TOC:Foreigners? “We have been calibrating the inflows,” says NPS

[Porfirio Rubirosa]

Foreigners? “We have been calibrating the inflows,” says NPS
Saturday, 29 August 2009, 8:09 am | 309 views
The following is a letter by Ms Quah Ley Hoon, Director, National Population Secretariat, to questioned raised in the media about the influx of foreigners. (Straits Times Forum Page, 29 August 2009)

I REFER to the letters on the subject of foreigners and new immigrants, and Monday’s commentary by Ms Bertha Henson, ‘Keep a hand on the tap’.

As Ms Henson acknowledged, Singapore faces a serious population challenge. Our total fertility rate of 1.28 is one of the lowest in the world. The Government will continue to support marriage and parenthood but, realistically, we will still face population and manpower shortfalls.

Our ageing population will increase the burden on future generations. We, therefore, need to attract talent and immigrants, like what many other countries are doing.

Closing our doors and refusing entry to newcomers will not reserve jobs for citizens. On the contrary, investments and job creation will shrink. Essential services like health care, education and transportation will be badly affected. Our ability to defend ourselves will be compromised. This will not benefit Singaporeans at all.

The Government is mindful of the concerns of Singaporeans over foreigners and new immigrants. We have been calibrating the inflows, and adjusting our policies to best meet Singapore’s needs, while maintaining our identity and social fabric.

We are not flooding the country with new immigrants. Indeed, 70 per cent of the foreigners here are transient workers and only 30 per cent are permanent residents (PRs).

A key challenge is to integrate new citizens and PRs into our society. This will take time and effort on both sides. Our forefathers did not feel Singaporean when they first arrived here. But progressively, they and their children sank roots here, adjusted to one another, and developed a shared Singaporean identity and values. So in time should this new generation of newcomers and their children. The National Integration Council will foster this process.

Our citizens’ interests will always be the priority of the Government. The Minister Mentor had reiterated this in his speech at the Tanjong Pagar National Day Celebration Dinner on Aug 13.

Citizens enjoy greater subsidies in HDB housing, health care and education, as well as grants under the marriage and parenthood packages and surplus sharing schemes. But the way to ensure a bright future for our children, and for Singapore, is to remain open to new arrivals, and come together to build our nation.

Quah Ley Hoon (Ms)

Director, National Population Secretariat

 

[Porfirio Rubirosa]

3) . on August 29th, 2009 8.50 am Basically the cost of living is too high, and it will get higher, and increased population will only tax the infrastructure of the the country, increase frustrations and add to unemployment or at the very least the competition for jobs while keeping wages low.

It’s an interesting economic model, but for a Govt. that keeps reminding us that a western model of democracy is not suitable for Singapore its kind of ironic that a western model of economic and population growth is the one that is being adopted. I have to wonder if the Govt. has taken into account what has happened in western countries (think, Britain, Australia) in regards to immigration. Some of those being a less inclusive society and more divisive racial lines, economic separation between “new” and “old” citizens, more extreme religious practices…for an example we are already seeing the language issue being discussed ad-nauseum in the media and Govt. in regards to “expansion” and immigrants, whereas the fact is that those in Singapore without a good command of English only isolate themselves and make the rest of us resent them when we have to deal with them.

As a side I have always wondered if the push for Mandarin isn’t somewhat racial divisive, surely if the National language remains Malay, and the operating language is English then those should be the focus of schools? Just a thought.

4) ivorytower on August 29th, 2009 8.57 am Article summary: We know what we are doing, we understand your concerns.

The govt is covering their ears, playing the same old song to a tired audience.

["need to attract talent and immigrants"]
- No sane person would suggest otherwise but what’s the criteria to qualify as talent?
- Are majority of these foreigners really talents?
- Are they able to carry out their job roles better than citizens … or just cheaper?

["We are not flooding the country with new immigrants"]
- Try taking public transport during peak hours.
- Try going out during the weekends.

["Our citizens’ interests will always be the priority of the Government."]
- Walk the talk by having a clear distinction between Citizens and non-citizens.

["Our forefathers did not feel Singaporean when they first arrived here."]
- True enough. But in the here-and-now, it is OUR Singapore and an identity has been established.
- In this aspect, the govt has not given enough regard to citizens and we feel trampled upon.

As a citizen, I want to know these statistics:
- % and actual volume of foreigners coming in to Singapore each year.
- Distribution of newly created jobs each year taken by Citizens, PRs and non-PRs. Yes, these 3 distinctions are important.

6) ErniesUrn on August 29th, 2009 9.15 am From their point of view, bringing in foreigners it is too boost birth rate because at some point in the 1970s, some old man made a mistake when he held his fingers up like a V and said “Two is enough”.

But they won’t admit their foreign policy has backfired with over crowding. Wow. Meritocracy indeed. Which smart alek scholar wants to take merit for the influx?
11) angry_one on August 29th, 2009 11.03 am In most 1st world countries, it is the job of the GOVERNMENT to take care of its old, not the younger populace. The reason we’re having a larger percentage of elderly now is due to the old man’s past misjudgements. And they’re making us pay the price!

We aren’t attracting ‘talent’ as we need anyway – even 1st world countries have realised that they are not attracting ‘talent’, only leeches from 3rd world countries. That’s why many have closed their doors. You see, true talent from 1st world economies will do very well in their homeland – why would they immigrate??
12) Robox on August 29th, 2009 11.06 am Spotted the coverup in Ms Quah’s letter:

Re: “Our ageing population will increase the burden on future generations. We, therefore, need to attract talent and immigrants, like what many other countries are doing.”

