Are Singaporean workers really losing jobs to Indian expats due to Ceca free-trade deal?

As Singapore stares into its Covid-fuelled deepest recession, job anxiety is fuelling a sudden new wave of resentment over a deal dating back to 2005

Read social media and it seems the immigration floodgates have opened, but the figures tell a different story. Experts say jobs are being created, not lost

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Office workers in Singapore. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:00am, 12 Sep 2020Updated: 4:31pm, 12 Sep 2020

As Singapore’s economy slows amid the coronavirus pandemic and job losses mount, people’s anxieties over their livelihoods have found a convenient target: a free-trade agreement Singapore signed with India in 2005. On social media, the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (Ceca) is being blamed for willy-nilly letting Indian nationals into Singapore to steal jobs from locals – no matter how many times the government says it is not true.

On a Facebook post of a news article explaining that Ceca did not give Indians automatic access to citizenship, permanent residency or employment, Stephanie Low commented: “Our jobs are taken by Ceca! Wait till the ministers’ jobs are also taken by them, then they will know!”

Others, like Emran Rahman, disparagingly referred to Indians as Ceca, saying: “Everywhere CECA! Even housing estates have them around!”

On the public group SG Opposition, Michael da Silva said the government was letting professional Indians in to give them citizenship and eventually gain their vote for the ruling party.

These worries have become more pronounced as Singapore battles its worst recession and countries around the world continue struggling to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.

Despite multiple clarifications from the authorities that Ceca does not give Indian jobseekers a free pass into Singapore, disgruntled citizens have latched onto two areas within the 16 chapters of the agreement that came into force in 2005. Their points of contention: intra-corporate transfers that let companies bring India-based staff into Singapore for a maximum term of eight years without having to first advertise the jobs to locals, and a list of 127 professions covered by the deal that range from database administrator, to accountants to financial analysts to medical specialists.

People cross a street in the shopping district of Orchard Road, Singapore. Photo: Reuters

Victor Tan, for example, who requested a pseudonym fearing a backlash that could hurt his career, insisted that job woes were caused by Ceca’s “free flow” of Indian nationals coming to Singapore.