migration rather than a one-way ticket, Singaporeans come to the UK for studies/work and then go back, only to be replaced by more Singaporeans who will go back to Singapore (or go on to a 3rd country)
b) The number of Singaporean-born individuals in the UK stayed constant at about 41,000 from 2001 to 2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singaporeans_in_the_United_Kingdom the figure didn't grow much in that time, however, what has happened in the meantime is that the government keeps raising the level of entry (ie. exactly what is happening in Australia), for example: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17204297 and removing loop holes in the system which allows Singaporeans into the UK http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visas-immigration/working/tier5/youthmobilityscheme/ Not that Singapore has FALLEN OFF that list - it used to be on that list, no more!! Interestingly, Japan, Taiwan and S Korea are on that list!!
Well, what did you expect? Singapore is a bizarre country in that it is a very very rich country which lets in any Tom, Dick and Harry - I am thinking of PRCs who can't speak a word of English and have little to offer. Whereas the UK and Australia, whilst not being as rich as Singapore as a country, keep raising the barriers to entry: ie. if you are a highly skilled professional who will contribute, then please, here's the red carpet. If you're a unskilled, uneducated migrant who doesn't even speak English, then it's a NO. What's new?
Ooops. Typo above: "NOTE" that Singapore has fallen off that list.
DeleteHi LIFT,
DeleteYou're welcome! Thanks also for your attempts to dig out the UK statistics. It would be interesting to compare the statistics from the top migration destinations of Singaporeans. Maybe the other LIFTers can help?
http://www.migrationinformation.org/feature/print.cfm?ID=887
According to the url above, "As of June 2011, an estimated 192,300 Singaporeans live overseas. The top destinations for Singaporean expatriates include Australia (50,000), Great Britain (40,000), the United States (20,000), and China (20,000)."
Cheers, WD.
Thanks WD. Gimme some time, I'd love to do something on the issue but damnit work gets in the way of my blogging!
DeleteI am now an Australian citizen and I can attest to the fact that the drop is due to the Australian Government tightening up the visa rules. The previous skilled migration scheme was prone to abuse and was used by many international students as a backdoor pathway to gain permanent residency where they previously will not be able to. This led to a lot of education "institutions" offering vocational courses such as hair dressing. Where they previously only required proof of a degree, the criteria now includes actual assessment of skills. For example, the Engineers Australia society will now assess the skills of all applicants claiming under any engineering category, and they will look at not only the degree but also a complete CV and work history. This weeds out a lot of applicants. For NUS and NTU engineering graduates, they are not recognised by Engineers Australia and will be required to undergo additional test to proof that they have the requisite skills. There is also an IELTS requirement where applicants must score at least 7 out of 9 for every one of the four categories, and this is mandatory unless the applicant has studied for a cumulative period of no less than 5 years in Australia or any English speaking country (this excludes Singapore obviously).
ReplyDeleteThe fact is there are a lot of Singaporeans who still want to come to Australia but the doors are closing and only those who have the real skills will be approved. We have seen a lot of CVs come through all asking for jobs but the reality is that the skills they gained in Singapore are too superficial and most engineers with even 10 to 12 years of experience are not worth hiring as their experience and technical skills are too shallow. We know of Singaporeans who came thinking they can get a project management job when they used to do that in Singapore, but their project management skills are closed to nothing, and yet the end up whining about how hard it is to look for jobs and how the Australians do not value their experience. Sad fact but a lot of Singaporeans tend to think too highly of themselves instead of comparing themselves to the world. Not denying there are good ones, but I would rather take an Australian engineering graduate than a Singaporean engineering graduate or a Singaporean who graduated from Australia.
You should also look up the latest 2012 Legatum prosperity report on prosperity and wellbeing at http://www.prosperity.com.
Thanks for your comments and your insight - could I get you to have a look at this article and offer your thoughts, please? Thanks.
DeleteHello Anonymous,
DeleteDid you mean to say you would rather take an Australian engineering graduate, or a Singaporean who graduated from Australia, than a Singaporean engineering graduate?
That's different from saying you "would rather take an Australian engineering graduate than... a Singaporean who graduated from Australia" which sounds contradictory, since an Australian and a Singaporean who graduated from Australia have the same tertiary education.
