Everyone knows that Sg can still receive more people but what
type of living standard and comfort can Sg provide to its people.
We don’t need expect to tell us that. But look everywhere, it is so
crowded -be it in hospitals, buses, trains, supermarkets, public
spaces, markets,etc.. I would say it is stressful to be in crowded
places. Is this the living standard that Paul Cheung wants for the
people of Sg?
Can the Chief Statistician - who deals with numbers - be the
qualified person to say if Singapore has space to accomodate more
people ?
How will the Chief Statistician factor in the intangibles such
as the quality of life, the Standards of Living, the social and
psychological impact of crowded living ?
The type of living standard and comfort are some
immediate aspects that are related to the individuals that
will demand attention, and similarly as important will be the
issues of social bonding of the new arrivals with the existing
community.
The existing community will need to demand from the
government the clarification as to what "added value" can the new
arrivals bring to Singapore that will allow existing "hard earned"
infrastructures "to be shared".
It is amazing that the PAP government is far less discriminating
then Australia in the immigration policy, when Australia is far
bigger than Singapore in land size.
Australia
tightens skilled migration rules
CANBERRA, Australia
-- Australia tightened its migration rules yesterday in favor of
English speakers and professionals, saying the country has been
attracting too many hairdressers and cooks and too few doctors and
engineers.
Immigration Minister, Chris Evans, blamed the
overrepresentation of lower skilled immigrants on a system put in
place by Prime Minister, John Howard, whose government lost power
in 2007 elections.
“Under the Howard government, we had a lot of cooks, a lot of
hairdressers coming through,” Evans told reporters. “We were taking
hairdressers from overseas in front of doctors and nurses — it
didn't make any sense.”
The new rules will favor applicants who already have job offers
over those who merely have qualifications or who are studying. The
measures are expected to dampen enrollment in Australian colleges
by foreign students hoping to settle in the country.
Numbers of foreign students enrolled in Australian colleges
exploded in 2001, when the government changed migration rules to
allow them to apply for permanent residency while studying. Until
then, skilled workers had to apply offshore for visas to fill jobs
from a list of more than 100 trades and professions that were
suffering shortages in Australia.
Australia continues to have a shortage of accountants, partly
because many of the 40,000 accountants who immigrated in the past
five years did not have the professional or language skills to find
work, Evans said.
“You've got to say if they don't have the English-language
skills, don't have the trade skills and can't get a job, then
really they should not be eligible for permanent residency,” Evans
said.
The new policy will favor applicants who score highly in an
English language test. Moreover, immigrant numbers in certain jobs
could be capped for the first time. The government has not
identified which jobs.
Because of the higher standards and a revised list of which
skilled workers are in short supply, 20,000 visa applications will
be scrapped and their application fees totaling A$14 million (US$12
million) refunded, he said.
The new list will be made public mid-year and focus on
high-skill professions.
Foreign students enrolled in courses for professions that are
cut from the list will be given 18 months after graduation to find
work in their field, or will have to leave Australia.
Evans conceded that the new rules would cost the education
sector, which has rapidly grown into Australia's fourth largest
export industry and reaps A$12 billion a year from foreign student
fees. But he said high-quality universities would continue to
prosper.
Monash University social scientist, Andrew Markus, an expert on
migration policy, said student enrollments would fall because more
than 70 percent of foreign students in Australia planned to settle
here permanently.
Foreign student numbers in Australia have gone from 150,000 in
2002 to almost 400,000 last year, with India recently overtaking
China as the largest source of applicants.
Indians accounted for almost one in four foreign students in
Australia last year, but Australian universities expect enrollments
to fall 30 percent this year because of a spate of violent crimes
against Indians in Melbourne, Australia's second largest city.
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/australia/2010/02/09/244252/Australia-tightens.htm
Migration issues will have to tie in with economic issues - see
the other thread - ‘Reform Party Responds to the Economic Strategies
Committee’