Racial discrimination against Indians and PRCs
Oh sorry, the article is not about anything in Europe or Merica.
When Sunil first moved to Singapore, he had trouble finding an apartment.
"I called up several landlords who had listed rooms for rent," Sunil, a Sri Lankan who spent eight years living in the UK, said.
"Things would start out OK, maybe because of my [Western] accent - but the moment they heard my name, they'd blank out. Many said 'sorry, we don't rent to these people', or 'sorry, no room for Indians'."
Sunil, a civil engineer who arrived in 2012, said he was rejected by at least four landlords.
"I told them that Sri Lanka was not India, that I wouldn't eat or cook in the apartment, and that I would be outside all day. But still, they wouldn't offer me a room," he said.
"At that point, I got fed up and decided to only try Indian landlords. I was invited to viewings right away."Sunil is not alone. A quick glance at online rental listings shows many that include the words: "no Indians, no PRCs [People's Republic of China]", sometimes followed by the word "sorry".
A count on 24 April found that there were more than 160 housing adverts on the website PropertyGuru that clearly stated that the landlord did not wish to rent to Indians and/or mainland Chinese.
The issue appears more common with less expensive properties and on sites where content is posted directly by users, such as Gumtree.
It is not clear how many foreign workers have been affected. However, several expatriates have described experiencing varying levels of discrimination.
One Indian expat said his agent told him that many landlords would refuse to rent to him because "Indians always cook smelly curries". Another Briton of South Asian descent did not experience any direct discrimination, but was warned by his agent that some landlords could be difficult.
It was something I experienced too, albeit indirectly. When I searched for a flat, my housing agent received a phone call from one landlord who was worried that I was from mainland China, presumably after they learned about my Chinese ethnicity.
I listened to them discussing my background for what felt like an agonisingly long time. After she hung up, I asked her if it would reassure the landlord if they knew I was British.
"It doesn't matter," she said. "They may still think you're a PRC who obtained a British passport."SourceSingapore is an ethnically diverse nation, consisting of 74% Chinese, 13% Malay, 9% Indian and 3% from other groups. However, as 90% of Singaporean households own their homes, a significant portion of renters are foreigners.
Immigration has also become a sensitive issue, amid concern over living costs and rising housing prices, which many locals blame on foreigners.
Eugene Tan, Associate Professor of Law at Singapore Management University, says: "In the current state of ambivalence towards immigration in Singapore, my sense is that race and country of origin have taken on a stronger accent with regards to how landlords may view Indian/PRC tenants."
Singapore's government places a strong emphasis on racial harmony. Studies suggest that there is relatively little racial discrimination in the public sphere, but things can be different in private.
"The Singaporean state has considerably influenced Singaporeans' willingness to work and be alongside those who are racially different," Dr Mathews says. "Singaporeans have learned to accept the realities of living in a multi-racial and multi-religious society. The private sphere, however, is one which the state has not tried to influence."
A landlord's choice of tenants "would probably fall within people's private spheres in terms of who they would choose to come into their home space".
Attitudes to race came to the fore in December, when hundreds of foreign workers from India and South Asia rioted after an Indian national was killed in a bus accident. The incident sparked a strong response on social media - many made comments denouncing foreign workers, although many others also spoke out against racism.
It is notable that Singapore government promote multiculture not because it looks fancy or civilized, but because the past experience; during the 60s there were series ethnical violence in Singapore between Malay and Chinese, resulted the whole island closely to be paralyzed. To prevent this happened again, Singapore government started promoting an artificial "local" culture and trying to use this new identity to prevent ethnical conflict. Anyway, I remember a few days ago a member asked me how other Chinese state think about mainland Chinese, so I feel this is a good opportunity to answer him, and for the rest of you, a glance about racial discrimination in a Western but non-white country (or non-Western non-white country, as mainland Chinese treat Indian pretty much in same way).
Originally Posted by Markas
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That's pretty funny in hindsight when looking today at the incredibly wealthy and modernized city-state of Singapore and thinking it could ever have been considered the springboard for communism.
