How Quality Immigration Will Remain Singapore’s Lifeblood

In 2017, the highest number of individuals (22,102) in the past 10 years was granted citizenship while 31,050 people were given permanent residency in Singapore. The number of permanent residents increased steadily to 527,000 from 287,500 in 2010.Immigration is the key for the development of Singapore, introduced to tackle the challenges of aging population and our future economy as well as help Singapore move towards the goal of becoming the "talent capital" of the global economy.

Singapore is now facing the challenge of an aged society and greying population. By 2030, the number of working-age citizens to those aged 65 and above will fall from 5 to 2, causing a shrinking workforce and challenge to maintain an ideal economy. The ageing population will cause a drag of 1.5 percentage points on per capita gross domestic product growth every year until 2060, social cost will increase to care for the older population as well as declining productivity of the workforce due skills mismatch of locals with the ever changing market demands.

Immigration contributes 20,000 to 25,000 new citizens annually so it remains important in the minting of new citizens to build up the population quantitatively to ensure that Singapore can continue to introduce and expand companies, contributing to higher economic growth (today) despite the shrinking workforce. Foreign talents also make up greater availability of workers which enables companies to earn higher returns on capital and increase investments. Immigration made up the people in Singapore. Usually from second generation onwards they will feel a sense of belonging in Singapore where these younger immigrants help add dynamism to entrepreneurship and broaden the tax base. Moreover, immigrants who join the workforce will contribute to the economy just like Singaporeans, paying through fair shares of taxes such as the income and property tax, CPF payments and GST which also reduces the tax burden on citizens (independent). Other than helping to spark new ideas and innovation which fuels a vibrant economy with job creation, the contributions of foreign talents are important as some tend to the sick and caregiving for elderlies, build houses, roads and maintain our estates.

Singapore has received remarkable results of moving from third world to first and nurtured successful world-class industries like petrochemicals which are credited to and relied greatly on foreign talents to broaden on these areas. With Singapore being renowned for its strategic geographic position and efficiency as a business hub government wants to move a step further into industrializing it with high-technologies to meet global competition. According to TODAY Singapore, despite planning to focus on information technology , technology and e-commerce startups state that they face a severe shortage of skilled workers in engineering, communication technology, data analytics and cyber security (straits time). Therefore, it is advantageous for Singapore to bring in foreign talents who are experienced in these aspects to kickstart emerging industries before local talents can be built on these areas as they eventually migrate here. Adding on, due to the resentment of locals for the large number of immigrants in Singapore, the government narrowed the focus to bringing in highly skilled foreigners who can generate more economic activity such as the technology sector to work here. This increases the number of talents migrating and integrating into the community which thus allow them to concentrate more on their work and increase productivity (population).

Many new industries are fast-moving and market demand changes quickly in response to advances in trends so workers with specialized skills such as cyber security and artificial intelligence are greatly in demand. While locals are being trained with the required skills, it will take some time before they can meet with the soaring demand with the right skills. Without foreigners to enhance the local workforce, we lose out on vast opportunities available in the digital economy as the global economic conditions improve despite Singaporeans are being reskilled. Therefore skilled immigrants play an important role to add to the vibrancy of the economy by bringing new expertise, which will in turn spur the growth of the economic pie.

While many people perceived that migration will hurt the income of locals, the output creation allows locals to benefit as their wages will rise with the increased productivity. Therefore supporting the positive consequences of Singapore are opening up for more immigrants.