Authors
Liu Ting Ting
Supervisors
Hao Xiaoming
Year
Abstract
This is a Chinese language feature on immigration and integration policies in Singapore. The immigration and integration issue is one that is complex and difficult to unravel. Numerous government policies have been mooted and implemented to better integrate immigrants into Singapore society, to varying degrees of success.
Out of the many recent policies, none is perhaps as controversial as the Population White Paper of 2013 (National Population and Talent Division, 2013) which suggested amongst many things – that a population of 6.9 million is necessary for Singapore’s economy to remain competitive (National Population and Talent Division, 2013). The groundswell of opinions that arose from the incident solidified it as one of the most important events that highlighted the tension that existed between Singaporeans, new citizens and the migrant workforce. Incidents such as the Little India riot in the later part of the year and local protest against the Philippines Independence Day event, the following year, only served to further divide public opinion on the matter (Tan K. P., 2015).
While the mainstream media have addressed the issue of immigration and integration in the aftermath of these incidents, commentary of these incidents have often been single dimensional. News reports addressing immigration and integration concerns usually take on the format of a group of scholars discussing the issue alongside government officials (Lim, 2015). What these reports tend to overlook are the alternate voices that have found a platform and audience via social media. While these voices have a tendency to project controversial sentiments and/or populist ideas, what is undeniable is that these voices, together with the narratives supplied by the mainstream media form a collective opinion on the issues of immigration and integration (Chong, 2015).
It has been three years since the controversial Population White Paper and it is a good time to take stock of the various initiatives that have since taken place. Through the interviews with members of the academia, “controversial” figures and the “men/women-in-the-street”, the author collected a compilation of stories and ideas in an attempt to provide a clearer picture of the current challenges and issues surrounding immigration and integration, as well as point the way forward for the future.
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http://hdl.handle.net/10356/66872