Anti-Filipino campaign sparks debate on PAP government's immigration policy

The China Post, 26 Apr 2014
Eugene Tan, an associate law professor at the Singapore Management University, said the online backlash is a “visceral over-reaction and it does not reflect the sentiments of the average Singaporean.
“The anger probably stems from unhappiness with the government's immigration policy,” Tan, a social commentator and appointed lawmaker, told AFP.
Many Singapore citizens — who now make up barely over 60 percent of the population — see the overseas arrivals as competition for housing, schools and space in a city-state whose per capita income of US$54,500 masks one of the biggest income gaps in the world. Full story

OPINION: Singapore’s Impotent Immigration Policy

Asia Sentinel, 2 Apr 2014
It appears counter-intuitive to suggest that a cosmopolitan hub like Singapore might have a problem with xenophobia.
Yet xenophobia has emerged as a major political concern in the city-state. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has routinely addressed the issue of immigration and foreign workers in his National Day Rally Speeches since 2009 — and in 2012 he openly warned Singaporeans to refrain from overt expressions of hostility towards foreigners.
The trigger for this new xenophobic fear was former Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng’s 2005 decision to engage in massively expanding the intake of foreign workers to avoid an anticipated recession. This directly led to the current situation where nearly 40 percent of Singapore’s residents are foreigners — many of whom have no interest in developing ties to the country or the opportunity even if they were interested.
The government confessed that it had failed to take any steps at all to provide infrastructural or social support for this influx of foreign workers. Full story

OPINION: Straits Times journalist Denise Chong’s agenda on more immigrants

My Singapore News, 24 Feb 2014
The ST does not publish articles on social and political issues in the city for no reasons and one is not wrong to assume that every article is carefully screened and approved before appearing on print. The weekend article by Denise Chong, a young journalist on the politics of envy or jealousy by Sinkies against the influx of foreigners here is no exception. What is the message?
Here is just a small quote to give an idea of what she is pushing and approved for printing.

“I guess no matter how comfortably some have feathered their own nests, the psychological weight of seeing other people with nest eggs that are 20 or 40 or 60 million times bigger can sour contentment they might feel about their own more modest success.”

Why is a young journalist pushing so hard for more immigrants to come on board in this tiny island that is already over populated and squeezing the citizens out in many things, jobs, space, owning properties and cars? Why are there people who are so adamant, stubborn and persistent to want to flood the island with more foreigners? Why is it that now with a 40% of foreigners here, and targeted to be 50% or more in 2030 is a good thing and the more the merrier? What is the agenda?  Full story

Related:
STRAITS TIMES REPORTER: S'POREANS' NEGATIVE REACTION TO IMMIGRATION DUE TO JEALOUSY - The Real Singapore

140-year-old temple to make way for residential development projects to house 6.9 million population

Wanbao.omy.sg, 27 Jan 2014

万山福德祠今年6月使用准证到期，信徒担心古庙被拆。坐落沈氏通道的万山福德祠，有140多年历史，是广东人和客家人的重要庙宇。但随着周围许多座组屋陆续拆掉，兴建新的住宅单位，这座百年古庙命运何去何从，让庙宇理事会和信徒忧虑。 Link

Related:
[6.9 million target] 100+ years old temple will be demolished to build more housing - Hardwarezone Forum

OPINION: Concerns about diluting republic's sense of identity - Seah Chiang Nee

The Star Online, 28 Dec 2013
A serious impact of increasing the foreign content of the population to nearly 40% has been a dilution of Singapore’s cohesion and national identity.
Nowadays Singapore’s leaders seem less keen to promote nationalism among their citizens than they did in the past.
In fact, several leaders have begun to describe Singapore as a city rather than a country. Full story

Related:
Why the PAP was too clever by half - The Online citizen

Khaw Boon Wan unveils new draft masterplan: 500,000 new homes in 10-15 years for possible 10m population

Xinhua, 20 Nov 2013
SINGAPORE, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Urban Re-development Authority of Singapore unveiled an upgraded draft masterplan on Wednesday, pursuing better transport, more homes and a more liveable city.
The Draft Master Plan, which guides land use over the next 10 to 15 years with revisions every five years, points to more homes to be built in new housing areas as well as in the established estates. In total, enough land has been earmarked for 500,000 new homes, mostly public housing. Full story

OPINION: FT policy: Dialogue? What dialogue?

