I love living in Macau but Macau doesn’t love me living in Macau. Macau, even though they are one of the only countries in the world with FULL EMPLOYMENT, continues a xenophobic stance which does nothing but hurt Macau and it’s people.

The xenophobic stance is mostly pushed by labor unions which are driven by local interests that just want to cut off foreign competition under the guise of helping the Macau people which in reality the only thing they are helping is to line their own pockets.

It’s never been a secret that Macau has corruption, that part doesn’t bother me at all as it is quite transparent in Macau. What does bother me is that people continue to believe and support this crap which makes it harder for people like me who want to live and work in Macau and help grow the non-gaming economy.

Every year on Labor day you see mass protests which are mostly students and paid protestors that somehow get days off from work to go protest. You talk to these people and most of them have no idea why they are there and what they are protesting for just that they were told to come here and in a lot of cases paid to go there. Then every year in response the government makes it harder for people like me to stay and continue to work in Macau. 

The bottom line is affirmative action has never worked, it creates inequality and ends up hurting the locals. Look at the different between Penang & the rest of Malaysia for a good example. The majority of Malaysia has Buminputra laws that require natives to be part of a corporation and other incentives for hiring ‘Bumis’ and the majority of the country has suffered. Penang in which the government of Penang has rejected those laws is one of the major areas of growth and prosperity in Malaysia for all residents.

Macau has to stop this if they actually want to grow and their people to grow with it.