I’m just wondering why some Singaporeans seem to be unhappy with Malaysians working in Singapore not spending their money in Singapore.
Caveat, I’m not a Malaysian but my whole family on my mother’s side is.
Malaysians come to Singapore to work. They don’t come here and we pay them for doing nothing. They do something for our companies, and our companies pay them money for it. Our companies, in turn, produce goods and services for the consumption of Singaporeans, and for export, from which we make money that eventually gets paid to Singapore-based workers, most of whom are Singaporeans. The reason why there are so many jobs in Singapore, even for Singaporeans, is the availability of a high-quality labor market, of which, nearly 2 million are foreigners, a plurality of whom are Malaysian.
The presence of Malaysian workers make our industries more viable than if we were an island of 3 million. The presence of Malaysian workers enable us to fill in all the gaps in the labor market that we would otherwise find great difficulty in doing ourselves. The presence of Malaysian workers, reduces the insurmountable costs that our government budgets every year to support families in the raising of children. We don’t have to bear a single cent to raise from infancy, an accountant from Malaysia, who did her schooling in Malaysia, and subsequently earned an accredited degree from a reputable university in Australia.
Make no mistake, our economy owes an enormous debt to the many Johoreans, brothers, who come across the borders every single day.
What they do with their money is their prerogative. They earned it. The least we can do is to acknowledge the fact that we’re not the center of the universe.