I pointed out in this thread earlier, locally born Singaporean immediately after the war only stood at about 50%. The idea that the vast majority of the residents were descendents of very early migrants is a myth. Most of us are 2nd or at best 3rd gen migrants. That being the case the idea of condemning other migrants is like the pot calling the kettle black. Moreover as pointed out earlier, the earlier migrants came here from a far worse place relative to the current gen so to accuse the new migrants of being money grabbers compared to the older gen is equally ridiculous.
Finally on the topic of integration, there is only so much you can integrate a new migrant, in which case the real targets were not really the current batch of migrants but their children who would have grown up here. Even lky have mentioned this before.
Personally I think everyone is barking up the wrong tree. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with accepting new migrants in SG, more so given the current global economy, the real issue we should be addressing is the lack of proper infrastructure prepared to welcome the new migrants. That in itself has many factors that contributes to todays problems
Bro Char, most of us here understand what you are trying to say. We are mostly son of migrants anyway.
Most of us also understand the need to import talents. Those real talents.
What most of us are not happy about are:
1. Why are millions spent on these for integration purposes instead of going to the underprivileged to make the society a better place to be in? Why are millions spent sponsoring these sometime ingrate foreigners their education and to recruit them? Remember about the remark "you want to eat at the hawker center, food court or resturants" when he was asked to set aside more funds to assist these underprivileged? Many reaons why they are underprivileged - health, mental capacity, educational, vocational, social skill level, age, etc etc What happened to the proverb "Charity begins at home"?
2. Why import 3rd grade and 4th grade "talents" gave them scholarship from primary school to Uni, assured job at the end of the Uni program when their performance is worst than some of the local in the same program? Where has meritocracy gone to? The not so smart local graduate will have a loan to pay upon graduation and at the same time go looking for a job. Is this fair? If they are true talents, we all have no qualms accepting them and rolling out the red carpet. It is these 3rd and 4th grades that littered all over with special privileges that upset the local boys.
3. Why 1st generation talents citizen need not serve NS? Do delivering babies considered part of National Service? They can do their part of National Service to show the loyalty to the country. It is as simple as that. Those above certain age group could be exempted. But definitely not those fresh graduates. In a private sector, a chap who need to perform his NS duties are always less welcome than one who don't. It is as simple as that. National service for them could be some social work, nursing work, whatever. Give them options to choose. But serve they must if they are able bodied.
4. Why have HDB policies skewed toward penalising locals? The tough criteria for single application vs those PR wanting to purchase a HDB. Who is going to check if that PR has any property elsewhere in this world? But for the locals, it is impossible not to declare the truth. Those PR who have left our shore, why not revoke their HDB ownership? i.e. they could dispose of it after fulfilling the MOP before they leave. If they do not meet the MOP, then HDB could simply take it back. It is as simple as this. What so difficult? This will help to stabilise the ever increasing HDB prices. The younger generation definitely feel the pinch. How will this affect the population of Singapore in future? I know what you are going to say. I respect your view that it is the generation of people who don't want to get married and settled down. But making the home more affordable - does it help? Of course it does for those who want to settle down and start a family.
5. Finally, thanks for mentioning that the infrastructure is unable to keep pace with the massive import of foreigners.
Bottomline, Bro Char, it is not the importing of talents (real talents) per se that we are upset up. It is the speed and quantum (especially those low grades) in which these foreigners arrived at our shores with red carpet rolling out at the expense of the true blue Singaporeans who contributed so much to the country by way of taxes and NS.
That is why most of us agreed with what the TS said "True blue locals only 47% left......country fully sold".