Atans1.wordpress.com, 23 Oct 2013
The unsaid assumption is that there are channels for discussion and dialogue, and that discussion and dialogue can lead to something meaningful being done to solve the grievances. All these “fruscos” need to do is to use these channels. Well, any dialogue or discussion has to involve the govt who initiated the liberal immigration policy.
For someone who perceptively writes, “Concerns over freedom of expression and other civil liberties need to be given attention”, I’m surprised that she doesn’t realise that there are no channels for discussion and dialogue on this issue, as on many other issues. NatCon is not dialogue and it didn’t exactly go into the FT policy.
And anyway the FT policy is not open for dialogue. By releasing the white paper when it did (juz before NatCon started, even an accademic involved lamented that fact), the govt sent a strong message that the issue is not negotiable. FTs are the Special Ones and taz a Hard Truth. See here and here.   Full story

Singapore government making preparations to house Singaporeans underground as it is running out of room for 7 million people

The New York Times, 25 Sep 2013
Singapore, with a little less land mass than New York City, is running out of room for its 5.4 million people.
The city-state has built upward — with apartment buildings reaching as high as 70 stories — reclaimed underused properties for housing and pushed out coastlines for more usable land.
But as one of the world’s most crowded cities, and with projections for 1.5 million more people in the next 15 years, Singapore’s options are as limited as its space. Full story

Related:

1. Singapore Underground: The Lion City Frees Up Space Below - The Diplomat
2. Crowded Singapore looks below for room to grow - CNBC.com

PAP govt added more foreigners into Singapore in the first six month of 2013

Wiki Temasek, 19 Sep 2013
In lieu with the 6.9 million population target, the PAP government have added in 27,000 foreign workers to replace Singaporeans. According to the latest statistics by the Ministry of Manpower [Source], the spike in foreign workers was led mostly by S-pass holders and work permit holders.
Traditionally, E-pass holders command a higher salary grade as they are considered talents holding positions of professionals, managers, engineers and executives. This year, the number of E-pass holders have dropped significantly because employers are not willing to pay $200 more for the new minimum E-pass salary of $3,000. Most E-pass holders drawing $2,800 under the previous foreign pass salary regime have instead downgraded to S-pass holders as a result. Full story

OPINION: Singapore’s Immigration Struggles - Tom Bueno

The Diplomat, 28 Jul 2013
“They (PAP) run Singapore like a company. They bring people from all over to come here and do our jobs,” said one of the many taxi drivers who act as a barometer of sorts, relaying to baffled foreigners the subterranean discontent of the local community in a country that has had its long traditions of political protest deadened by decades of PAP rule.
The driver’s disgruntled suspicion of foreign labor might seem misplaced in an economy with such low unemployment, but his misgivings are not entirely out of sync with recent developments. In 2011, of the 122,600 jobs created last year, more than two thirds, or 84,800 positions, were taken by foreign professionals, according to data from the government itself. Singapore already has a non-resident population of 1.46 million, and almost 40% of the island’s total population were born abroad. Although no serious analyst of Singapore’s political situation expects the ruling party to fall from power anytime soon, it is taken for granted among the generation populace that its share of the vote will decline even further in the next general election. Full story

Govt's poster boy Jim Rogers says Singapore needs immigrants

Forbes.com, 6 Jun 2013
When Rogers uprooted his family from New York and moved to Singapore in 2007, he famously declared, “If you were smart in 1807 you moved to London, if you were smart in 1907 you moved to New York City, and if you are smart in 2007 you move to Asia.” Six years later, he says he remains very happy about this decision and his daughters enjoy going to Chinese schools in Singapore.
While he describes Singapore as being “extraordinarily well run,” Rogers believes that limiting immigration will be detrimental to its future development. “One of the reasons why Singapore has been successful is because it encouraged immigration and nearly everyone in Singapore is an immigrant or family of an immigrant,” he says, before adding that “Lee Kuan Yew [Singapore’s founding Prime Minister] is a second-generation immigrant.” With its low taxes, low unemployment rate, and good rule of law, Singapore has always been an appealing immigration destination. In recent years, it has also become a haven for the world’s rich and famous. Besides Jim Rogers, Singapore’s new residents include Chinese celebrities Jet Li and Gong Li, as well as several members of Forbes Asia‘s Singapore rich list: New Zealand-born investor Richard Chandler (No. 5), Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin (No. 8), and property tycoons Raj Kumar & Kishin RK (No. 11), among others. Full story

OPINION: Will "Foreign Talents" really sink roots in Singapore? - G. T. Raj

The Real Singapore

It takes one generation of new immigrants to go through the culture and integration knowing what true Singaporean culture is all about. You just can’t do it overnight.
What is more depressing is that there are so many Singaporeans who were born and bred here and in universities and tertiary institutions. Wouldn’t it be better to have a Community Engagement Program institutionalised as part of a mandatory module and make these part of an induction training for future Grass Roots Leadership? We have already made it clear in all the Leaders speeches that Singaporeans will be at the core of any thrust. And it takes only Singaporean born and bred to have that essential pulse feel to know what is good for the true inhabitants of Singapore and whose generations have brought Singapore to where it is. Full story

