Myth busting: being a "second class citizen"

Hi readers, in light of the popularity of my recent post on why I gave up my pink IC (Singaporean nationality), I noticed a phrase that was used over and over again in the comments to my blog post - "second class citizen". What is a second class citizen? Do they actually exist in reality? What are the origins of this concept? What does it really mean? Today, Limpeh is going to delve into this topic and find out more.

What is the definition of a second class citizen then? They do exist and there are many examples - the most obvious one is that of black South Africans during the Apartheid era. They had limited rights as citizens: they couldn't vote, they had limited access to education and jobs and even their movement around the country was severely curtailed. The list of Apartheid-era restrictions on non-white South Africans is very long, but it was evident that they were second class citizens in their own country despite being the majority.

Second class citizens would face all kinds of restrictions in their everyday life - such as being forbidden from practicing their religion (eg. Christianity was very 'underground' and taboo in pre-1990s China), their language (eg. dialects were effectively banned from Singaporean media for many years, alienating older dialect speaking folks who didn't speak Mandarin) and culture (eg. gays are actively persecuted in Iran and are executed if found guilty of gay sex). It is extremely unpleasant to be oppressed like that, to be a second class citizen and have those inequalities enshrined in the law. These laws are often made with a political goal in mind and they ignore the damage done along the way.  In Vietnam, there have efforts to assimilate the Hmong minority to make them more 'Vietnamese' through the education system, but in so doing, the Vietnamese government is destroying Hmong culture as a new generation of Hmong people grow up, speaking Vietnamese as a first language, moving to the big cities and losing touch with their culture.

Limpeh in Bac Ha, Vietnam at a Hmong market

Now many Singaporeans speak about Asian migrants to the West being treated like second class citizens - is there any truth to that? Now before I give my knee-jerk reaction (which is to say, no, what the hell are you talking about) let us look at the issue a little closer. I will be focusing on the UK as this is where I live - but what I say will apply to most other Western countries like Canada, France, New Zealand, Australia, America etc.

Q: Are there any laws that restrict the rights of Asian migrants, for example to vote, to access public housing, to gain employment, to gain education etc - such as in Apartheid South Africa?

A: No, there are no such laws to restrict the rights of Asian migrants - in fact, there are laws to protect the rights of everyone: black, white or Asian, against any kind of racist discrimination in accessing the right to vote, public housing, employment, education etc. All citizens are equal under the eyes of the law.

All citizens are equal under the eyes of the law

Q: Okay, even if the laws are there in place to protect the rights of citizens, what about in practice when you do encounter a racist person who hates Asians then?

A: There are laws again to protect anyone when they experience any kind of discrimination - whether it is racism, sexism, homophobia, hatred on the basis of religion etc. If someone is found guilty of this kind of discrimination, then it becomes a criminal matter and the victim has the law on his side.

Q: Why do some Asian people still complain then about racism if there are so many good laws to protect them? Surely there is no smoke without fire?

A: That's a good question - I think the bone of contention often boils down to that of language. Let's cast our minds back to the 1970s and 1980s when Asian migrants from places like Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong arrived in places like Australia, Canada and the UK. Migrants of that generation probably didn't speak English as well as those who followed in the 1990s and 2000s - I think Singapore is unusual as many of us grew up speaking English as a first language because of education system and many from other Asian countries actually speak English as a second or foreign language. Even Singaporeans with a strong accent would struggle to be understood by your average Brit, American or Canadian and that's nothing to do with racism - it's about being able to speak English properly and clearly to be understood universally, something many Singaporeans refuse to acknowledge.

If you are limited by your command of English, then of course it is going to have a negative impact on your ability to find work, integrate and become successful if everyone else around you is speaking a language you are struggling to understand. This is why early migrants formed Chinatowns and kept to themselves in these satellite Chinese communities where their inability to communicate in English effectively is not an issue if they are primarily dealing with other Chinese people in Mandarin or Cantonese.

Those who do try to venture out of these Chinatowns and seek employment elsewhere have met varying levels of success - it suffices to say that those who are most successful usually get past that language barrier whilst those who struggle with the language are unlikely to find work elsewhere. If you think I am exaggerating, let me relate an incident I witnessed a few days ago in London Chinatown.

