Foreign Manpower in Singapore: Classes, Policies and Management

The management of foreign manpower is vital for any labor import country as failure to ensure efficacy in the achievement of labor migration policies and program goals often generates a whole range of unintended consequences like xenophobia, politicization of migration, irregular migration, and eventually, cessation of labor migration programs. Despite the abundance of research on dynamics of migration polices in Singapore, we are not sufficiently aware of micro-aspect of management of foreign manpower. This research attempts to fill the dearth of scholarship on this crucial and expanding field.

This paper examines the foreign manpower policy and its implementation mechanisms to highlight the importance of careful and comprehensive policy and transparent management. The Singapore case shows that a proactive policy and transparency in migration management is necessary to reduce the undesirable consequences of employing foreign manpower, especially low-skilled foreign workers. Singapore’s achievement in managing foreign manpower, therefore, is a model for other users of foreign manpower in the region and beyond.