2 - Angst, Anxieties, and Anger in a Global City: Coping with and Rightsizing the Immigration Imperative in Singapore

Summary

The global city welcomes global citizens

Singapore is amongst the world's most globalised nations. Among the international community, it is also ranked “Best place to live, work and play in Asia.”

From its humble beginnings as a young migrant nation, Singapore has taken on a unique identity drawing on the strengths, spirit and sprightliness of its migrant citizens. Adding more interesting facets to its social landscape and history, the little dynamo has earned its reputation as a cosmopolitan country, rich in contrast and colour with its harmonious blend of diverse cultures, customs and cuisines.

Attracted to the diverse, multicultural and cosmopolitan Singapore, many foreigners have flocked to our shores. Foreign students have come to obtain a good education from a global school. Foreign employers and employees have come to be part of a vibrant city, globally renowned for ease of doing business. Their accompanying family members have found a safe haven here. Many become Permanent Residents and eventually make Singapore their home.

These new citizens together with their local compatriots have worked hard, and contributed to Singapore's continued prosperity. Hand-in-hand, we are shaping our future, our best home.

Immigration and Checkpoint Authority of Singapore

Singapore was, and remains, an immigrant society. Its immigration policy is heavily inflected by a pervasive sense of insecurity and economic vulnerability. Immigration in Singapore reflects two competing, perhaps even conflicting, anxieties. One is the state's anxiety that if the population is not topped up adequately, quantitatively and qualitatively, then Singapore will go down the path of economic malaise, social vulnerability, and political irrelevance. Thus, the policy imperative to keep the immigration doors open must be abidingly strong and not waver. As former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew put it recently: “Our choice must be the other one – taking in immigrants. I know Singaporeans do not feel very comfortable seeing so many strange new faces, but the alternative is economic stagnation and worse, nobody to look after our old people later on.” The state's angst revolves around the average Singaporean's apparent lack of receptivity to the government's immigration policy, which in the official discourse is portrayed as a sine qua non for Singapore's long-term well-being and success.