VIDEO: Singapore for Singaporeans? - Al Jazeera

Youtube.com, 12 Mar 2013



Link

Snapshot: Government challenges Singaporeans to contribute ideas on how to make room for 6.9 million people without feeling the squeeze

Hardwarezone Forum, 27 Mar 2013



Link

Singapore government "HOPE" low-income families have lesser children

Yahoo! News Singapore, 31 Mar 2013
The Home Ownership plus Education Scheme , more commonly known as the HOPE Scheme, provides support to poor families in the form of education bursaries, housing grants and mentoring services. However, such an arrangement comes with strings attached: families cannot have more than two children, or they will no longer be eligible for the scheme. Cash incentives are also given out to fund ligation or vasectomy procedures.
One may argue that it makes sense to discourage low-income families from having children they cannot afford, but this goes far beyond mere "discouraging". The families are in no position to refuse the financial and material assistance offered by the government, and are therefore unlikely to have any other choice but to comply. In this way the HOPE Scheme does not discourage poor families from having less children - it coerces them into doing so. Full story

Related:
222 families join HOPE scheme in 2012: Chan Chun Sing - XIN MSN News

OPINION: The squeeze is on! - Seah Chiang Nee

Malaysia Star, 23 Mar 2013
Foreign workers, who were once getting red carpet treatment because they were prepared to work cheaper and longer hours, are facing tougher times. The doors will remain open but some of the old cordiality is missing.
From Filipino waiters to Indian executives, from Malaysian managers to Chinese salesgirls, their presence seems heading for at least a temporary decline.
Several converging factors are conspiring to bring this about.
The first is the fast changing politics. The new Singaporeans, young and middle-aged, are becoming more outspoken against poor policies. Full story

Eugenics in Singapore: Government wants more babies, but not from women with low education

Asian Correspondent, 23 Mar 2013
In the absence of justification from the relevant body who came up with this policy, one can only conclude that while Singapore is very eager to persuade more highly-educated mothers not to have abortions, they don’t really care about the lowly-educated. There is a strong suggestion that the policymakers have ascribed different values to the offspring of different Singaporeans even before birth.

This level of social engineering is hypocritical at best – especially at a time when the government is desperately finding different ways to cajole Singaporeans into having babies – and despicable eugenics at best.

Why are policymakers discouraging low-income, lowly-educated Singaporeans from having children? Is Singapore’s Total Fertility Rate (TFR) not dismal? Are we not plowing money into more and more “pro-family initiatives“?
Is this just the ugly laziness of a nation that does not want to be responsible for children that may need more help and support from the state? Do we really believe that every child is precious, or are some children more precious than others? Full story

Singapore government reminds women to have babies ASAP via obnoxious fairytales

Blisstree.com, 22 Mar 2013

The Singaporean government has begun a campaign to encourage women to procreate while reminding them that their biological clocks are always ticking. With birth rates low for the country, the government decided to circulate information and tell its 21- to 30-year-old population to get on the baby train, even sponsoring speed dating events and handing out fliers on how to flirt.
Naturally, they couldn’t educate women about reproduction by, say, giving them proper information and allowing them to decide for themselves what to do with that knowledge. No, women are obviously complete morons, so they get — ready for it — fairytales. Nursery rhymes and fairytales for adult women about why they need to have a baby or seven. Full story

Related:
Singapore uses 'modern fairytales' to warn women of declining fertility - The Guardian

OPINION: Hot, small, and crowded, Singapore is having an identity crisis - Andrew Buncombe

The Independent, 21 Mar 2013
Locals say that you feel it in the evening rush hour, pressing into the subway carriage at the Dhoby Ghaut station to discover there’s just a little less room than you’re used to.
Or parents face it when trying to get their children into the local school and find there are no places. Home-buyers sense it when they discover that property prices have shot up to rates their parents would never have dreamed of.
The city state of Singapore, said to be the world’s second most densely populated nation, is becoming more crowded. And unless activists behind an unprecedented campaign force the government to change its plans, it is going to get more crowded yet. Full story

Lee Kuan Yew urges Singapore to take in more immigrants

The Global Times, 21 Mar 2013
Singapore's former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew said Wednesday that his country must take in migrants to make up for its low total fertility rate.
He made the remarks at a fireside chat organized by Standard Chartered Bank here, along with Paul Volcker, 85, former chairman of the US Federal Reserve (1979-1987).
He said Japan has aging population, but "they refused to take migrant". "So I see a nation reduced to half in 20 years, and if it still continues with the same policy, reduced to a further half, and eventually, it is all over!" he added. Full story