SINGAPORE: Academic Donald Low has weighed in on the controversy sparked by a legal recruiter’s remarks that foreign workers are “hungrier” than Singaporeans, questioning whether recruiters are actually able to reliably assess traits such as motivation during the hiring process.
The debate began after Shulin Lee, founder of legal recruitment firm Aslant Legal, said on a recent CNA podcast that some employers were increasingly replacing Singaporean workers with foreign hires from countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines because they were perceived to be more driven and willing to “go the extra mile”.
Ms Lee argued that the issue was not necessarily one of skill, but of attitude and hunger, adding that workers should remain “paranoid” about changes in the labour market and continue improving soft skills such as communication and relationship-building.
Her remarks triggered strong reactions online, with some agreeing she was describing market realities while others accused her of unfairly stereotyping local workers and overlooking broader structural issues affecting Singaporeans.
After defending her comments in a series of Facebook posts, Ms Lee drew further criticism when she described offended individuals as being “triggered.” She has since locked her social media accounts from public view, though the debate has continued to gather momentum online.
Among those entering the fray is Professor Donald Low, the former associate dean at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, who now teaches at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
In a lengthy Facebook post, Prof Low said the “most interesting thing” about both Ms Lee’s comments and the public response was that few people appeared to question how recruiters determine whether a worker is genuinely motivated in the first place.
“As an economist, the most interesting thing about the legal recruiter’s comment that Singaporean workers aren’t as hungry as workers from other countries — and the overwrought reactions to it — is that nobody (neither she nor her detractors) seemed to highlight what I assumed would be the main point of contention: how does she know?” he wrote.
Prof Low framed the issue as a classic “information asymmetry” problem, arguing that job applicants naturally know more about their own abilities and motivation than prospective employers do.
While academic qualifications may offer some indication of a candidate’s capabilities or discipline, he noted that motivation is far harder to measure reliably during recruitment.