London Chinatown in the winter

I was in a Chinese supermarket in London Chinatown when a white woman approached an older shop assistant who was stacking the shelves. The white woman asked him, "Excuse me mate, where can I get light soy sauce please? Do you have light soy sauce please?" The shop assistant stared blankly at her, "you what?" The woman repeated, "Soy sauce. Soy sauce." The shop assistant was in blind panic - clearly, he didn't speak enough English to understand her. I then rescued the two of them by stepping in and telling her exactly where the soy sauce was - but there you go, that guy's English was so limited that he was limited to stacking shelves as opposed to dealing with customers in English.

If an Asian migrant failed to get a good job despite trying very hard, what could be going on?

a) The migrant doesn't have the basic skills to find work (such as the older shop assistant in the story above)
b) The migrant was facing discrimination (despite being protected by the law against such discrimination)

Yup you just about can see that supermarket in this photo.

There's this thing called pride which stops a lot of people from admitting that it was their fault when things go wrong. Now it would be a fallacy to treat all Asian migrants to the West as a monolithic entity, but in Asian culture we have this concept of 'saving face' or 要面子 - which means that very few migrants who have failed would actually put their hands up and say, "yes it was my fault, I couldn't adjust, I couldn't fit in, I struggled with English etc". It would be far easier for them to save their 面子by playing the victim's card and claim that it was not at all their fault.

It is human nature to seek out opinions that reinforce the way we feel about an issue, rather than seek stories or case studies that challenge our long held beliefs. If you are a Christian, then you're far more likely to go to websites about the Christian faith than atheism. If you are a vegetarian, you're unlikely to spend ages on websites teaching you how to cook  roast pork. Likewise, if you already believe that white people are inherently racist towards Asian people, then it's very unlikely you'll want to listen to someone like me sharing my stories of living and working in Europe.

We are more likely to seek out opinions that agree with our long held views.

I know I have shared this story before on my blog but let me share it again. My dad is racist and hates white people - so he naturally assumes that white people hate Asians too. Back in 1985, we had a neighbour who told him a story about how her sister who went to Paris and received very rude service at a restaurant because her sister was Malaysian, not white and didn't speak French. I was there when that story was told and my dad somehow has latched onto that as concrete evidence that French people hate Asians.

Here's the problem though: my dad keeps getting the facts mixed up as he cannot remember what he was told in 1985, so he is making up the story afresh each time he has to recount it. He keeps saying it was our neighbour who was treated rudely - no, it wasn't, it was her sister. And then he cannot remember if it was a hotel or an airport where the incident happened - no, it was at a restaurant. And then my dad would take the liberty to add his own spicy details each time he retold this story, even to me. Cue face-palm. Who needs real evidence when you can make up bullshit on the spot? Who is he trying to convince - himself or me?

Limpeh has lived in France and speaks French as a 2nd language.

And here's the bit which even I don't bloody get: my dad has a son (ie. yours truly) who speaks French fluently, has studied at a French university and worked for a French company and rather than ask me, "so, what are the French really like?" He would default to this story from 1985 which he can't even remember - why? It is because he jolly well knows that if he asked me, I would simply state categorically that the French are not racist and that Singaporeans are far more racist than the French - a point which I have made many times, over and over again to my dad (whether he wants to hear it or not). But there you go - that's human nature at work here, people choose to hear what they want to hear and somehow block out facts contrary to what they want to believe. My dad is a perfect example of that. He has a blind spot the size of France when it comes to his racism.

Would my dad ever admit that he could never survive in the West because his inability to adapt to another culture or learn another language? No, not in a million years, he'll never do that - and guess what? He's pretty typical. Over here in the UK, I've been watching the latest series of The Apprentice on the BBC. It's a great show and I love it when things go incredibly wrong, "Noooo.... don't choose that product, it is not right for your target market! It will never sell, you'll regret it!" Most of the time, when things do go wrong, the person responsible or the project manager will try their very best to pin the blame on someone else because if they admitted, "yup, that was me, I made a bad decision," then that would be giving Lord Sugar a reason to fire them from the process. So there you go, my dad's behaviour isn't that unique - it's actually pretty common to deflect blame even when it is clearly your fault.

No it wasn't my fault, it was your idea so it's your fault!!

Q: Okay, so I get it, everything is very politically correct on the surface and you have rules and laws to make sure no one is racist - but surely under the surface, there must be some level of discrimination which still renders you second class citizens as new migrants? What about more subtle things like being overlooked for a promotion?

