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Fewer applications for Singapore Permanent
Residence (PR) will be granted this year, said Deputy
Prime Minister Wong Kan
Seng in Parliament on Thursday.
With the tightening of the immigration criteria introduced late
last year, the number “will be noticeably less than that in 2009,”
he said in reply to a question from Nominated MP Professor
Paulin Tay Straughan.
She had asked for the number of applications for PR in 2009
and this year, and how many were successful.
According to The Straits Times, Mr Wong
claims the Immigration and
Checkpoints Authority (ICA) received a total
of 132,000 applications for PR last year. Out of these,
115,900 applications were processed, and 59,500 or 51 per cent were
successful.
In response to questions about the profile of successful
applicants, he said the majority of them qualified under the
Professional, Technical and Skilled Workers Scheme. The rest
were dependents of Singapore citizens or dependents of the
economic PRs.
Mr Wong, who is also the Home Affairs Minister, pledged, “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.”
Explaining the need for allowing immigrants into Singapore,
Mr Wong said it helps improve the old-age support ratio
by increasing the number of economically-active residents.
He told the House that in 1970, when Singapore’s Total
Fertility Rate 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
1 elderly person,” he said.
“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 quality of immigrants,” he
explained.
He added that declining population is a long-term issue and it
requires to be tackled ”several decades ahead, of the problems
manifesting themselves.”
