INSIGHT DOWN SOUTH
By SEAH CHIANG NEE
While Singapore has been successful in luring
many of the brightest brains in the region, more and more of its
own young professionals want out.
A BAFFLING aspect of affluent Singapore, with all its economic
finery, is the large – and growing – exodus of its citizens over
the past 10 years.
While the hot economy has attracted more than a million foreigners
to its shores, its own citizens have been leaving in record numbers
to settle down abroad.
Their exit seemed to have taken on a new life in recent years,
ironically when the economic growth and the job market were at
their best.
In
fact, one survey has placed Singapore’s outflow at 26.11 migrants
per 1,000 citizens – the second highest in the world. Only Timor
Leste (51.07) fares worse.
The explanation is, of course, globalisation, the new borderless
economy, which is offering more job options for skilled
Singaporeans who want a better life in bigger
countries.
But the reason doesn’t end
there.
Other comparable city-populations have similarly been affected, but
Singapore seems to have been hit hardest of all.
The explanation must involve a higher non-economic priority strong
enough to propel Singaporeans away from a stable, comfortable
living towards the uncertainties of a new life elsewhere.
Yet
this is what is happening, as new statistics have shown.
More educated Singaporeans – many taking their children with them –
are leaving or are planning to leave their country, which is itself
a traditional haven for outsiders fleeing from trouble.
A recent indication of the scope of the dilemma was the rising
number of Singaporeans who asked for a document needed to apply for
permanent residency overseas.
It has exceeded 1,000 a month to
reach 12,707 last year from 4,996 in 1998, or a rise of 170% over
10 years, said Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng.
These people, over the age of 16, could be leaving for good, but
they also included students and businessmen, who may eventually
return.
In 10 years, they totalled 97,990 Singaporeans (a far greater
number if children were included).
The government says about 140,000 Singaporeans are studying,
working or in business in foreign countries, which by itself is not
a bad thing, given Singapore’s global ambitions. The trouble is
many of them may not return.
All the current statistics point to an upward emigration among
Singaporeans who apply for PR or citizenship abroad. Some of the
PRs, it is feared, may keep their citizenship but have no intention
of returning home.
“After coming back, I find that other countries have much more to
offer than Singapore, which is very boring,one youth
remarked.
The number of Singaporeans who gave up their citizenship, Wong
said, averaged 1,000 a year in the last three years.
Other negative trends that reflect the tenuous link between many
citizens and their country are:
Two-thirds of Singaporeans (aged 21-34) said in a survey that they
had considered retiring in another country with a slower pace of
life and lower cost of living.
Among youths (15-29 years of age), 53% are considering emigration.
Despite having gone through national education, 37% say they are
not patriotic. (Indian youths are the most ready to emigrate – at
67%, compared with 60% of Malays and 49% of Chinese).
Six out of 10 undergraduates said they wanted to go abroad to live
or work, mostly to enjoy a higher quality of life with less
stress.
An ACNielsen poll showed 21% of Singaporeans, mainly professionals,
were considering emigration, half opting for Australia and New
Zealand.
For this small state with a short history, the steady exit is not
just a ‘numbers’ problem which can be – and is being – resolved by
substituting Singaporeans with foreigners.
It has a serious security dimension, since the island is defended
by its own reservist soldiers after a two-year mandatory national
service (NS).
Fewer true-blue Singaporeans means fewer soldiers because permanent
residents are not required to serve NS (only their 18-year-old sons
are).
A bigger impediment to nation-building is the looser physical bond
between today’s generation of Singaporeans and their country.
Nearly half of them do not think they need to reside here to be
emotionally rooted to the country.
It is estimated that half the Singaporeans who annually apply for
foreign PRs – 6,000 to 7,000 – eventually settle down
overseas.
The brain drain is serious. On a lighter note, more
China-citizens are coming into the country, if you get what I
mean.
Even if 0.5% of its brightest minds were to
leave, it would hit Singapore hard, said Senior Minister Goh Chok
Tong.
“These are bright young people, children of very well-educated
Singaporeans. They study overseas now, and the very good ones are
right away green harvested by companies,” Goh said.
So why is Asia’s second wealthiest state losing its youths at a
higher rate than its poorer neighbours?
“Many Singaporeans leave because of the stifling atmosphere of the
country and the political and intellectual lock-step enforced by
the government,” said one analyst.
“It would reverse if the government would begin to democratise, and
to allow its people to develop their talents – in Singapore, not
abroad.” And I thought S'pore is a democratic country, what
am I missing?
Importing large numbers of migrants from China and
India, most of whom treat it as a study or transit point, is not a
solution.
Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew once admitted: “They come in here,
they get an English education ? and they're off to America.”
However, he seems resigned to it. Recently he told his political
party youth members: “As a government, and personally for me and my
colleagues, my responsibility is to look after those who cannot
migrate.”
With one-third of the population now making up of foreigners, that
task is becoming harder to achieve.<!-- / message --><!--
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