A: No, I don't think there is! Now firstly, in a place like London, you have people from all over Europe working here as we have freedom of labour in the European Union. I have worked in offices with colleagues from like 15 different countries speaking a variety of languages. I am sure there are some remote villages in some far flung corner of the UK where you can find a shop or factory where everyone working there is local, but in most big cities, you'll encounter a very international workforce. Your manager/boss may not even be British - I have worked for bosses of many different nationalities (French, Russian, Kiwi, American, Mauritian, British just to name a few).

London is an incredibly international city.

I know in Singapore, there is this perception that a (insert nationality) boss would always favour workers from his own country - but that simply isn't the case in the UK. People are a lot more pragmatic really, business is business, we're in the middle of recession. You need to pick the best people who can deliver the best for your business - hiring or promoting the wrong person could lead to serious financial consequences that could lead to a massive loss. Why would any boss in the right mind take such a risk to express some misguided notion of kinship towards his fellow countrymen? You need to make sure you pick the right person for the job!

Here's a newsflash: apart from being pragmatic, people are also selfish. Oh yeah you heard me right, people are very selfish - they won't do something for another person unless there is some kind of benefit for them. Let's imagine if the company I am working for is hiring and I am in a position to influence the final decision regarding the person we hire. If you said to me, "hey Limpeh, why don't you hire this person he is from Ang Mo Kio like you, he went to the same school as you in Singapore, he went to the same university you did in England, he is a friend of your sister's etc..." I would turn around and say, "Yeah what's in it for me? What benefit is there for me to help him? Are you going to give me some money if I promise to help him? Or are you going to buy me an expensive gift if I help him?"

Are you going to give me some money if I promise to help him?

As for the hypothetical situation of two people being up for a promotion, then you need to look at so many different factors that may give one person an advantage over the other. Is it simply because one person has made a greater effort to sell himself to the boss as the harder worker? This is a problem with Singaporean culture I'm afraid - we're taught to work hard and be humble, but we're not very good at standing up and claiming credit for the good work we have done. That is often frowned upon as being arrogant and even 'showing off' in our culture - yet in the competitive world of business, behaving in a humble manner may not always get you the recognition you deserve when there are other more outspoken colleagues actively claiming credit for the work they've done.

 I have explained in detail in this previous post here that British society is actually still extremely class conscious and we're defined by our social class, rather than our skin colour or nationality. Therefore when a Singaporean person turns up in a British company as the new guy starting today, his colleagues would start to evaluate him and try to figure out his social class based on the way he talks, the way he dresses - from that they will try to figure out how educated he is, what kind of family background he has and whether he is posh or working class. His social class would be far more of interest to them than his skin colour per se - they can all see that he is obviously Asian, but his social class is going to what determines his place in British society (and NOT his skin colour).

Do you Singaporeans understand the British class system?

Q: Be honest now Limpeh, are there any circumstances where Asian immigrants are treated as second class citizens whilst working in the West?

A: Well, I can think of some groups of people who are at a disadvantage, such as those on work permits - because if you're working here as a foreigner on a work permit, then you pay all the same taxes but you're not entitled to the same benefits as a citizen. So when a British citizen becomes unemployed, he can apply for all kinds of unemployment benefits - but when a foreigner becomes unemployed, then tough shit - your work permit is no longer valid, you have to leave the country even if you have been faithfully paying your taxes all this time! Now a white American on a work permit in London is subjected to that disadvantage as well - that is just part of the risk one takes whilst working in another country. That is a good reason why those who have been working here naturalize as British citizens to gain the full advantages of citizenship rather than remain ineligible as foreigners.

This creates a situation whereby people on work permits could be subject to exploitation if they are dependent on a work permit to stay in the UK. I have told this story before: I knew this woman Olga who had a Ukrainian passport and she didn't want to go back to Ukraine, she wanted to work in London. So her employers exploited her: she was overworked, underpaid and bullied by her bosses (who were Russian, not English - but the company was in London, told you this was a very international city). They knew that if Olga lost her job, she would also lose the work permit which came with the job. Hence they knew they could afford to treat Olga like shit and Olga would just keep quiet and put up with it. So when Olga finally married a British man, her visa status changed - she was no longer in need of a work permit but was the spouse of a British citizen. She then sued her former employers and received a huge out of court settlement for the way she was treated.

