The foreign-local affective divide is not new and many policies have been recalibrated in recent years to bridge the schism.
The obvious strategy involves dishing out more subsides and benefits to Singaporeans relative to foreigners; it encourages foreigners to take up citizenship while at the same time reassures Singaporeans that the policy-makers have their interests at heart.
This strategy is quintessentially an art of deficit management. You give more to one group to minimise perceived harm or disequilibrium.
But the problem with this old paradigm is that the more you delve into the alleged injustice, the more obsessed you get with the imbalance and, hence, the more upset you get.
It is rooted in the same psychological lens as the teaser in the opening paragraph. You look for the differences, the deficits. Full story
