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Comment by jb1991 | Hacker News Reader

jb1991

My main turnoff in Singapore after living there is the explicit racism that is a part of its social hierarchy. A fresh college grad who is Singaporean will earn more than a much more experienced veteran doing the same work, if that veteran is, for example, from the Philippines. There is a lot of what other countries would consider slave labor disguised as "opportunity" for those from more disadvantageous surrounding economies. This lack of equality runs deep through all the different social constructs of its culture.

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I feel that would be the case for most countries and places though. That's not so obvious, a local college degree will almost always work better than an non-local one.

I've worked in cities around the world and never seen elsewhere this particular kind of gap in opportunity based on where you are from as demonstrated in Singapore.

But my example was just one example of this inequality. It can really weigh you down to live in it for some time if you are from a country with much more general freedom and attempts at social equality (i.e. much of europe or even the U.S.).

I can sort of understand where it might come from, but with that one example it is difficult to comprehend exactly what it's like.

It's across the whole social hierarchy. Some mainland Chinese bus drivers went on strike because the official pay scale dictated that they be paid less than Malays for the same job.

They even said "look we understand why locals get paid more for the same job but why Malays? This is unfair"

For their troubles they were arrested, imprisoned, had the shit kicked out of them before being deported.

That's still better than how Bangladeshi migrant workers are treated.

The racism is not as bad as it is in, say, Saudi Arabia or Israel but it's still pretty bad.

That’s not racism it’s nationalism.

It was just one example.

Is there such thing as ethnic Philippine Singaporean?

Not really. The main ethnicities are Chinese, Indian, Indonesian, Malay.

We consider Malaysian a nationality, and Malay an ethnicity. I can see how it's confusing since Chinese and Indian are also nationalities.

You’re right, that’s a common mistake I’ve always made. I edited my comment.

That's not nationalism it's racism.

This is true for all countries which import labour. So nearly all, barring a few.

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