RE:Singaporeans who quit the country and migrate overseas are disloyal

After 42 years of independence, Singapore has grown from a backward third world country to a fast developing country. We, Singaporeans, are provided with all the necessities and are prepared for the future. Moreover, given a trustworthy and stable government and a natural disaster-free environment, there should not be much dissatisfaction with our life in Singapore. However, as we developed further, the expectations we need to fulfil are higher, in outcome, the pressure given to our citizens is greater. Hence, migrating to foreign countries becomes an attractive alternative to our people. So, the question lies whether is Singapore losing Her precious manpower an important issue or is it the citizens' rights to do what they want more important?

Firstly, we agree that migrating from Singapore is being disloyal to a certain extent. Being a citizen of a particular country, patriotism and commitment are the two important values his/her country look for. By leaving their own country and moving into other ‘green pastured’ country, it shows Singaporeans may have already forgotten to repay what their homeland has done for them. Thus, in many of us, this motion seems to be a form of disloyalty to Singapore.

What are the reasons for them to leave their own homeland then? To compete with the fast growing countries, Singapore needs to consistently or improve even faster than others. In turn, the expectations for our people has raised dramatically to achieve such improvements. Such expectations eventually become a burden for us, and pushing us to the extreme ends. However, as compared to other countries like USA and UK, given a shorter working duration yet drawing a higher pay, and with lower stress level environment, this can be an attractive incentive for Singaporeans to migrate for a better career path. A stressful working environment is often an issue for the citizens to leave their country for good. This is evident by a recent Hong Kong news survey showing that if a country has high stress level in the working industry, many of them would actually consider migration as a form of relief to them.

As for our current generation, unemployment is a threat to us. Given a small land space with no abundant resources, a small island like Singapore may not been able to guarantee us with a stable and high-paid job. Even with a paper qualification, many of the graduates still are unemployed or unable to get their desired job. Moreover, parents of any child would hope their child to get a good career in the future, thus, if migrating to other countries can be a solution, these parents might be more willingly to forsake Singapore for a better future for themselves and their younger ones. Besides, Singapore's education system has always be criticised to be "lack of creativity" and "memorising" style of learning. Therefore, the scholars we created are often good at paper works yet they are weak in presenting ideas, which in turn causing them to take up the executives' positions than other higher posts which the foreign talents are often found in there. Unlike in other countries like Australia, they provide their students with hands on experiences with the resources they have and promote flexible style of learning, thus, there is the reason why these foreign students are doing better than our local kids. So, being doting parents, if their kids were able to be groomed in such learning environment in foreign countries than the "live less" environment in Singapore, migration become a must for them too.

Furthermore, we feel that this phenomenon of Singaporeans migrating to other countries can be a side effect of the influx of foreign talents into Singapore. In the past, our government has been invited foreign talents to our country as we lack of these professionals and labour to boost our economy. However, the presence of these foreign talents has become too significant in our life, many local talents probably have been neglected. Also, it has always been a controversial issue that because of these foreigners, many local people has lost their "rice bowls", and this upsets our people. Thus, being feared of taking over by the foreign talent, or even the sense of neglecting by the government on our local work pool, these may somehow encourage our people to migrate to other countries to seek for a better life.

On the other hand, when Singaporean migrates, Singapore’s talent pool gradually moves into countries like USA, UK and Australia. Thus, this has caused the most talented people of Singapore to chip in all of their skills to countries which are not their own, contributing to the country’s economic gains. This is somehow a disadvantage to Singapore as in the long run, it would lack the manpower needed for economic boost.

Moreover, Singapore has always be a cosmopolitan society, and because of this welcome of foreigners to our country, Singapore is able to climb up so far now and still being a relative strong opponent to other countries. Singaporeans should not deem this action as a form of bias act by the government, after all, Singapore government is trying to boost the economy so that our people can enjoy higher standards of living. And due to these foreign talents, we open new opportunities for our people to expose themselves to new skills, new working environment and larger social circle. Also, would any government want to chase off their local people and replace with foreigners? Our government would welcome foreign talents as the benefits outweigh the negative impacts, and Singaporeans would need to adjust their attitudes towards this issue and hopefully not to use this excuse for migration.

Most importantly, in the near future, Singapore would be facing a fast growing ageing population. We need almost of all our young talents and workforce to support the economy, if most of them have left Singapore in lurch, Singapore would only slowly degenerate and become like any developed countries facing pension and welfare problems. In terms of moral values, Singapore has contributed so much to groom every one of us and hoped to see us running the country well in the future, it is our responsibility to repay them with our contributions to the society too.

To conclude, we feel that Singaporeans migrating to other countries should not be deemed as a form of disloyalty to Singapore. With the reasons discussed above, it is also their freedom of choice to choose a lifestyle which serves to make them better, and they possess the freedom of movement too. With the difficulties they might face in Singapore, living in here may be a torture. However, before they leave their hometown, they should think about how much the country has done for them, and probably Singapore has more attention for them than the other foreign country does. All in all, I think Singapore government perhaps needs to do more in striking a balance between foreign talents and local talents, and most importantly convinces to our people that the citizens of this republic are highly significant. Thus, this may help to keep the hearts of our people in Singapore. Our pledge also stated "Pledge ourselves as one united people", it reminds us we should always place serving our country as the top priority mission in us.