SINGAPORE: From Saturday, the Immigration and
Checkpoints Authority (ICA) will implement the registration of
double-barrelled race options for Singaporean children born to
parents of different races.
The change was first announced in Parliament in
January.
It gives parents who are of different races further
flexibility and choice to decide how their child's race should be
recorded.
This is on top of the existing options of choosing
only one of the two different races - either that of the father or
the mother - for their child. For example, if one parent is
"Chinese" and the other is "Indian", the child's race may be
recorded as "Chinese", "Indian", "Chinese-Indian", or
"Indian-Chinese".
The registration of the double-barrelled race will
be limited to only two components.
ICA said that for relevant Government policies, such as the initial
assignment to a mother-tongue language class in schools and the
HDB's Ethnic Integration Policy, the first component of a
double-barrelled race will be used.
It said there will not be any advantage in terms of policy
considerations for those who register either a double-barrelled or
a singular race.
For the presentation of statistics, the current way of presenting
the published race statistics will be maintained. It will be based
on the first component of the double-barrelled race.
Details on the policy and registration procedures can be found on
ICA's website at www.ica.gov.sg.
-CNA/ac