EMIGRATION OF PROFESSIONALS (Particulars)

Mr Yeo Choo Kok asked the Minister for Home Affairs and Education (a) how many Singaporeans in the various professions have emigrated to other countries in the past four years; (b) what are the countries those professionals have gone to; and (c) whether some professionals, who had emigrated, have ever sought to return to Singapore.

The Minister for Home Affairs and Education (Mr Chua Sian Chin): Mr Speaker, Sir, persons who emigrate generally do not declare their true intention to the Immigration Department. The Department comes to know that a person is emigrating or has emigrated to a foreign country when:

(i) he informs the Department, or

(ii) he has withdrawn all his money from the CPF, or

(iii) he applies from a foreign country for renewal of Singapore travel documents after having stayed in that country for several years.

The Immigration Department therefore does not have statistics of persons who have emigrated but do not fall under any of the categories I have enumerated. However, on the basis of whatever record the Immigration Department has, it shows that 55 professionals emigrated during 1 97275. Of the 55 professionals, there were 21 management personnel. 1 6 technicians, six teachers, five engineers, four mathematicians, two nurses and one accountant. An obvious omission in these statistics is the number of doctors who have emigrated. This shows that the doctors who have emigrated did not inform the Immigration Department, did not have a CPF account, or did not need to renew their Singapore travel papers.

The Department will have more comprehensive figures when Exit Control is introduced. This will be done when the new Checkpoint at Woodlands is completed.

The bulk of the 55 professionals emigrated to Australia. The breakdown by country is as follows:- (1) Australia 41 (2) Canada 8 (3) USA 3 (4) UK 2 (5) India 1

None of the 55 professionals has applied to return to Singapore.