SINGAPORE?Hotel staff from the Philippines, construction workers from Bangladesh, waitresses from China, shipyard welders from Burma (Myanmar), technology professionals from India?Singapore has them all.

For years, the rich but worker-starved city-state, built by mainly Chinese immigrants, had rolled out the welcome mat for foreigners, whose numbers rose drastically during the economic boom from 2004 to 2007.

Of Singapore?s population of nearly five million last year, 533,200 were permanent residents and 1.25 million were foreigners on employment passes, along with their families, official statistics show.

?There are social and physical limits to how many more we can absorb,? Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam told parliament in February.

He said the government would make it costlier for companies to hire foreigners by raising the levies they must pay for every non-Singaporean or nonresident they hire.

The government also earmarked 5.5 billion Singapore dollars (US$3.9 billion) over the next five years to upgrade Singaporean workers? skills to boost their productivity, make them more competitive and raise incomes.

It imposed measures to cool down rising home prices, also blamed on foreigners buying into the property market, and pledged it would further tighten the process of accepting permanent residents and new citizens.

?I think it is shaping up to be one of the hottest issues in Singapore today,? political commentator Seah Chiang Nee told Agence France-Presse.

Economist Song Seng Wun of CIMB-GK Research said that apart from helping local companies rise up the value chain, the new measures would also address potential election issues.

Seen doing something

?The government has to be seen doing something in areas that are potential flashpoints,? Song said.

Disenchantment over foreign workers gained momentum during a severe economic slump that began in the third quarter of 2008, when trade-reliant Singapore became the first Asian economy to slip into recession.

Drastic job and salary cuts were implemented, affecting many white-collar workers.

The most common complaint was that Singaporeans were losing jobs to foreigners who were willing to accept much lower salaries.

?Foreigners are a damn pain in the butt. I seriously wonder if they are here to work or just snatch jobs from our locals,? said one posting on the popular online forum sammyboy.com.

Ire at white-collar workers

?Most Singaporeans do not feel angry at low-skilled foreign workers...it is more aimed at those who come in as white-collar workers and get the jobs that Singaporeans can do,? said Seah, who runs the political website www.littlespeck.com.

Some employers have said they do not hire Singaporeans for certain jobs because locals are choosy and often lack the natural social and communication skills in service professions like manning hotel front desks.

Singapore?s founding leader Lee Kuan Yew, an adviser to the cabinet of his son Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said in January that ?we?ve grown in the last five years by just importing labor.?

?Now, the people feel uncomfortable, there are too many foreigners,? Lee said.

?The answer is simple: We check the flow of foreigners, raise your productivity, do the job better, so that instead of two workers, eventually you?ll do it with one worker, like the Japanese do.?