we are NOT xenophobic.

Xenophobia- the concern that will be discussed in the maiden post.

I've been thinking a lot about this lately. You see, I've always been involved in politics and I've a special interest in opposition politics and social concerns of Singaporeans. One issue that stands out, to me, is the huge inflow of foreign immigrants to our soil.

I know some people might have labelled us as xenophobic, simply because we had a reaction to the 'sudden' overcrowding of the tiny island. We see our trains and buses getting more crowded, more foreign slangs being spoken, even more foreign-sounding greetings when we shop. I beg of these people to please, please, NOT oversimplify things.

Being a first year student at a university, I do have a number of foreign friends and classmates. I see them getting along very well with our local students. I have great discussions with my friends from other countries too! The exchange of ideas is simply refreshing and I am really thankful that I have such experiences. I have pretty close friends who are not Singaporean too and we get along pretty well. I'm sure this applies to many out there, so, in what way are we xenophobic?

If you think our complaints of jobs being taken away on an unfair basis are illegitimate, I really think you should think again. I feel handicapped not being able to speak in Chinese sometimes. I can't even order a basic order of tauhuey mixed with soymilk without having a puzzled face look back at me wondering what I'm saying. Or even having to gesture when asking for one more plastic knife for my macchiato because the person does not understand it when i say "could i have one more knife?" Of course now i know i could just say "我要多一个可以吗？" with my limited Chinese knowledge but that's beside the point. The point is, I am sure we feel that such jobs could be filled by locals who are able to speak at least basic English to serve us. Why do we have people with such low qualifications there? Service industry jobs are NOT jobs that Singaporeans shun. I am VERY sure of it.

Building up on the examples above, I can understand why there have been slurs lately saying Singapore is becoming "Chinapore". Before taking up Chinese 1 i felt seriously handicapped to the max. I think the whole issue is not so much of shunning the Chinese nationality, it's about the non-integration of immigrants. Basic English is very important here. We are a multi-racial society and English is our lingua franca. It just cannot be compromised. Remember the whole curry incident? Before anyone labels it as xenophobic, they should understand why we reacted. How can anyone just DEMAND that something that is so culturally embedded be stopped just for them? If you choose to stay in Singapore, you better integrate into society. We will welcome you. The hostility towards curry sparked off a movement, which, btw, made me VERY proud to be Singaporean, and there have been criticism that it was a xenophobic move.

It could just be me, but, I feel that sometimes, it is difficult to express dissatisfaction because our woes are just being oversimplified. My plea is that we should identify exactly what we are unhappy with. The more we direct our anger towards foreigners in general, the more our concerns will be dismissed. Voice out how we feel foreign in our own land. How they should be integrating with us, not the other way around. How quality control has to be tightened up when it comes to issuing work permits or even PR status or citizenship. We are NOT daft, xenophobic, Singaporeans. We have genuine concerns and we should NOT be dismissed so easily.

The writer is a 19 year old Singaporean undergrad who genuinely wants the best for her country. She is pursuing a degree in social work and hopes to help as many as she can in the community.