[h=1]7,000 FOREIGN STUDENTS HAVE BEEN GIVEN S'PORE PR SINCE 2001[/h]
Post date:
13 Apr 2015 - 5:08pm
[photo credit: SMU]
About 7,000 foreign students at the secondary and junior college levels have been given permanent residency status since 2001. This was revealed by Second Minister for Home Affairs S Iswaran today.
Of these, 840 have taken up citizenship. This means that only 12 percent of them have taken up citizenship.
Mr Iswaran also said that of those granted permanent residency, one per cent have given it up.
No one has yet to renounce his or her citizenship, according to Mr Iswaran.
Mr Iswaran revealed this in response to a question from the Worker's Party's Png Eng Huat, who wanted to know "the number of foreign students who were offered and who had accepted permanent residency when they reached Secondary 1 or later".
Mr Png also queried why the government opted to give permanent residency to students "with no roots in Singapore", instead of giving the students the option to work after their graduation.
However, Mr Iswaran said: "The member suggested this is a group that is too young to be considered. There is in fact an equally persuasive alternative view because these young people by virtue of being embedded in our education system for a significant period of time living and studying cheek by jowl with Singaporean students are better integrated and therefore better able to immerse themselves in our environment."
On a similar note, it has been estimated that there is a larger proportion of foreign students in Singapore who receive scholarships from the Singapore government, while a much smaller proportion of Singaporean students receive scholarships.
This has led to concerns among Singaporeans that the government is more willing to spend money to invite foreign students into Singapore to study and to fund their students, while Singaporean students have to fund their own studies and face more competition with their foreign peers in the job market.
Post date:
13 Apr 2015 - 5:08pm
[photo credit: SMU]
About 7,000 foreign students at the secondary and junior college levels have been given permanent residency status since 2001. This was revealed by Second Minister for Home Affairs S Iswaran today.
Of these, 840 have taken up citizenship. This means that only 12 percent of them have taken up citizenship.
Mr Iswaran also said that of those granted permanent residency, one per cent have given it up.
No one has yet to renounce his or her citizenship, according to Mr Iswaran.
Mr Iswaran revealed this in response to a question from the Worker's Party's Png Eng Huat, who wanted to know "the number of foreign students who were offered and who had accepted permanent residency when they reached Secondary 1 or later".
Mr Png also queried why the government opted to give permanent residency to students "with no roots in Singapore", instead of giving the students the option to work after their graduation.
However, Mr Iswaran said: "The member suggested this is a group that is too young to be considered. There is in fact an equally persuasive alternative view because these young people by virtue of being embedded in our education system for a significant period of time living and studying cheek by jowl with Singaporean students are better integrated and therefore better able to immerse themselves in our environment."
On a similar note, it has been estimated that there is a larger proportion of foreign students in Singapore who receive scholarships from the Singapore government, while a much smaller proportion of Singaporean students receive scholarships.
This has led to concerns among Singaporeans that the government is more willing to spend money to invite foreign students into Singapore to study and to fund their students, while Singaporean students have to fund their own studies and face more competition with their foreign peers in the job market.
