Poor work-life balance, stressful lifestyle, and excessive control by the Government are among the main reasons why some Singaporeans have emigrated or are choosing to leave their homeland, a Reddit thread discussing the topic recently revealed.
The Reddit thread was first posted on Tuesday (10 Aug), discussing why “ex-Singaporeans” opted to emigrate aside from family or work purposes. It has since garnered a number of responses from Singaporeans living abroad as well as those who are considering to leave the Republic.
According to the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) survey in 2018, close to one in five Singaporeans between the ages of 19 and 30 expressed their wish to emigrate, with Australia being the most desired country.
Based on the Reddit thread, many of the commenters cited poor work-life balance and stressful lifestyle in Singapore as the key reasons why they left their homeland, noting that living abroad has been a real eye-opener for them to have a “better quality of life”.
The person who created the thread noted that their friend is planning to move to Australia or New Zealand in a few years’ time due to shitty work-life balance and stressful lifestyle in Singapore. They added that their friend experienced “more freedom” in New Zealand during his visit there two years ago.
Poor work-life balance and stressful lifestyle in Singapore
True enough, those who have emigrated shared that they are having a much better work-life balance overseas than they had in Singapore. Meanwhile, a handful others pointed out that the high cost of living in Singapore has led them to leave the country.
“I work 35hours weeks in the UK. I would be working 60hour weeks minimum in Singapore. When I finish at 5pm UK time, some of my SG friends are still working at midnight/1am SG time,” said one netizen.
Another person wrote, “Everything is way too expensive in SG. The price of a 5-room BTO flat can get you a pretty decent house. Our cars practically cost 2.5-3 times.”
“Cost of living – $300k for a resale [3-room] HDB… unless ur a first-timer and lucky enough to get a BTO. I could get something decent in texas for 150k,” one Reddit user commented. 
One commenter shared that living in Singapore caused him “more anxiety” despite having financial stability there.
“Firstly, I feel more anxiety in Singapore.. financially, actually I am making enough, just the constant stress in the city etc makes you constantly feel like you are not enough, not earning enough, not achieving enough etc,” they wrote.
“Overall I feel less joyful/less happy as a person in Singapore, I am not sure why either, maybe it’s me.”
Another Reddit user, who will be turning 18 this year, said that they have been considering moving overseas due to the level of competitiveness and “the need to chase for material wealth” in Singapore.
“I wish people would be more interested in getting to know someone than to look at their socio-economic status, race, or background. Moreover, I feel ‘caged’ at home and am always having to be wary of making ‘too much noise’ which can be exhausting,” they wrote.
Singapore government has ‘way too much power’ over citizens
Meanwhile, a handful of Reddit users cited Singapore’s government control as the key factor why they are considering emigrating, noting that the Government possesses “way too much power” over the citizens.
One netizen wrote, “There’s a lot of these things that were created with good intentions, like POFMA and the recent thing about safe distancing officers being able to enter homes without warrants.
“The issue is that all these assume that we have a government that has our best interests at heart, which isn’t always going to be true. If it doesn’t affect us today, it might affect the next generation years into the future. It’s not a guarantee that it’ll ever be used for bad purposes, but we never know what’s going to happen.”
Besides that, a couple of Reddit users pointed out that they decided to leave because Singapore does not legalise same-sex marriage.
