Americans in Singapore

It's 8:00pm Sunday. I just finished making my powerpoint for my presentation tomorrow morning on American expatriates in Singapore. To research this project, I spoke with a American professor at NUS who's been here for 18 years and doesn't like it at all and I visited the Singapore American School where he coaches the baseball team. I talked with some of the students and their parents.

I was astonished with much of what I found. The American community in SIngapore is well established and structured in such a way that there is minimal contact - almost none - with Singapore and Singaporeans. Walking around the campus of the Singapore American School, I felt like I was back home:


And both the students and the parents had no inclination to blend in or embrace Singapore. They create a little America based around the school and the American club. The students don't speak like Singaporeans, have never ridden the bus, and don't consider it home. It seemed like everyone on the baseball team was wearing a t shirt with the name of their home on it: state, university, or country.


They come here for one reason only: to make money. The financial, IT, and oil industries want American talent, and offer high salaries with lots of benefits (free tickets home, upper class life style, club membership). They come and work here for some years, then go home. Some stay, but they still want to go home someday.

I thought that wasn't acculturating very much. But relative to the rest of the Americans here, I'm practically a native.