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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   29373 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 19, 2024

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I always thought Singapore's approach here was at minimum interesting and very in character from what I've read about Lee Kuan Yew. (Quoting from https://globalizationandhealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12992-023-00946-5)

Singapore adopts a bifurcated, two-pronged foreign labour policy in which unskilled and low-skilled workers are subject to different labour schemes compared to higher-skilled workers, who are typically better educated and in managerial positions. Under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act (EFMA) that regulates the import of foreign labour into Singapore, unskilled and low-skilled workers (hereafter known as low-wage migrant workers) are employed under the Work Permit (WP) scheme while higher-skilled workers are employed under the Employment Pass (EP) scheme. The Work Permit scheme is a temporary foreign worker programme designed to employ low-wage migrant workers to fulfil labour shortages in Singapore. As such, workers admitted under the WP scheme are subject to stricter state control and differential protections under EFMA. The higher-skilled Employment Pass holders are entitled to minimum salaries (at least $5000 per month) with employment benefits such as paid annual leave and medical insurance. In addition, Employment Pass holders are also allowed to freely change jobs, bring dependents to Singapore and integrate into the community by applying for permanent residency in Singapore.

Migrant workers, employed under the Work Permit scheme, are bound to a restrictive sponsorship system known as “kafala” that prevents them from economic and social mobility unlike their higher skilled counterparts. Work Permit holders are tied to the employer, job type and sector they were hired for and are prohibited from changing their jobs or job sectors freely. Work Permit passes have a limited validity of 2 years, and employers have the power to terminate passes without consequence at any time. Additionally, low-wage migrant workers are not entitled to minimum wages, paid annual leave, or medical benefits and basic salary is determined by their skill level (i.e. median monthly salary of SGD 800. They are also disallowed from applying for permanent residency in Singapore or bringing their dependents to Singapore. As a result, low-wage workers are stuck in a cycle of job precarity and transience as they are prevented from establishing roots in Singapore.

Furthermore, while both Work Permit and Employment Pass holders are excluded from subsidized healthcare and social welfare in Singapore as foreigners, Work Permit holders face significant financial barriers to seeking healthcare due to low wages and job precarity.

I do wonder if the optics of being so open about treating people this differently would chafe too hard with the inclination towards some nebulous notion of equality that is almost instinctual for many Americans, including the politically moderate. We already do such things to some extent, but the people who are rejected entry and die in poverty or who break their backs for poverty wages under the table are largely out-of-sight-out-of-mind for American voters. I think being so obviously confronted with the image would make public support for such a scheme inviable.

Wouldn’t separating by education level (verified by testing) work better? If the problem is skill level, then measure the skills. Money might be a sort of proxy, but it can be gamed simply by borrowing or stealing from other family or friends or whoever.

The Kafala system of the UAE is somewhat analogous to the Singapore migrant worker system, but if anything the UAE has increased worker rights to match Singapores (not really high) migrant worker protection standards, so the negative valence of a loaded term like Kafala is employed more for affect than accuracy.

The most obvious benefit of a restricted work permit system is the explicit avoidance of bringing in dependants. The work permit system applies primarily to labourers, domestic helpers and prostitutes. These categories of workers can have their work visas revoked effectively at will, their home countries are bound by formal diplomatic agreements to take back visa breakers, and they are not entitled to any family benefits at all. If a prostitute or domestic worker gets pregnant their visas are revoked and the children are not automatically entitled to Singaporean citizenship even if the father is Singaporean. There is no civil partnership type of legal category here, so citizenship is not granted to fathers for children out of wedlock. Finally, work pass holders need permission from the Ministry Of Manpower to marry locally, citizen or not. There are a few domestic helpers that married local men, but the stereotype of these women being domestic helpers has made them relatively unattractive prospects for much of society. Quite unfortunate, given how fucking hot some of these girls can be. The most common foreign marriages here are local men marrying vietbu/siambu, who often are here on student visas or short term visit passes and not prostitute or domestic worker passes. (I know one edge case where because of covid a short term visit pass girls was able to appeal for permission to create a cleaning business to sustain herself while stuck here, and she got a bunch of whores to sign up as cleaners. Many awkward moments for some men in condos where their favorite whore rotated to do COVID cleaning theater in their condos). Because they did not come in under a migrant worker visa, they faced less restrictions on marriage (formally they are not allowed to be employer, but my previous post on Singapore prostitution makes clear how these girls can pay their way)

Another fact to consider is the lack of overall social benefits which limits the attractiveness in gaming the system to force permanent entry into Singapore. No one is entitled to medical benefits in Singapore to begin with, as entitlements are a taboo word in the local polity, but standard workplace practices like workmans compensation and sector specific insurance's do cover enough of a workers expected health outcomes to optimize output. With minimally adequate protections and little additional protections or entitlements by gaming the (difficult) system, players are disincentivized to try too hard.

Despite the ostensibly strict regulations on work pass holders being channeled into their specializations, I can attest that PLENTY of migrant workers are greymarket hustlers, and every bangla I meet gives me his QR code namecard so I can call him or whatever buddy he has for any manual work I need done - the big problem of this is that these shameless fucks them spin a sob story and ask to borrow money all the goddamn time, like all the prostitutes and hostesses who manage to snag your wechat.

The racialized differentiation also cleaves more starkly in the USA than in Singapore. The bangladeshis and indians are the migrant construction workers, yes, but their bosses and sponsors are local Singaporean Indians. White pit bosses commanding latino day laborers probably looks more uncomfortable to race sensitive americans as opposed to multiracial Singapore where everyone is openly lowkey racist to each other.

The racialized differentiation also cleaves more starkly in the USA than in Singapore. The bangladeshis and indians are the migrant construction workers, yes, but their bosses and sponsors are local Singaporean Indians. White pit bosses commanding latino day laborers probably looks more uncomfortable to race sensitive americans as opposed to multiracial Singapore where everyone is openly lowkey racist to each other.

Americans who would be uncomfortable with this dynamic are largely unaware of it. People who are aware of the ‘white bosses, centraco laborers’ phenomenon don’t care.

Fully agree. Americans will absolutely tolerate that Taylor Swift or Warren Buffett are totally unequal to them, but they will not tolerate a formal legal system that deems them so.

Why not? The legal system of special privileges for a different social class already exists in the USA. 'Two-tier policing' in the UK is catching on as a catchphrase to encapsulate the phenomenon of high-frequency criminals being underprosecuted, and it frankly applies to the USA as well. This is somewhat countering the prevailing meta of 'its racist to prosecute minorities more often' because minorities are in fact committing crimes at a much higher frequency than even their incarceration rates confirm, but the prevailing meta is still 'black people are being arrested unfairly'.

The law is unevenly applied, but it hews to observable patterns: rich fucks abuse the tax code, repeat offenders abuse legal protections for minorities or the incarcerated.

Yes, but even they are not permitted to make such policies explicit and legible.

An unevenly applied law that notionally applies to all is still better than different laws for me and thee.

Nor should they. Codifying the inequality means doubling down on it.

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