WP Chairman Sylvia Lim was invited by the NUS Political Association and Democratic Socialist Club to speak at a forum entitled: “Policy Face-Off: Immigration Policies – How many is enough?” Also on the panel were Dr Leong Chan Hoong of the Insitute of Policy Studies and Mr Alvin Yeo, MP (Hong Kah GRC). The moderator was Dr Bilveer Singh of the Political Science Department, NUS. The event was held on Tue Jan 26 on a balmy evening, and attended by NUS students.
Dr Leong presented statistics and research findings on Singapore’s fertility rate trends and population changes, and highlighted the issues associated with immigration such as the need for more transparency in PR processing and the importance of providing a feeling of security to locals in the face of such an influx.
Mr Yeo reminded the audience that Singapore was where it was today due to the contributions of immigrations and it was not an option to close Singapore off from the rest of the world. He challenged the audience with the proposition that immigration had done more good than harm, though acknowledging the public discomfort currently.
Sylvia pointed out that the scenario confronting Singapore today was much different from the under-populated and under-developed Singapore which our forefathers faced. WP was not anti-immigration, but had great concerns over the pace, scale and quality of immigration. She noted that the blistering pace at which the foreign population had grown over the last 20 years had changed Singapore dramatically, with citizens now accounting for only 64% of the population in 2009 whereas it was 86% in 1990. The current population of 5 million meant a density of 7,000 persons per sq km, and if MND’s planning parameter of 6.5 million by 2040 came through, it would be 9,100 persons per sq km. Was this ecologically sustainable for an island of 700 sq km, looking at the current squeeze on resources such as public transport, housing and healthcare services?
She further highlighted that the size of population needed for sustainable growth was debateable, and it was connected with productivity. Economies such as Finland and Denmark, with populations of about 5+ million, were constantly ranked high in global competitiveness. However, the Singapore Competitiveness Report 2009 noted that Singapore had not made any productivity gains relative to the USA for the period 1995-2008, whereas it had successfully caught up previously. For some reason, Singapore companies were not as successful in using new information technologies to re-design their business processes for higher productivity. The authors had pointedly asked whether the liberal access to cheap unskilled labour (likely foreign labour) had led employers to continue using cheap labour without bothering to innovate to be more productive.
Besides raising productivity, she suggested that Singapore could also increase the economic output of the existing population who were under-used e.g. older workers and foreign spouses of Singaporeans.
During the question and answer session, the panel fielded a diverse range of questions ranging from social tensions / integration, National Service obligations for PRs and foreign students in universities.
