Singapore tightens rules for expat workers with an eye on local discontent

The city-state is raising the salary threshold for foreigners to get a work permit amid stiff local competition for jobs.

Singapore – One of the world’s most open economies is attempting a delicate balancing act.

On the one hand, the Southeast Asian city-state wants to lure the world’s best and brightest to bolster its workforce, one of Asia’s most diverse.

On the other hand, it has to assure locals competing with foreigners for jobs that the system works for them, too, nipping potential resentment or xenophobia in the bud.

From next year, the government will tweak that calculus in favour of locals by raising the salary threshold for foreigners seeking approval to work in the city-state.

Last month, Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower announced that new applicants for the Employment Pass (EP) system will have to earn at least 5,600  Singapore dollars ($4,140) per month, up from 5,000 Singapore dollars ($3,700).