Foreign Talent or Foreign Worker? Neoliberalism within Immigration Policy in Singapore

This article examines the role of neoliberal governmentality in shaping immigration policy, and considers the ways in which immigration under such a neoliberal agenda is contingent on the commodification, segmentation and subsequent precarisation of labour markets. The “tides” of the situation is the current state of immigration policy and the debilitating structural violence it transmits to low-skilled migrant workers. As opposed to a purely neoliberal approach, this article proposes a humanistic approach as the “stride” necessary, and suggests how prevailing immigration policies and discourse can be modified to achieve this.

Reluctantly leaving home or taking public transportation on a daily basis in fear of being scrutinised. Selling land and taking on loans only to accumulate debts in agency fees with salaries for the first year going back to repaying them. Working prolonged hours in labour-intensive jobs and going home to bland, nutritionally deficient food. Being herded at the back of lorries sans seatbelt, jostled around at every road bump and curve. Sleeping on bunk beds in dormitories with two ceiling fans shared amongst twenty others. Being denied medical treatment for an injury sustained on-site because their employer refuses to pay for surgery. These are neither anecdotes from a foreign land nor exaggerations of an underdeveloped country.These are some of the injustices happening much closer to home than anticipated; these are injustices happening right here in Singapore.

Interpreting Singapore’s “Neoliberal Governmentality”

Embodying free marking competition, neoliberalism is a market philosophy characterised by individualism and privatisation. This marks a shift away from state welfare provision and government activity. Over time, neoliberalism has evolved and departed from its strict economic tenets, manifesting as an ideology of governance. Neoliberal governmentality argues that neoliberal political rationality should be used to achieve the ultimate goal of resource optimisation (Liow 2011).

Singapore's embrace of neoliberalism emerges from their adoption of an uncompromising and pervasive survivalist ideology post-independence (Dugo 2022). Recognising the value of resource optimisation in a sparsely populated and land-constrained nation, the city-state’s leadership spearheaded a shift towards neoliberalism in political-economic practices. Amidst the 1980s, these neoliberal inclinations eventually became ratified imperatives (Dugo 2022). Neoliberal principles had become the ultimate compass dictating the government’s political action in virtually every sphere, from public health to correctional policy.

Singapore’s immigration policy is no exception to this. Access to rights is tiered based on how economically desirable a prospective migrant is perceived to be in accomplishing the national objective of sustaining growth in the most economically efficient way possible (Yeoh 2004). To facilitate such “efficiency”, the state has created an apparatus of tier-like visa categories: from the Employment Pass, to the S-Pass, to the Work Permit, with each category distinguishing workers based on their skill and education level, and subjecting workers to distinct immigration and social policy accordingly.

The Skills-Based Distinction

Highly-skilled workers are recruited under the Employment pass as foreign talents, deemed as agents for socio-economic transformation, and anticipated to contribute significantly to the nation's long-term economic growth (Dugo 2022). Employment pass holders are managed through relatively-liberal immigration policy to draw these workers in, enabling easy capitalisation of these investments in human capital and allowing for “technology transfers” in creating Singapore as a “Talent Capital” (Hui 1998). Furthermore, they are granted the concomitant rights that would be expected of citizens, as well as additional white-glove treatment, such as the ability to transfer to different jobs and bring their families along with them, in an effort to persuade them to settle here.