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In this Explainer, find out...
How have Singapore’s immigration policies shaped our society?
What are the efforts done to integrate immigrants into our society?
How effective are the integration efforts as perceived by Singaporeans?
Introduction
It is no secret that Singapore’s immigrant population has made significant contributions to Singapore’s development. These economic impacts have been explored in detail in the first of this two-part Policy Explainer series which you may read here.¹
Beyond its economic impact, this Policy Explainer seeks to delve into the socio-cultural issues around immigration. This discussion will be centred on efforts made by the Government to integrate immigrants into the larger Singaporean society. In evaluating existing policies, we will first consider what defines high-skilled and low-skilled workers, and then assess the disparities in the treatment of each group.
The Immigrants of Singapore
Broadly speaking, immigrants in Singapore are divided into two groups: high-skilled workers who live and work in Singapore are commonly referred to as “foreign talent”, while low-skilled workers doing the same are known as “migrant workers”.
Foreign Talent
Singapore's foreign talent policy has been guided by a desire to further her economic development and quell national anxieties of brain drain caused by plummeting fertility rates and citizen emigration. Foreign talent, also known as expats, tend to be employed in professional, technical, or managerial roles. Most bring specific educational qualifications and professional expertise to Singapore, making them highly valued.²
Given the high-skilled nature of their work coupled with higher salaries, foreign talents tend to receive ‘higher-level’ work passes such as the Employment Pass (EP) or S Pass. These work passes grant longer stays in the country and the ability to bring dependents to Singapore.³ Foreign talent with such work passes are also eligible to become Permanent Residents (PRs) and Singapore Citizens (SCs), an option that is not available to their migrant worker counterparts.⁴
These benefits also extend to international students who remain in Singapore to work. For instance, outstanding ASEAN students can be awarded undergraduate scholarships to study at Singapore’s Autonomous Universities and take up the Ministry of Education’s Tuition Grant.⁵ They are also expected to work in a Singapore-registerd firm for a period of time immediately after graduation.⁶
Migrant Workers
While there are different types of work passes awarded to different types of immigrants, they tend to be valid for the same period of two years.⁷
However, unlike foreign talents, work permit holders are also required to undergo medical examinations before the issuance of their work permits. They are screened for diseases such as HIV, malaria and tuberculosis, the latter two potent threats in Singapore’s unique environment.⁸ Work permit holders are also required to seek approval for marriage with SCs or PRs, without which they may no longer be able to enter or work in Singapore.⁹
Domestic Workers
There are around 250,000 primarily female migrant domestic workers (MDWs) in Singapore, mostly coming from the Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar and Cambodia.¹⁰ Cases of mistreatment have popped up over the years, from exploitation in the form of poorly defined working hours and poor living conditions to more severe forms of human rights abuse, such as an MDW being tied to the window grille for 12 days or when an MDW climbed down 15 stories to escape abuse.¹¹
Such instances of mistreatment and abuse can be partially attributed to the lack of MDW protection under the Employment Act, as it is “not practical to regulate specific aspects of domestic work”.¹² While MDWs and their employers are required to enter a safety agreement that explicitly empowers MDWs during window-cleaning, they are still left in an otherwise vulnerable position.¹³ They can remain likely to be subject to abuse without sufficiently accessible avenues to seek recourse.
Construction Workers
Construction workers in Singapore hail mostly from the Indian subcontinent, along with the Philippines, Myanmar, Thailand and China. Most live in dormitories provided by employers that are subject to regulations to ensure spaces are liveable. Despite this, there have been many incidents of poor hygiene and overcrowding in dormitories, such as when a dorm operator was fined S$300,000 for housing workers in an unacceptable environment in 2016.¹⁴
Integration Policies
The Government has embarked on multi-pronged efforts to better integrate immigrants into Singaporean society, ranging from workplace policies to social integration policies. Compared to other countries, Singapore’s policies are unique in the distinction made between foreign talent and migrant workers. Many of the integration policies are exclusive to certain groups of immigrants, which is the lens we will use to analyse existing policies.
