Contributor Rachel wrote in to Little Fish to offer her two cents worth regarding the Straits Times forum page (17 May 2012), where there is a letter here "Online Views: Let's Not Take The Xenophobic Road" in which the writer wrote that "foreign
managers continue to discriminate against Singaporeans..."
Below is her letter contribution:
I have a friend who is a Singaporean and holds a degree in Zoology. This
degree is not very popular and unless one is a big fan of animals, you
will not take this course. Most holders will probably become a
laboratory technologist or a teacher or go on to do higher degrees and
do academic research. However, my friend now works for a well-known
company that supply agricultural seeds - corn seeds to be exact.
We
do not have agricultural industry in Singapore but there are a lot
around us in Asia, this is why the company sets up a regional HQ in
Singapore. Her boss is a Mexican who holds a PhD in agrobiology and
prior to relocating to Singapore, he has a wealth of experience in
managing agribusiness in Latin America.
Does he bring in
Mexicans to work for him in Singapore? Rather, he hires people
according to what his company requires. While my friend is technically
competent to be a product manager - going around South East Asia to
share with farmers new seeds and farming knowledge, she's not familiar
with the regulatory policies on genetically modified foods and GM corn
seeds are such. So working for her Mexican boss there are four more
foreigners - Australian, Chinese, Indian and Korean - they are all in
charge of writing dossiers to submit to the regulatory boards in each of
the countries they come from.
I believe where possible, when a
company sets up a subsidiary, the best way to cut costs is in fact to
hire the local people. However, in this situation, specific knowledge
is required such as familiarity with respective countries are desired.
His boss probably did not discriminate against hiring locals but there
are just no locals with the know-how.
Besides, with the company
setting up base in Singapore, the other non-technical positions such as
administration and finance are all locals or PRs. Therefore, before we
jump into any conclusion that foreign bosses are discriminating against
hiring Singaporeans, perhaps we should look the reasons behind the
hiring decision.
By Rachel.
Editor note: Little Fish thanks Rachel for her letter contribution & encourages more to come forward to share their contributions. Please 'Share' this blog link & 'Like' my Facebook Page: Speak Up Against Xenophobia in Singapore
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