Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew became the “first minister to put a time line on the Government’s pledge since last year to reduce the intake of foreign workers." This is despite his claims that he is “not doing much work except forecasting.”
“The next five years, we have decided we will tier down our need for foreign workers. We will pay for help to educate people, continuing education and training, which means a lot of money, probably co-payment with the employer to send him,” he said.
His statements received no immediate response from his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
Due to a growing frustration on the ground over the influx of foreigners into Singapore, the immigration policy is now being tweaked by the ruling party to make it more “palatable” to Singaporeans.
As late as August 2009, Mr. Lee told Singaporeans that while foreigners are “essential” to the country, they must “bear with the tide of immigrations”.
However, he now seems to have changed his views.
“We’ve grown in the last five years by just importing labour. Now, the people feel uncomfortable, there are too many foreigners. Trains are overcrowded with foreigners, buses too; property prices have gone up because foreigners with permanent residency visas are buying into the market. The answer is simple: We check the flow of foreigners, raise your productivity, do the job better, so that instead of two workers, eventually you’ll do it with one worker, like the Japanese do,” he said.
This is somehow an implicit admission that the ruling party may have made a mistake by permitting a large number of foreigners into the country over the last few years. If the government has deliberately controlled, measured and calibrated the influx of foreigners, Singaporeans are questioning the need to “check” the flow now.
Singapore’s demographics have been changed beyond recognition in a short span of time — 36 percent of Singapore’s population is comprised of foreigners, up from 14 percent in 1990. Of the remaining 64 percent who are citizens, a growing proportion accounts for new immigrants born overseas.
There is still no assurance that Singapore will not be “swarmed” by foreigners even if their inflow is being “checked” like what Mr. Lee has promised, as there already is a sizable number of them in the country.