Olga was badly treated at work by her Russian bosses.

Olga is white - she is very fair, has blond hair and blue eyes, but most of all, she speaks Russian fluently - the same language her Russian bosses spoke. So there was no cultural barrier involved in this despite, it wasn't an issue of straight forward racial or ethnic discrimination. It was quite simply a pair of unscrupulous Russian bosses exploiting a woman who needed her job and her work permit to stay in London.

But then again, Olga was more a victim of her circumstances (rather than a second class citizen per se) - that's hardly unique. I have this English friend Mark who was pretty much in Olga's shoes - he's English and born in England, 100% local. He is married and his wife had twins - so as you can imagine, the bills were stacking up when you have two babies at the same time. So his employers knew that Mark had many bills to pay (he was in debt in fact) and couldn't afford to be unemployed, so he was subjected to the same mistreatment as Olga. So yeah, like Olga, Mark was simply a victim of his circumstances and he would never describe himself as a second class citizen, just someone who found himself in a difficult situation when one thing just led to another.

Was Olga a second class citizen or just a victim of her circumstances?

I have another friend Jason who worked as a legal translator/interpreter (Mandarin/English). He deals with many cases of illegal Chinese immigrants who come to the UK illegally and are sold into slavery by these triads who run the human trafficking trade - these illegal immigrants are worse than second class citizens, they are virtually slaves who are exploited, beaten, raped, abused and there are all kinds of horror stories. When they finally escape or are caught by the police, they are placed in jail for being here illegally whilst their case is investigated, that's when my friend Jason helps the authorities speak to these illegal immigrants and piece together their horror stories. Someday, I will interview Jason properly and get him to share some of his stories anonymously.

This is Chinese on Chinese crime and it is very underground, it is away from the public gaze, in the deepest darkest recesses of the Chinese mafia's world. So yeah, there are real second class citizens by that token, but we're talking about people who are sold into slavery but don't dare to go to the police for help because they fear being arrested for being an illegal immigrant - those are the real second class citizens. Not some whiny Singaporean loser who wants to bitch about not getting a promotion in his company.

I remember Jason telling me this horrific story of an illegal Chinese immigrant who broke his leg whilst working in a Chinatown Chinese restaurant - the poor guy was unloading supplies from the lorry in the rain when he slipped and fell. Because he was an illegal immigrant, he didn't dare go to a hospital to get a doctor to treat his broken leg for fear that they will start asking him questions and call the police. So instead, he was taken to a Chinese physician in Chinatown who basically bandaged up his leg, gave the poor guy some painkillers and told his employers that the guy's leg is broken and he needs to go to a hospital at once. Did they take him to the hospital? No, instead they locked him up and gave him more painkillers. The guy was locked up with a broken leg, unable to walk, unable to work. His gang masters didn't know what to do with him as he was a liability and they talked about getting rid of him by driving him to a deserted wooded area in Hertfordshire, killing him there and dumping his body in a lake.

Their plans almost came to fruition - they told the guy with the broken leg they were taking him to a hospital out of town and they put in him the car and drove to Hertfordshire late at night. However, they got hit by a drunk driver who was speeding on the motorway and it was resulted in a big accident involving several vehicles. So ironically, instead of being dumped in a lake, our Chinese man with the broken leg was taken to a hospital where they did save his leg and his gang masters were arrested. Sadly for him, when he was discharged from hospital, he was placed in jail awaiting deportation back to China for being an illegal immigrant. That was where Jason met him and pieced together this incredible story that wouldn't have been told had it not been for that car accident.

There are some unspeakable horrors that go on in Chinatown London.

Now you wanna talk about second class citizen, those are real second class citizens. Singaporeans who come to work or study in the UK are treated as first class citizens - ie. we're the same before the eyes of British law, we are treated equally under the eyes of the law and there are too many people who play the race card when they really should take responsibility for their own failures. I have said this before many times and I need to say this again: British people are not racist! European people are not racist. White people are not racist. Get that into your heads once and for all. Yes there are some isolated incidences of racism in the West, I'm not pretending that they don't exist - but these are exceptions to the norm and when you do encounter racism, you can stand up for yourself and take action against the perpetrators of the racism (as I have done, in this episode here).

