One of the most interesting cross-cultural communications
that Huong and I have had in the 12-years that we’ve been together has been on
the issue of visas into certain places. I simply cannot understand why she’s
willing to go all out to deal with the bureaucracy of getting into certain
places. She’s currently trying to get into the USA and the paper work is, in my
view, pointless. However, to her, dealing with the paper work is a small price
one has to pay to get into the USA. For me, I always figured that with the
exception of Bhutan, no place was worth going to if you had to wrestle with
bureaucrats just to get in. I take France as an example. When I was in school
in the 1990s, I refused to go to France. Every country in the EU allowed
Singaporeans visa-free entry and I couldn’t see what the French had to offer
that required a struggle with bureaucrats.
The difference in our attitude boils down to
passports. I travel on a Singapore passport, which according to The Henley Passport Index for 2023 allows me to enter 193 countries without having to apply for a
visa. The Singapore passport has the best of East and West. Our reputation is
such that Western nations trust us enough that we’ll leave after a certain
period to go back to decent paying jobs and nice homes, rathe than trying to
stay illegally. We’re also Asian enough for places in Indo-China not to shake
us down for visa fees when we enter. Say what you like about Singapore but I
don’t have much incentive to leave. Whilst I am not rich by any means, I am
earning a living in a decent enough currency and have access to decent enough
facilities. If I move anywhere, its either for holiday or it’s got to be an
amazing business opportunity.
Huong by contrast, travels on a Vietnamese passport, which
according The Henley Passport Index for 2023, allows her to travel to 54
countries visa-free. While Vietnam has been an “up-and-coming” economy, life in
rural Vietnam, where Huong was born, remains tough. Then you got to add in the
fact that the Vietnamese Dong competes with the Iranian Riyal for the world’s
lowest value currency on the planet, which means that even if there are jobs
available, you’re going to look and feel poor compared to everyone else (I used
to have that feeling with my friends in the UK when it was a three-to-one
exchange rate in favour of the GBP to the SGD. No matter how many SGD I had, it
always had to be divided by three for my British friends to understand). So,
for Huong everywhere outside Vietnam is a place of prosperity.
I bring up the contrasting attitudes that Huong and I
have towards visas because today is World Migrant and Refuge Day, which if you
look at geopolitical events, has become especially significant. Think of things
like the War in Ukraine, where people have been displaced and forced to flee because
someone decided to grab their country.
Its also significant in Singapore. Despite being a
nation that was built by migrants and people fleeing either economic
deprivation or political persecution, we easily fall for the notion that “outsiders”
from less developed places are out to get us. Take one of our “great” military
achievements in the 1970s – turning away boats of refugees fleeing Vietnam. The
only comment I got from someone who was part of this military achievement was “why
didn’t these people stay and fight?” Erm, the world’s strongest military had just
abandoned them and you expected them to stay and fight with?
I believe that I am not the only native-born
Singaporean who has an inability to understand the need to leave your “homeland.”
The general attitude that many of us have is that you couldn’t make it in your
own country so you come to mine and want to rob me of my birthright. I remember
a decently educated customer at the Bistrot using that precise argument to
defend Donald Trump’s remarks on Mexicans being rapist.
Our position is a very privileged one. What we fail to
recognize is that people like refugees fleeing economic deprivation or political
persecution have a hunger to survive and thrive. What they are fleeing from is to
them, so awful that they devote their energy to the host country and end up building
the host country. I grew up in the UK where the “Pakis” (the generic term a lot
of Brits use for South Asians. A good portion were not actually from Pakistan but
Gujaratis from Africa) built corner shops and sent their kids to school and even
into 10 Downing Street. The native Whites by contrast found gainful employment
asking you for small change.
Then, we need to remember that the man that many in
the “Anti-Refuge” and “Anti-Migrant” camp claim to worship was once a refugee.
After her was born in a manger, he and his parents had to get him into Egypt as
fast as they could. The reason was simple, Harrod the Great had decided to go
on a child murdering spree.
https://www.amormeus.org/en/blog/106th-world-day-of-migrants-and-refugees/
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