The problem of the Macau labour force lies in the enormous imbalance between the real needs of the labour market, the phenomenon of social sentiment and the ways in which the issue itself is being presented to the general public by social groups and authoritative voices who frequently tend to manipulate the subject in any direction which they feel appropriate according to the call of the moment.
The task of maintaining the local workers’ unemployment rate at a low level is undoubtedly enormous, but in no way should it have direct links to the overall plan of economic development of Macau through a cut in foreign labour, especially on the background of structural unemployment, a situation which a great many countries would envy.
The Government rightly makes efforts to increase the number of training and career development courses for local residents in several areas, including tourism and the casino industry. Despite all those good intentions there are at least four major pitfalls which are not being addressed.
The first of them is the fact that the total demand for qualified personnel needed to occupy management and supervisory positions by far exceeds the tiny number of local employees physically available to undergo such training and eventually substitute the outgoing foreigners.
Secondly, the objectives are not at all clear. If we trust the official figures of full employment in Macau, are we trying to integrate the remaining six thousand of functionally unemployed unqualified residents into the active labour force at all costs, or is there something wrong with the statistics?
The third issue is the quality of the educational programmes and the educators themselves. It’s no secret that recent years have seen a sharp deterioration in the quality of education offered locally, leading many students to opt for tremendously expensive private schooling and study overseas. The paradox of Government training may result in qualifications being insufficient to satisfy the requirements of future employers, while the local education sector itself may experience, or is already experiencing, a critical demand for imported foreign instructors and the organisation of something better than evening and weekend courses.
The fourth drawback is a seemingly total lack of attention to the areas of economy which go beyond the traditional tourism and casino industries, but are absolutely indispensable for balanced economic development. The exhibition and convention industry is sidelined, despite the fact that it takes a great deal of time and financial resources to produce professionals in that sector. The language abilities of local residents are left to the discretion of the prospective students themselves, as “they should make use of their spare time […] to improve their foreign language abilities”, according to Dr. Shuen, Director of the Labour Affairs Bureau. As a language specialist with more than 20 years experience in applied linguistics, may I suggest strongly that the foreign language abilities which Macau really needs may not, and will not, be developed in the spare time by individuals with precarious levels of general education. It would take more than a few highly qualified native speakers of a language and a modern educational technique applied over a significant period of time to achieve that objective, not to mention that the process must start from a comprehensive and thorough review of primary and secondary schooling.
Given the fact that nearly all future projects in the Government portfolio are extremely labour intensive, and a general understanding that the recently announced cuts of foreign labour in the construction, casino, cleaning and building management sectors are only the first indicators of a much bigger programme, we would hope not to receive a wrong message, which would warrant preparations for an abrupt halt in economic development as has happened in the past, time and again. We trust that these measures are a part of some comprehensive and scientific economic planning, the details of which remain to be seen.
Having grown up in a family of aviators, I couldn’t have left unnoticed the new economic reality for both major casino players and local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) brought about by restrictions in the individual travellers scheme, and an immediate need to get inbound travellers from places much further away. This need can only be satisfied through an efficient and flexible aviation industry, appropriate aircraft and, again, qualified people. With continuing feuds over outdated monopolies and a blind eye to the education and human resources needed for the industry what can we possibly expect? An aviation sector which is still in its infancy and totally out of reach for locally educated Macau residents.
Local universities do excellent work in educating foreign students and preparing them to join labour markets back in their home countries. Do we teach and prepare enough local residents for the tasks needed in Macau? I’ll leave the answer to that to the reader’s discretion.
We must give credit to the Government for finally focusing the issue on the most problematic areas and for departing from the implicitly generalised idea of merely having too many foreign labourers. The new draft of the Labour Relationship Law is a clear improvement over the 1984 Legal Regime of the Labour Relationship, which in turn was inherited from the Portuguese legislation dating back as far as the 19th century. The next most sensitive step would be the long-awaited draft of legislation on foreign labour and part-time workers, currently under preparation. The Government has a tremendous task at hand; the task of giving Macau the chance of a better future, and this task is not an easy one.
The proposed remedy of offering more training for local casino dealers, whilst at the same time clearing their future positions from a natural obstacle in the form of imported foreign labour, will surely silence some of the intrinsically personal economic concerns and reduce the number of demonstrators in the street, but can we afford to forget that greater participation of local population in the gaming industry would only increase our dependency on a single sector of the economy, and gambling in general? The higher salaries offered by casinos are making the situation of our restaurants, shops and mom-and-pop businesses ever more intolerable and continue to asphyxiate those few daring to stay afloat.
Some of the SMEs are even forced to employ local residents merely to justify the use of non-resident workers, whilst an alarmingly high number of resident employees fail to produce a real added value for their employers and simply become a liability, part of the cost of hiring more qualified or more suitable foreign personnel.
There is a hope that the current labour crisis resolution process will not spell the end for Macau SMEs. If in the past the problem was addressed as a general move against the threat of foreign labour, the Government’s position seems to become clearer with calls for the major profit-generating players to shoulder the bulk of the problem, and the surging voices in support of SMEs, which by all means must be allowed to make their modest living in these extremely unfair market conditions.
To find a way out of the deadlock, Macau should first and foremost look back to its traditional values of multi-culturalism and tolerance. Over the course of history everyone living here contributed to the territory’s development, locals and foreigners alike. It’s that productive coexistence of peoples and cultures that made Macau what it has become today, what fortunately makes it different from any of our neighbours, and what ultimately attracts our visitors and our source of income.
The heritage of any Government is a complex matter. The general amnesty granted by the then Portuguese administration of Macau to tens of thousands of illegal mainland immigrants in the 80s and 90s obviously did not improve the overall education level of the general population, or any other demographic factor for that matter, but Macau managed to embrace the new and vibrant population which stayed and contributed to Macau growth over time.
We should grant resident status to the best representatives of a foreign labour force and allow their families to join them in Macau. If examples of our neighbours serve any positive purpose, then both Hong Kong and Singapore can give us a good lead.
For as long as we are able to resist xenophobic and populist arguments, Macau will be just fine. If we manage to implement sound economic and demographic policies before attempting any major economic changes, and not as a late remedy to inflicted damage, Macau will definitely do better. The process is not an easy one, but the end of monopolies has never been an easy venture.
Leo Stepanov
Managing Partner of Macau Translations Ltd.
Permanent Resident of Macau S.A.R.
Published in Macau Daily Times, 05 September 2008
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1 comment:
Interesting.
Of course, my knowledge of the situation in Macau is far from even a 'primary', basic literacy level, but my short-time first-hand experience and your logic seem to get on fine.
Афтар, пеши исчо :-)
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