Singapore, on the other hand, is different because it clearly treats male Singaporeans as second class citizens and so many stupid Singaporean males gladly defend the system because they have no other choice but to put up with it. By all means accept things the way they are, condone it silently if you must - but do me a favour, don't expect me to celebrate it as the greatest thing since sliced bread. Let me spell it out for you: in Singapore, male Singaporeans are expected to serve 2 years (up to 2.5 years in my time) of national service whilst the government is giving out scholarships to people like Alvin Tan and Sun Xu who do not have to serve national service. Oh and that money for those scholarships, that's the tax money that Singaporean male Singaporeans have paid to the government. What a total insult and you Singaporean men simply bend over and take it from the PAP. Great.

Singaporean males bear the burden of NS. 

If you want to welcome foreign talents to work in Singapore, fine - all modern cities have plenty of international expatriates these days anyway, but why go out of your way to penalize Singaporean males, expecting them to bear the burden of NS + reservist whilst giving these foreigners scholarships and advantages in the job market? What can I say, Singaporean men have put themselves in this position, that's what's wrong with Singaporean men: they are subservient, meek and never dare to speak up. Some even go out of their way to try to reason with me that without the government's policies of FTs, Singapore's future would be at stake and their sacrifices are made in the name of nation building. Yeah right. I refer you to the Demon-cratic cartoon below which sums up the way I feel about Singaporean men (and check out this earlier post I did as well). 

Now here's the difference between staying in Singapore and striking it out in the UK: in the UK, I could have ended up in a difficult situation like Olga or Mark. Nonetheless, Singaporeans who work in Singapore can also find themselves in equally horrible situations. If I had returned to Singapore, I know for certain that I would be screwed by the system because I was a male Singaporean and the system automatically discriminated against me. So as to avoid being screwed by the Singaporean system, I worked in the UK as a Singaporean expatriate and then only returned to work in Singapore as a British expatriate when I got my British passport and renounced my Singaporean passport - go figure. Don't hate the player, hate the game. Let met spell this out for you:

Singapore: Male Singaporeans are subjected to NS, followed by reservist activities. Foreigners and female Singaporeans are exempt.
UK: Citizens and permanent residents are not obliged to serve any kind of national service.

Singapore: Working Singaporeans are obliged to participate in the CPF scheme by law. Foreigners working in Singapore are exempt.
UK: Citizens are not obliged to have a pension, many do make private arrangements for their own retirement pensions, but that is up to each individual to plan for himself/herself.

Singapore: Citizens are obliged to participate in Medisave and have to put aside 6.5% to 9% of their savings into a personal Medisave account. Foreigners working in Singapore are exempt.
UK: The NHS is free at the point of access for all who are residing legally in the UK, this includes foreign students for example (but excludes tourists).

Of course, I could go on listing the various ways Singaporeans are treated as second class citizens in their own country or how the system in the UK clearly does not discriminate against Asian migrants, but this is such an emotive issue that most people have already made up their minds on the issue. There will always be people like my dad who will insist that Asians are second class citizens in the West because white people are inherently racist. He would choose to ignore all the evidence that contradicts his long held racist views of white people and he would even go as far as to make up totally false stories to justify his extremely racist views.

There are no perfect countries in the world, there are problems in Singapore, there are problems in the West, there are problems everywhere. However, to assume the very worst of white people is not only racist, it is one choosing to take a worst case scenario point of view of a very complex situation. Ultimately, the (rather slim) possibility of encountering racism is but one of a long list of many challenges that one faces when one moves to another country, so it is curious why Singaporeans seem so fixated on it when there are far more tangible challenges to deal with - such as that of trying to raise a family without the help of grandparents or coping with the challenges of having to work in a foreign language environment. It is never easy to leave the familiar settings of the country you grew up in and try to strike it out in a country halfway around the world and it is necessary for us to talk about those challenges in a sensible manner - but this ridiculous notion of Asians being "second class citizens" in the West has got to stop once and for all. It is a vile, vicious, racist lie spread by ignorant, stupid Singaporeans.

All citizens are equal here in the UK, unlike Singapore.

So, what do you think? Have you worked abroad before? What are the challenges you face? If you are thinking of working abroad, what are your concerns? You know what to do, leave a comment below - many thanks!