APPLICATIONS FOR PERMANENT RESIDENCY

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APPLICATIONS FOR PERMANENT RESIDENCY: 3.

Assoc. Prof. Paulin Tay Straughan asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs (a) how many applications were received for permanent residency in 2009 and 2010 and what is the proportion that was successful for each year; (b) what is the profile of those who were successful in their applications; (c) whether the fall in proportion of permanent residents (PR) is due to more stringent immigration policies; and (d) what are the implications of this restriction on PRs on the old-age support ratio for Singapore in the long term.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs (Mr Wong Kan Seng): Mr Speaker, Sir, last year, the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) received a total of 132,200 applications for Permanent Residence or PR. A total of 115,900 PR applications were processed in 2009, of which 59,500 or 51% were successful.

With the tightening of the immigration criteria since the end of last year, the

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number of PRs to be granted in 2010 will be noticeably less than that in 2009.

The Member also asked for the profile of those who were successful in their PR applications. Of those granted PR, the majority of them qualified under the Professional, Technical and Skilled Workers Scheme where they are contributing to Singapore's economy. Others who were granted PR are dependants of Singapore Citizens or are dependants of these economic PRs. We will continue to be stringent in our requirements for PR. PR will be granted to those of suitable quality, are able to contribute to Singapore and integrate well into our society.

An inflow of immigrants helps to improve the old-age support ratio by increasing the number of economically active residents. Let me illustrate. In 1970, when our TFR was above the replacement rate of 2.1, each elderly person was supported by 17 working adults. Currently, we have about 8.2 working adults in the resident population supporting one elderly person. If there were no PRs, we would have slightly fewer adults, at 7.2 working adults supporting one elderly person. If we were to close our doors to immigrants tomorrow, we can expect the old-age support ratio to fall very fast. In short, we would still need immigration to make up for the shortfall of babies and help ease the pressure of an ageing population. We will carefully manage the numbers to ensure the quality of immigrants.

Sir, declining population is a long-term issue. It requires to be tackled well ahead, several decades ahead, of the problems manifesting themselves. Members will know that countries which now face declining population also, as a result, face serious economic challenges. We do not want to be in that situation.

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Apart from immigration, we have made extensive efforts to tackle declining birth rates in our bid to address the challenges of an ageing population and to improve the old-age support ratio. Measures such as the Marriage and Parenthood initiatives have been introduced to provide support to couples in getting married and having children.

While such initiatives have helped to cushion the decline in our birth rates, our TFR still shows a downward trend. Unless there is a significant shift in attitudes towards marriage and parenthood, and we see improved birth rates, we will continue to need immigrants for Singapore to remain a vibrant and competitive economy.

Assoc. Prof. Paulin Tay Straughan (Nominated Member): Thank you, Deputy Prime Minister for your kind elaboration. I have two supplementary questions. The first is, with the more stringent criteria that we have now put in place, will this have implications on the flow of Permanent Residents (PRs) who are likely to take up citizenship and, therefore, what are the implications on the number of new citizens Singapore is likely to receive in the next five to 10 years?

My second supplementary question is whether the Deputy Prime Minister can comment on the ideal resident population that we are targeting in the short term.

Mr Wong Kan Seng: Sir, certainly with the new criteria, it will mean that we will have fewer new PRs compared to the last five years. That means that, in future, the rate of increase will decline and at the same time the pool of people who are available and eligible to become citizens can also decline. Right now, we already have more than half a million PRs and with the numbers we are getting, we will continue to see an increase of that pool. But we are going to watch that very carefully to ensure that number of PRs we see in the future is not going to be

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significantly large and overwhelming the Singapore citizen population. We have to watch that very carefully and, of course, like all policies, we will have to review and if there is a need for adjustment, we will continue to adjust.

What is the ideal population size? We have to take into account the size of our country. It is 700 plus square kilometres. There is certainly a limit to what we can absorb new residents. We have to provide space, not just for housing, but for industries, services, schools, hospitals, parks and for the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and many other needs in order to support a population. Therefore, while we do not have a target as such, to say that we must have so many people by year 'X', we also need to make sure that when we grow our population, it must be a sustainable one, such that we can support it. Whatever size of population we have, there will be a trade-off which we will have to make. What sort of trade-offs will we make? I think that is an issue that needs further study because it means trading off space, growth rate and many other possibilities. So it is not such a simple issue as to say, "we shall have X number of people and then all our problems be solved". It would not because we are only living in the very small part of the world. Whatever we do, we also have to bear in mind the impact on us of what goes on around us and what we can do in order to continue to survive and to prosper in the bigger world.