A Caucasian man asked “What’s Singapore like for foreigners?” recently on Reddit. He explained that he had received job offers for software engineering roles in Singapore and wanted to get an idea of how migrants are treated these days.
The man, who described himself as 38 years old, white, and who’ll be moving from the European Union, wrote, “I’ve heard the last couple of years there is a lot of anti-foreigner sentiment, does this carry through in day to day life?”
One of the people who answered him comes from a similar background also gave him a valuable bit of advice. He wrote that he is here for good and praised Singapore as “an awesome place to live.”
“I am white male. Been living here 15+ years. I came here around your age now. Never felt any hostility ever in my time here. I am here to stay, because it’s such an awesome place to live. Just don’t act like an entitled a**hole, and you will never have any issues.”
Another Reddit user appeared to back this answer up, saying “Hostility against white men are usually seen in nightclubs when they show disrespect and behave like Asian women belong to them.”
“As long as you dont p*ss us off, we won’t blow up at you,” wrote another.
One commenter, another Caucasian man, said that he’s “copped hostility” especially online, just because he’s married to an Asian woman.
However, another argued that Caucasians, especially males, actually have it good in Singapore, as long as they don’t have a superior attitude.
“Singaporeans are not hostile to Caucasians, quite the opposite in fact. Just don’t have ‘Whites better than Asian’ attitude and mindset and you will be good here,” they wrote, which seemed to horrify the OP.
Others agreed.
Another pointed out that non-white foreigners in Singapore have a different experience.
One commenter explained that the anti-foreigner sentiment escalated during the pandemic, due to the behaviour of some ang mohs.
/TISG