Ever since its independence in 1965, Singapore has grown from strength to strength through the use of its people to boost its economy and living standards. And because Singapore is just a tiny red dot on the map, immigration policies were created to attract foreigners to come to Singapore to work and live. Below is a graph I created using data taken from Singstat showing the growth of foreigners over the years.
As you can see, the number of foreigners brought in by the government has increased over the years. There are 2 main types of people that Singapore is trying to attract, namely the foreign workers and foreign Talent. Foreign workers are semi-skilled workers like construction workers and maids who do the jobs that typical Singaporeans would not want to do, and foreign talents are people from other countries who excel at what they specialize in which can boost the status and economy of Singapore.
In the latest news, during the National Day Rally Speech by the Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, this was what he said:
“One of these policies is foreign workers and immigrants. It is not easy because these are policies where the benefits are there but they are long term, whereas the downsides are immediate, the side effects are visible and people react to them and we have to respond to this. The foreign workers and immigrants we have taken have given us considerable benefits. Our economy has grown, our population has increased but over the last few years, the changes have been taking place quite fast and Singaporeans worry about the impact on them. “
He also mentioned the issue of increasing numbers of foreign students coming to Singapore to study on scholarships. An estimated 18% of students are foreigners, most of which come here to study on a scholarship program. The people of Singapore has been complaining that there is a lack of space in Singapore universities and many Singaporeans have to attend private universities just to get their degrees. He said that having foreign students amongst us will prepare us for a global workplace. The need for foreign talent was also justified by the fact that Singapore’s aging population would mean that there is less people supporting the economy and that the foreign talent would help ease the stress on young Singaporeans. The graph below shows the high amount of competition Singaporean students have to face from their overseas competitors.
I shall not give any of my opinion here, but will talk about it in my Reflections page. This page is just to provide information about the policies the government made.
So linking it back to conservation psychology, these policies are no doubt helping to boost Singapore’s economy and status. But this is done at the expense of Earth’s resources. We are already one of the countries with the highest population density, and yet we are still trying to bring in more people, all for the sake of economic growth. Public policy issues are a totally different topic which I shall not delve into, but it is certain that these policies have an impact on us and on the environment. One major issue is the fact that to accommodate more people, more houses has to be built. And more of our precious nature has to be cleared to make way for more houses. To find out more about the issues of housing, click on the housing tab or click here to find out more.