Singapore's
Demographic changes
With so many Singaporeans leaving and foreigners moving in, what is the republic's future? Forum discussion.
Feb 25, 2006

Singapore's future
SGForums
protonhybrid
What do you think will be Singapore's future?
More and more people migrate elsewhere, ultimately leaving the country without any people?
Or Singapore becoming even more dynamic, more important for the world, e.g. better than Hong Kong, or worse than Singapore of 1819?
New competition from around the world: Do you think Singapore can make it? How far can it make it?

ndmmxiaomayi
Blue part: If there's in, there's always out. People migrate elsewhere, but elsewhere people migrate here.
I feel that unless major changes are made to health and education systems, we will be seeing more people migrating out of Singapore.
First of all, these two systems cost a lot. And they are known to make people bankrupt. Just health alone can do the job, not to mention education. For health, I wouldn't say free healthcare to the extent like NHS. But I would say more subsidies to help out. The current system is being improved on, but we still have to pay a lot.
For education, changes have to be made to help the ITE (Institute of Technical Education) and polytechnic students. They have lesser chance of entering local universities and we forced them out of Singapore to study.
Some of them might be even staying there for good, not a good idea since Singapore's main resource is humans. Despite a change in policy, lots of them still can't make it. Local universities fees are also very expensive. The recent changes to commercialise them doesn't help.

Salman
Don't worry my friend, Singapore will make it if we make the necessary mindset change. The government will see to it.
There are 500 million people in this resource rich region, how can we not make it?

ShutterBug
In time, there'd probably be 50% mix of locals and foreigners here. If things don't improve, Singapore will largely be populated by foreigners.

lionnoisy
How many people migrate in a year? I remember only few thousands a year. What a big deal??
2. Do you know every year 5,000 to 10,000 become citizens of Singapore? Now there are 300,000 PRs here. People come and go, this is normal.

charlize
Yesiree.
One day, PRs will form the dominant portion of the population. They will be calling the shots in terms of the direction the country is heading.

gazelle
Singapore only has a very short history, therefore in 40 years time there will be another new generation of born in Singapore Singaporeans. And in 20 years' time, we are likely to see more 'angmoh' (Caucasian) kids speaking Singlish and Hokkien, and Chinese speaking with English slang etc.

free thinker
No matter what happens, Singapore will still be the favourite country/place in South East Asia. Many people living in this region are attracted to Singapore. Especially the Indonesians. With people like them putting their wealth in Singapore, Singapore will surely "maju". No doubt about that.
Migration-wise, people come and go. That's the way of life. In fact, people started moving around since ancient times.... Therefore, this is nothing new.
But comparing with Hong Kong, Singapore CAN NEVER and WILL NEVER beat HK. Hong Kong is like a "gateway" to China for many foreign investors and the recent results showed that Hong Kong is ranked No 1 as the World's Freest Economy whereas Singapore is a couple of numbers below that.
And on top of that, the lifestyle in Hong Kong is much better than compared to Singapore e.g. the food is a lot of better in HK... Bigger market equals more business opportunities etc.

LinYu
We will be very much like Japan where all the young people are overseas and only old people are left in Singapore.

shutterbug
Yes indeed, Singapore is safe, clean, and well structured. BUT, life's becoming tougher, and worse, life becomes uncertain in old age!
You're only valid while you're young.

will4
Hong Kong people are smarter. They tend to think much further ahead of the Singaporeans. They have a bigger appetite to risk taking.
Look at the Silicon Valley, the engineer tend to be more from Taiwan or
Hong Kong.

gill_hfc
I've recently returned from London after spending 6 years there as a student/working. What surprised me the most was the number of changes in our population within a short period of time..
It also saddened me greatly to see that a number of my friends were thinking of leaving Singapore or had already migrated to another country for good.
On the other side of the fence, in London, I met a ' Part Time Singaporean' who was born in a third world country and had migrated to Singapore and was now living in London....
There are two issues of concern here:
a) Why isn't the Singapore government openly addressing the issue of the number of Singaporeans leaving Singapore?
b) The number of 'Part Time Singaporeans' who migrated here mainly from third world countries like China and India and using Singapore as a stepping stone to move to the West once they have received their Permanent Residency and Citizenship here.

Salman
They want to migrate because they have received a good education and want to go for greener grass whether it exists or not.
Same for Thailand, Taiwan, Korea, Philippines, Holland, Canada or Turkey. People migrate for perceived opportunities elsewhere.
Either that or they want a more relaxed life, that you cannot get in Singapore or because we do not have natural resources like in Australia or Saudi Arabia.

pearlie27
I think the government is hoping that one out of the 10 so-called "part time Singaporeans"; will stay to become Singapore citizen. It doesn't seem to mind if Singapore has been used as a stepping-stone by the other 9. It probably believes that is the price for attracting talents to the country.

gill_hfc
It saddens me that I do not see those good old Singaporeans around. What I see are new faces that I don't recognise. Do they have a place in the hearts and minds of us true Singaporeans? These new 'Part Time Singaporeans' are just prostituting our Singapore passports in foreign countries for their own selfish gains!

