"NATIONAL IDENTITY" WITH 150K NEW CITIZENS, PRS, DPS, FOREIGN WORKERS ANNUALLY?

“Maintaining a strong, unique national identity”

According to the Channel NewsAsia news report “Three biggest challenges Singapore will face up to SG100: Lee HsienLoong” (Jul 23) – “In the long term, maintaining a strong, unique national identity is key to prolonging Singapore’s success story …

If Singapore does not get the balance between its birthrate and immigration policies right, the country could end up in the same “tight spot” the Japanese currently face …

But the key to keep Singapore successful in 2065 – 50 years from now, and a hundred years from Independence – is in maintaining a unique sense of national identity …

“People must feel that we are Singaporeans”

“Before you can make any policies and get people to say ‘I want to do this or the other’, first, people must feel that we are Singaporeans and we want to be together and we are different from the others and we are special” …

“And keeping that sense of unity and specialness over the long-term – I think it is critical and it is a very big challenge”…

the landmark of 50 years of Independence is a time of both celebration and soul-searching for Singapore”.

In this connection (national identity), on the average in a year – there were

… 43,852 new PRs granted

(348,654 new PRs granted from 2007 to 2014)

… 19,240 new citizens granted

(153,923 new citizens granted from 2007 to 2014)

… about 60,000 increase in foreign workers

(estimated 490,000 increase in foreign workers from 2007 to 2014)

… 35,000 Dependent Pass (DPs) and Long-term Visit Pass (LTVPs)

issued to dependents of foreign workers on Employment Passes (EP) (from 2005 to 2010)

… estimated 3,000 new tertiary students (non-Singaporean – foreigners and PRs) in a year

… the above 5 categories alone add up to an estimated 161,092 a year!

… how many DPs and LTVPs to dependents of PRs, new citizens and citizens?

… how many foreign university interns who may have competed for jobs – average 6 months stay in Singapore?

… how many foreigners came as tourists to look for jobs?

… how many non-Singaporean (foreigners and PRs) undergraduate and graduate students in the public universities’ total enrollment (estimated 30+ per cent)?

Win battles lose war

A.S.S. Contributor