In his 2006 National Day Rally speech, PM Lee Hsien Loong spoke long on immigration: because the low birth rate of Singapore citizens and the shortage of local talent, Singapore has to accept the importation of manpower.
While the two reasons are cogent enough, it is necessary to match them with the situation on the ground. The largest number of imported workers, mostly construction workers, domestric maids, and other service industry workers (e.g., waiters) are on the work permit scheme, which is not intended to lead to long term residence. In fact, marriages between such work permit holders and citizens are discouraged and in any case do not guarantee long term residence.
In other words, immigration, permanent residence and citizenship is not for any kind of manpower, but for educated or highly skilled manpower, of which imports occur in much smaller numbers than construction workers/maids. For example, the management of multinational corporations and anaylists/traders in the financial industry have ahigh representation of foreigners on employment passes. In recently years, the R&D system has also recruited a large number of expatriates. These people generally rate Singapore highly as a job assignment location: married expatriates with children find the low crime cosmopolitan environment and international education system quite satisfactory for family life, while single American and European males encounter no shortage of female company with large numbers of local girls keen to have Caucasian boyfriends. With good expatriate salaries and the low tax regime, they can save a considerable sum of money during a few years to take home. However, few such people would consider going native in view of the considerable cultural differences.
People of Asian origins who have degrees from universities in the West, maybe with a bit of working experience after graduation, have a greater chance of choosing to settle in Singapore. There are also a large number of students from the region who were given scholarships to come to universities here for undergraduate studies, with the requirement to work in Singapore for six years after graduation. While the cultural differences are smaller with these people, they come with particular mixes of eastern and western/old and new cultural experiences, which need to mesh with Singapore's own mix of east and west. For example, they might have been exposed to a particular version of politics, social hierarchy and mass media, and might find that while Singapore uses many of the same words, the meanings the words carry are different; this awareness might take some years to develop, and in the mean time, they find it difficult to form a coherent picture of the situation around them.
Taking my own case, on one hand I am one of the long-staying foreign recruits, having been here (and with the same employer) since 1983; on the other hand, both my children went to college in USA and are unlikely to return here to work. Any benefit I might have provided, whether in terms of work or in terms of population numbers, is transient. I also know that a significant portion of the students here on scholarships intend to apply for MBA admission some time after graduation, so that their 6-year employment obligation serves a double benefit: in addition to not having to pay back the financial assistance they received, the work experience is used as MBA admission qualification. They too would only provide a transient benefit.
Added on 27 August: my daughter, back in singapore for a couple of weeks before the new semester, plays tennis with an NTU student (who has others to play with but with her he gets to win instead of being thrashed); I drove her to the courts in NTU for a 7.30am game this morning; when I asked her why they have to do it so early, she said they wont be able to get a court later because of all those students from PRC that will be playing tennis on sunday; when she arrived, 3 of the courts were already in use, and soon all 6 were; there was also a team of Indian students busily setting up a cricket game
someone should mention this to LHL; his dad might like to take his morning walk on the NTU campus to see for himself the new immigrants in action...
Added on 29 August: How "permanent" is permanent residence? It depends. The common situation is for PR to be granted because of employment. To travel overseas and return without losing PR statuts, one need to obtain a re-entry permit. Applying for a permit requires evidence of employment (though not necessarily with the same employer), and a unemployed person would not be able to obtain a permit in this way; without it, the next time he/she travels, he/she will no longer be a PR. (Note: employment requirement does not apply to persons above 55.)
Any dependent child granted PR with the parent can obtain a re-entry permit with the parent until adulthood, after which he/she has to apply for re-entry permit in his/her own right. In short, Singapore's PR is not quite the same as, say, the US Resident Alien (Green Card) status.