798
Even though I hate the political affair in Singapore, but this is the country which I have fond memories.
I believe 'quitters' will make a grave mistake if they migrate, 'cos I don't see other countries people treat Singaporeans as equal.

urbanomad
The country is run by economists. They are excellent in managing $$$-dollars and reading balance sheet. Beyond that, they have no idea on how to create a country with a humanist touch; a home; a place where one feel free and unoppressed to express oneself. A place where every single citizen feel a sense of belonging where simple words like 'sharing' & 'caring' for people of Singapore and people to people is a natural phenomenon.
My days in Australia also saw similar conclusion, old folks take leisurely afternoon stroll and afternoon tea in cafes (tables cleared by young waiters)
Even in Johor restaurant, do you see old folks clearing after you?
The conclusion is easy to draw, our local old folks is a mirror of the young Singaporeans' future. Slave to the bones.
The system adopted by these capitalistic economists is ruining our homeland, they are purely profit driven. Balance the equation! No such thing as a free lunch!. Workfare not welfare! If you have parents that treat you like an employee, what would you do? Answer this and you will know why the young here are migrating.

pearlie27
This country is not run by economists, but by scholars who are too theoretical and arrogant. They are also too well paid that they developed the ability to 'play safe' and avoid taking risks so that they can keep their jobs and money.

redbean
Why would a 32-year-old professional think of emigrating and separating himself from the comfort of home and love ones? His reasoning is that the shelf life is too short here. Imagine being over the hill by 40 and unable to find decent employment by 50.
This is a very serious problem for professionals who spent so many years acquiring the paper qualifications only to see the end of the road staring at their faces.
A 20-year working life prospect is very depressing what is happening to our system?

intermilansg
Old news. Singapore has one of the highest rates of migration in the world very close to Afghanistan I might add.

Youngpap
redbean
The alienation of the population is getting starker by the day. The foreigners and the citizens. And within the citizens, many are seeing themselves alienated in one way or another.
For those who are above 60s, unemployed and facing a continuous rising cost of living, must be wondering how are they going to survive.
For those who are 40-60, either they are already unemployed or waiting for the axe to fall, the uncertainty must be very stressful for those who still have young children and family commitments.
And those below 35, the new generation, they know what they want and do not subscribe to the values and beliefs of the older generations.
The 35-40, a small band that is in middle management will think that life is forever going to be like that will soon find themselves on the list to be axed. They forgot that time will catch up with them too.
How would these forces impact the next General Election will be very interesting to watch.

K.S. said...
With the seamless boundaries of Internet and cheap and fast air travel, it is a natural event that people will turn to the greener pasture elsewhere when faced with a "uphill" problems. It's easy to avoid a hill by walking the grassland elsewhere.
Likewise, the greater influx (than outflow) of immigrants into Singapore is the mirror reflection of the current situation - Singapore IS still the grassland!
There is nothing to worry about people leaving Singapore, and not to be complacent, we do face a constant threat of being bypassed by the world in the following events:
(a) Direct flight between Sydney and London will collapse the 'old' thinking of a world-class transportation hub
(b) The completion of Kra Canal in southern Thailand will make PSA looking like a white elephant.
(c) An emerging India with low-cost highly educated workforce fluent in English AND the realisation of world-class comospolitian cities in China like Shanghai, H.K. and Chongqin mean Singapore will be sandwiched in-between.
Where can we turn to? It's for the PAP to guide us then. As the saying goes "Either you go my way, or the highway".

Goh Meng Seng
Dear K.S.,
It is about relativity. Most migrants treat Singapore as a stepping-stone to elsewhere.
I think you are off the mark by comparing the "influx vs outflow"; a citizen lost is permanent, a migrant that come to Singapore, most likely to be temporary. Even if they get a citizenship, that's only a stepping-stone to somewhere else. We are just a "transit hub", so to speak.
If you bet PAP could ever guide you out of this, that's pretty off too. They are one of the sources of problems why people are leaving!

Dear fire888,
The number of migrants in Singapore goes up to the hundred thousands, if not one million! About 25% of population in Singapore are foreigners plus PRs.
But that doesn't mean that we are all right even though we have a few thousands of Singaporeans emigrating out of Singapore every year. For the exact figure, we really do not know as it is top secret.
Goh Meng Seng

K.S. said...
Mr Goh,
We are a country with more incoming immigrants than our net self-renewal!
This is a good thing and a bad thing! We are still attractive (incoming > renewal). But we have a problem! Kuwait has more Palestinians than Kuwaitis till they started to offer CASH for every live birth!
We have the same situation now. Sooner rather than later, we might become another province of China, oops, did I say they are mostly from China?

blinki_dadi
It's not difficult to answer why Singaporeans find it so easy to leave this place for greener pastures. The No 1 reason is because for most of us the roots don't grow very deep. We are just Singaporeans in name only, like me, most of my friends don't place much value in our citizenship.
We look around us and see all the privileges handed out to foreigners on silver platters on a regular basis and wonder what is it we serve National Service for.
Singapore is run like a corporation, hell, even our politicians are paid like CEOs, so can you blame the people for feeling like they are employees rather than citizens.
Most of us just feel like a small employee in a large corporation. So is it any wonder that people leave at the prospect of a better life, a better job somewhere else.
It's difficult to expect loyalty from the people if the country doesn't seem to place much loyalty in us. For all the talk of nationhood, its hard to feel patriotism when foreigners (foreign talents) always seem to get preferential treatment over us - whether real or perceived.
As citizens, we don't sense much ownership in the country, everything is decided for us, even our so-called "elected" President. How to grow roots when your life, your destiny is seemingly out of your hands.
So for many people, they would rather move out since at least it does empower them somewhat - having the power to at least for once decide their own fate rather than like the government decide it for them.
Feb 25, 2006