Tourists may mistaken Singapore as a country where its population have poor social etiquette, weak communication skills or any sense of social grooming. Who could fault them for having this perception?
Since 2006, influx of foreigners continue to plague the Singapore society with social ills. Our "founding father," continues to harp on the merits of foreign talent, and recently commented on how they "..will allow Singapore to punch above its own weight.."
The majority of migrants in Singapore come from third-world countries -- India, China, Phillippines, Vietnam, Burma, etc. The ruling party defines them as Foreign Talent rather than Foreign Workers but I will coin them as Third World Migrants (TWM). Many netizens and citizens alike have qualms about such definition. If you didn't already know, although
some migrants from India may profess to have MBA, they continue to have weak communication skills, they are disrespectful to the local culture and love to highlight about their culture in a foreign land. One would have negative views of such boastful migrant -- who for some reason were able to find an occupation by substandard graduate qualifications not within the academic rankings of the rest of the World.
A third of the population in Singapore today, is a foreigner. It may be difficult to differentiate a foreigner and a local in the eye of a tourist during their commute in Singapore unless they were of non-asian origin. One way tourists can identify this is by assessing their social etiquette and their manners.
TWM are unabashedly unrefined; they speak loudly, they are inconsiderate, they have no sense of dressing, they do not use deodorant, and they have no interest in speaking English. Some Singaporeans would refer them as 'crows' in Singapore. As the government has grown the economy greater than the local labour force can provide, these crows have come in great heaps to feed on the harvest but the farmer is nonchalant about this situation. Such crows have been clueless on what
manners or etiquette is.
Notwithstanding this, it is unsurprising that these TWM fail to give up seats to the disabled or those in need on buses and trains. They are blind to the signages and lack the empathy they have for the commuters who need them more. Increasingly, TWM also cause inconvenience to commuters with their 'stench' which possibly is a norm back in their home country. It is not a norm for Singaporeans to go out in the streets with a smell, there is no excuse in not showering before one would leave for their destination. This is considered impolite and worthy of scorn. Despite the suppressed wages because of the influx of migrants, any Singaporean is better able to groom themselves with perfume, or least not smell! TWM may think it is acceptable to wear 'smell' with their flavours of sweat, or aromatic scents or traditional perfume not available from Sephora or Sa Sa or a department store! I recall being on a train, and it only took 3 or 4 TWM to fume the whole MRT carriage with their pungent scent worthy of contempt!
I continue to wrestle the ruling party's stance on foreign talents and their definition of it. I am constantly alarmed at their "awesome" IQ and they make simple conversations difficult to grasp when ordering food! But they will always ask you for directions -- and will take more than 15 minutes! I offer no help because they are unable to comprehend our Singlish but choose to rather mock it. So long as you are in a foreign land, doesn't give you automatic bragging rights!
Recently, Singaporeans were labelled Stupid. The tabloid NEW PAPER, highlighted an
Indian National condemning Singaporeans because she did not deposit a coin in the machine for the child to enjoy the ride. The citizens were enraged. So I went to search for an average IQ in the world and found those results. The large influx of migrants namely from India and Philippines, have below-90 points IQ average scores. It is no wonder, the Singapore citizens, are finding them increasingly unable to keep up or integrate into our society -- Singaporeans have an average IQ score of 103, Hong Kong 107, China and UK 100. These data were pulled from a renown researcher in 2002 and in 2006, with little variation in that 4 years. Go wikipedia them or buy them off amazon. For your convenience, I've included these data below which also includes the average IQ scores in First World Nations.
Figure 1: Singaporeans have average of 103, East Asia scores above 100 for Average IQ tests.
Figure 2. South Asians (India & Bangladesh) have below 85 points.
Figure 3: Philippines score slightly higher than 85 points.
So in case you find yourself not understanding the conversation with a stranger in Singapore, they smell, have a thick foreign accent, they aren't Singaporeans. They are TWM with average IQ less than 90, less than First World Nations.
p.s. Singapore is not 1 year old, so it is not fair to say Migrants have contributed to our success. Also, many hands built this nation -- it's not built overnight. Lax migration policies only occurred in 2006. Since their arrival, everything went downhill in the rankings including cleanliness. Why would a citizen appreciate littering in their neighbourhood and parks by these pesky crows?