The two faces of a Singaporean.....
JULY 19 — There are currently over 540,000 Permanent Residents (PRs) in Singapore.
Over the past 20 years or so, somewhere in the range of 150,000 to 300,000 foreign citizens have been naturalised as Singaporeans.
Given this island has a total full-time resident population of about 3.8 million, about 25 per cent of us are — or were until quite recently — foreigners.
This is not to include the over 1.5 million non-permanent-resident foreigners who are also domiciled here — students, domestic workers, foreigners employed locally — who make up the rest of the island’s total 5.3 million population.
What this all means is that at a very rough guess, natural-born Singaporeans comprise about 2.5 to 3 million of the population and foreign-born residents about the same — so it’s broadly 50/50 (again, this is my estimate).
Immigration is deep-rooted in this country’s DNA so what we must do is manage it so it contributes to the nation without diluting and destroying our basic identity.
This, of course, is much easier said than done — but a good start I believe would be a reassessment of the government’s attitude towards dual citizenship.
There are no exceptions. Now this isn’t entirely unusual as many countries do not permit dual citizenship. However, given Singapore’s position as an open economy, and entrepot it is somewhat at odds with our reputation for pragmatism.
With a large foreign-born population, an economy dependent on foreign labour and the simple fact that one in four Singaporeans now marries a foreigner, more flexibility with citizenship is beginning to look like a good option.
On the other hand, natural-born Singaporeans who emigrate or marry foreigners should be allowed to retain their citizenship on acquiring foreign nationality. This would allow the increasing number of Singaporeans who leave for any number of reasons to maintain their connection with the land of their birth and also extend that option to their children.
Personally, I am married to foreigner who is a citizen of two countries and any future children (hypothetical offspring for now) will in theory have a choice of three citizenships. I would like one of these to be Singaporean. To me, being Singaporean is an authentic, unique and deep identity — one my children and hopefully their children will choose to retain...
Jiuhu kias, piny, prc, abnn and all:o
