Introduction

Debates on immigration and foreigners have become highly topical and controversial in Singapore in recent years. Both have been “blamed” for a variety of woes that Singaporeans currently face, including a widening income gap and wage stagnation among the lower income groups; rising competition (for jobs, housing, communal space, and the like); and a rising cost of living. Immigration and foreigners also featured prominently in the debates leading up to the general election in May 2011, and they are also said to have contributed to the decline in the ruling People’s Action Party's share of parliamentary seats and popular votes. The level of resentment expressed has been unprecedented. The tipping point appeared to be the influx of foreigners in the latter half of the 2000s, when there was, in some years, double-digit growth in the number of foreigners and permanent residents. This resentment has only become evident now, even though Singapore has had a long history of in-migration and the majority of Singaporeans are immigrants or descendants of immigrants. Whatever the veracity of the perceived association between public sentiments and electoral votes, on returning to power, the government set about addressing Singaporeans’ unhappiness by promising to build more public housing and by increasing the frequency of public transportation, for example. It also tightened the rules for entry and made the benefits of citizenship more apparent. Regardless, immigration is likely to remain an integral part of Singapore's demographic development, as the government has maintained that Singapore will continue to require immigrants for economic and demographic reasons (see, for example, the speech by Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean on population at the Committee of Supply on 1 March 2012).

This chapter begins with a review of the role played by immigration (or more preferably, in-migration because it is less emotive) in Singapore’s demographic development from its founding until the present. Large-scale in-migration is not new to Singapore, and like the present, it was in-migration rather than domestic growth that had been the main contributor to population growth for much of Singapore's history. However, the nature of this migration and the context in which the present inmigration has taken place have changed, which probably accounts for the largely negative reactions evident in recent years.