While it’s true that many other countries – usually the more affluent ones – have a problem with a rapidly aging population, their reply to the problem is NOT a “foreign workers policy” but tweaks to their existing “immigration policy”; there’s a huge difference between the two.

13) Point on August 29th, 2009 12.29 pm Another parrot of the garmen spewing the usual garmen spin. Nothing in her letter mention anything about giving Singaporeans an edge over foreigners when it comes to good paying jobs. I have seen so many instances of foreigners in Spore holding professional jobs that can be done by Singaporeans.
14) Pus Factor on August 29th, 2009 12.46 pm How many of your own citizens have left permanently.
What are the push factors–get to the root of the problem.
You are pouring dirty water into the tank when pure water is LEAKING out.
NS FOR ONE–NS FOR ALL.—No SPECIAL privileges for newbies.

 

[Porfirio Rubirosa]

19) prettyplace on August 29th, 2009 1.22 pm #4 well said ivory tower….
#2 malay pahlawan….i can see the anger…
it is good, that you are speaking your mind…..but channel it well…

I wanted to say some things but has already been mentioned by ivorytower….
I knew this day would come when I saw Foriegn Talent hawkers and security guards.

This
Ms Quah Ley Hoon, Director, National Population Secretariat…..looks like she just had to cut and paste to get this article….haha
And yet it all fell into place nicely…wow…
20) modern malay pahlawan on August 29th, 2009 1.38 pm SINGAPOREANS: lky,we are already old,we work our sweat and blood out for you now difficult to find job

LKY: you old already la who want to employ you.

SINGAPORE: then how sir? can you help us?

LKY: you go collect the tin cans and boxes and sell them lor and earn to have a better live.

SINGAPOREANS: oic…. sir i got job but they pay me $600 how to support our family? we still need to pay your gst and taxes and so on? food very expensive too water and electric bill very high to pay. how sir?

LKY: very easy that one. you pay me my share of taxes and gst and the balance your own problem i can’t help. you all singaporeans think what? i chop money here ah?

SINGAPORE: then how about food?

LKY:you eat rice and pour just soup and eat la and water you drink la tap water can survive what.

SINGAPOREANS:but you promise us to have a better life in our own country.now alot foreign has come and we find out that you lost alot of our money ah?

LKY:your money???since when your money?? halo.. i got other buisness to do OK!! you don’t anyhow saiy or i put you in lock up! better life?why? now you nothing to eat ah? got rice and water right? what else you want? chicken?fish?mutton? you think i so rich to provide you all this ah? you go changi and see if your luck is there you go catch your own fish.

SINGAPOREANS: wah very hard life sir…please please we already voted you and PAP we support so much. please help us we begging you sir please. my mother never had a proper food and medical treatment sir..my brother can’t further study also.

LKY: now complain??!!!! you wait and see i will increase even more!! you want to quite or you want me to teach you a lesson??!!!

SINGAPOREANS: ok sir sorry sir. we will vote you and we will try to work hard and find way to support our family.

LKY:ah……like this la good citizen….you all are singaporeans must be strong mah….and don’t forget ah…..keep pay and pay me ah!! or you better watch out i will send you lawyer letter and take you to court and then prison.

SINGAPOREANS:ok sir we will. haiya so scared to talk also.talk only get into more trouble.better quitely just vote and let them win. if not rice and water also don’t have. never mind la just stay at home and off all electricity and use less water.

 

[littlefish]

Lanjiao, they have been calibrating!

If what they have claimed is true, please show all the studies conducted to assess the impact of the foreigner influx. They can't even explain the immigration policy properly, like how much would they like the population to grow annually, what kind of people are they attracting, what are problems of that level of immigration and how to alleviate those problems.

 

[scroobal]

Absolutely agree. Why hide all data on these. Why is there a need for an ex-ISD director to head the National Pop Secretariat.

Lanjiao, they have been calibrating!

If what they have claimed is true, please show all the studies conducted to assess the impact of the foreigner influx. They can't even explain the immigration policy properly, like how much would they like the population to grow annually, what kind of people are they attracting, what are problems of that level of immigration and how to alleviate those problems.

 

[ChaoPappyPoodle]

The stop at two campaign was not a mistake.

It was a well-planned strategy by lky to dilute the population at a later stage. He learned very well from his kempetei masters that controlling the population after a while will breed discontent.

His other divisive campaigns was the use Mandarin campaign which led to many English-educated leaving the country.

The only mistake was made by sinkies for supporting lky and his pappies all these years even after knowing what he did for the kempetei and all the other policies that helped to enrich lky and his cronies.

While the majority of MPs sprout nonsense lky knows what he is doing from day one because he controls the media and he pays his dogs very well to have them double-talk to the population at every opportunity.

lky and the opther pappies knew very well that population regeneration was crucial to support CPF-type programs because this is very basic economic principle. Yet they went ahead with it. One can only conclude that this was planned from the start.

Even their benefits to encourage sinkies to have more children can be seen as a half-hearted attempt. It's very obvious what they are doing.

When will the influx stop? The answer lies in whether they will win an election. Don't be surprised that PRs will get to vote and one man two votes gets underway.

 

[chinkangkor]

How did the critical shortage of foreign workers domitary come about if there was proper planning? Other social infrastructures are also sorely inadequate such as hospitals, govt clinics, housing etc, which goes to show that the govt is sleeping on the job.

 

[jim007jimmyboy]

fuck FTrash!

 

[Ah Guan]

Can't help but notice the trend of bombastic language in recent rebukes/replies -- "calibrating inflows", "highfalutin"

When you can't convince, confuse?

knn...