Using the latest data available, the United Nations Department of
Economic and Social Affairs puts Singapore’s foreign-born population in
2006 at 42.6 percent.
That’s by Kerry Howley of Reason, here is the full article, which argues that Singapore’s guest worker program is working. But such high levels of immigration work through:
Singapore’s willingness to accommodate conservatives through policies
of segregation that Americans would probably find odious…[Singapore has] a
system that invites immigration while emphasizing legality and
distance. A comfort with hierarchy expresses itself as a comfort with
inequality, and countries that can tolerate inequality can allow huge
influxes of poor people.
The same could be said for many of the Gulf States; few members of the Dubai ruling class are saying to themselves: "We wanted workers but we got human beings in return." Loyal MR readers will know that I am generally pro-immigration, but this article is a good place to start for thinking through possible conflicts between immigration and liberalism.
If you are not only comfortable with inequality but gain money and power from it — as is the case for organizers of NGOs for the downtrodden and for very progressive politicians — then you will have a comensurate personal incentive to advocate more-open immigration policy.
“Hierarchy and segregation are part and parcel of the Singaporean psyche,† says Leong Chan Hoong, a psychologist at Singapore National University and an expert in the public perception of foreign workers. “Because of that, you are able to accept foreign workers more readily. You are assured that you will have some space, that your social, spatial identity will not be compromised with the huge influx of foreigners coming in.†
Those pesky cultural factors refuse to go away.
Singapore’s geography and legal environment are special. A small island and a common law legal system enable tight immigration control that is moderated by a legal system which can adapt to circumstances.
I live in London but have worked in Singapore – I love the food & people, and generally liked it there.
But the menial workers (maids, builders etc.) brought in from Malaysia, Indonesia & India are treated very poorly – immorally so in my opinion.
Free & open to migrants Singapore is not – maids routinely have to pay a bond & their passports are confiscated by their employers. That’s indentured labour in the 21st century – and I understand the same is true of the Gulf states.
True sustainable migration requires parity of esteem (or at least the chance of it) to work long-term without civil unrest. That said, it does appear that people will willingly suffer without parity of esteem for many years when moving from poor countries to richer hubs like Singapore.
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