Wasn't clear enough in my previous comment but I was referring to an Australian graduating from Australia, not a Singaporean graduating from Australia. While the Singaporean may score well or better, these are based on standardised exams and not indicative of their ability to perform as an engineer. I had first class honours from Cornell University who also had a Masters in Engineering working for me (as a scholar) but not worth the clothes that they wore.
DeleteI take it you are referring to the article between Elgin and Nix Chin. Australian SOL list includes not only professional degrees but also tradespersons. Now that is constantly changing and trade skills are being reduced at the moment since the demand has tailed off due to mining slowdown. A lot of the Indians are coming over to do nursing and allied health degrees, and applying for PR directly. For PRC nationals, there are are lot of them moving over to Australian on business investment visas, most of that happening within the last 3 to 4 years. There are not that many Singaporeans who had the relevant accredited trade skills to begin with. I will not say that Nix was correct to state that there are a lot of Malaysians, PRCs and Indians with actuarial degrees and other exoteric qualifications in the SOL list though. Those skills remain in shortage but what is true is that most Singaporeans tend to want to migrate when they are much older and better established in their career, and that means they lost additional points such that they no longer qualify for independent skilled migration but require state sponsorship. State sponsorship gives additional points but requires the migrant to live in regional areas (i.e. forget major capital cities such as Sydney, Perth and Melbourne) since that is where the skills shortage exist. Indians, Malaysians and PRCs are sometimes quite happy to go there to tough it out, and they also tend to apply when they are much younger which then gives them additional points advantage. Singaporeans typically want to live in the cushy big city and will not want to move into the regional areas. This can be a possible contributing factor.
The ST article is poorly written (and I am being charitable with my words) as there is no evidence that the reduction in PR application and award given to Singapore is correlated to better Singapore economy and stronger Australian Dollar. What will be more illuminating will be to compare the number of Singapore applicants for emigration visas (Australia, UK, US etc) and see if there is a trend. The economic whipsaw in 2008-2009 may influence the decisions, especially if they take an investment hit and did not have the cash to move out. Most Singaporeans are also too comfortable where they are and baulk at any uncertainty. When times are bad, fortune favours the brave but unfortunately Singaporeans aren't that brave :-)
As to job prospects, I can only speak for technical jobs. There is a big difference in the engineering and technical practice in Australia (similar to UK and US) compared to Singapore. The engineering graduates are typically treated as graduates for the first 3 to 4 years until they have proven themselves, and they work under close supervision to build their technical skills and portfolio. Singaporeans expect to be given team lead positions as graduates. The reality is they often do not have the technical skills nor experience, and most engineers aren't doing much engineering to begin with. The technical knowledge are skills are often too shallow. Let me put it this way. I have colleagues who built their own UAVs in the garage while taking parental leave for new childbirth because they were bored in between feeds, and these aren't radio controlled model planes. These are full blown sophisticated unmanned vehicles. I even had a 3rd year university student who did that in his spare time and we pretty much hired him at 1 day a week in his final year because we wanted him. Will you imagine anyone from Singapore doing that?
DeleteEven for trade skills, there is a big difference in diploma holders from Singapore and TAFE diploma graduates (equivalent of polytechnic). Take aerospace diplomas as an example, TAFE graduates from Australia needs a 3 year apprenticeship to because licensed aircraft mechanics where they are highly trained and can perform work independently. Singapore aerospace diploma holders are unfortunately good for nothing and cannot be employed to do any of these work as they are not good enough to do design as engineers, nor are they equipped with the trade skills to perform actual work on the aircraft. I know that because one of the polytechnic contacted us asking us to put a proposal together for their aerospace students to undertake a 1 month industrial program in Australia, and when we looked at what they learnt we could not put a decent program together since the syllabus does not impact any reasonable engineering or technical competencies for us to place them into industry as either engineers or technicians. Instead of equipping them with real skills, the polytechnics were one-upping one another trying out overseas "visits" that really doesn't add much educational value.
Given such qualifications, any surprise why some of them found it difficult getting their PR approved? Even if they have PR approval, they could not find jobs at a level that they deem equal to what they did in Singapore and neither are they willing to start from scratch.