National Integration Council
One of the largest steps the Government has taken is setting up the National Integration Council (NIC). The NIC was established in 2009 to promote the integration of immigrants into the Singapore community.¹⁵ This has been done by bringing together the public, private, and people sectors, enhancing efforts across the community, workplaces, schools and the media. One of NIC’s notable projects is the Community Integration Fund which provides funding for any ground-up project that promotes the integration of immigrants.¹⁶
Foreign Talent Integration
Inclusion is the core principle guiding Singapore’s integration policies for foreign talent.
First, Singapore offers many benefits to attract foreign talents to move to and stay in Singapore. For instance, foreign talent are welcome to join Expatriate Clubs and Associations that provide opportunities for networking and cultural integration. Separately, housing and educational support are also provided to help foreign talent and their families settle down. These include finding international schools for their children and housing in exclusive neighbourhoods.
Second, foreign talent who wish to become Singapore citizens (and who have been PRs for at least two years) must attend a mandatory Singapore Citizenship Journey programme.¹⁷ The programme has multiple stages, starting with the e-Journey, the Singapore Experiential Visit and ending with the Community Sharing Session. At each of these stages, applicants undergo an immersive programme for them to truly understand the Singaporean culture and begin to assimilate into the larger society. Significant resources are devoted to the programme, from developing the curriculum to bringing Singaporeans down for each batch of applicants to facilitate the integration process.
Migrant Worker Integration
Migrant workers receive much less support integrating into Singaporean society. Instead, initiatives tend to focus on ensuring the welfare of migrant workers. One example is the Migrant Workers’ Centre (MWC) which provides support services, legal aid, and recreational activities to migrant workers.¹⁸ Cultural and recreational activities are also organised by migrant worker recreation centres.¹⁹ These are notable insofar as they are self-contained, thus limiting migrant workers’ interactions with the larger society.
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) fill in the gap between the resources migrant workers receive and the resources they require to successfully integrate. NGOs like Its Raining Raincoats and Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) provide resources such as classes, local excursions and welfare resources to help migrant workers integrate better into Singaporean society.²⁰
Foreign Talent Vs. Migrant Workers
Unique to Singapore’s immigration policies, there is a clear distinction between foreign talents and migrant workers, along with the treatment of the two groups. This is made apparent in the different approaches taken towards the two groups.
Foreign talents are deemed as making significant economic contributions. Singapore thus competes with other countries for the same pool of talent by offering preferential treatment, encouraging them to apply for permanent residency and citizenship, and integrating them into society.²¹
In stark comparison is the treatment of migrant workers. For the large part, policies on migrant workers focus on workplace safety, fair treatment and promoting their well-being, rather than social inclusion. This is perpetuated by rising nativism and anti-immigration mobilisation, where government policies are aligned with the views of many Singaporeans.²²
The policies outlined above are clear demonstrations of Foucault's biopower, which explains how the economic desirability of each group shapes their treatment. The Government uses work passes to control many different aspects of the lives of migrant workers. While they are available for work, their ability for social integration is strongly limited. This is seen by their housing situation in which many are segregated from the main population and unable to form meaningful connections, leading to social exclusion. The use of many health checks and screenings also explains how their bodies, which are deemed useful and productive, must be maintained in good condition.
Singaporeans' Perceptions
Despite efforts to better integrate immigrants, many Singaporeans continue to hold a negative mindset toward them.²³ This can be seen in the 2011 General Election where the incumbent People’s Action Party (PAP) received only 60 percent of votes, the lowest since independence, in part due to the dissatisfaction of citizens with Singapore’s prevailing immigration policies.²⁴
Locals interviewed at the time thought that there was significant competition between locals and migrants for jobs, with about half of the interviewees feeling that this competition was unfair to locals.²⁵ Additionally, interviewees were very concerned with equal access to housing and education as fair and frequently voiced support for policies to differentiate migrants from locals for not just housing and education, but also resources like healthcare and amenities. This culminated in the Fair Consideration Framework, requiring employers to prioritise PRs and citizens when hiring.²⁶
Incidents like the 2013 Little India riots involving 400 migrant workers contributed to a great amount of distrust of migrant workers too. This was especially so towards South Asian migrant workers, culminating in the Liquor Control Act and the creation of Liquor Control Zones.²⁷ The riots damaged the reputation of migrant workers significantly, and South Asian migrant workers suffered the most from having greater restrictions imposed on their activities.
Since then, Singaporean’s views towards migrant workers have softened, evidenced by the growth of social media pages like Humans Not Cargo that bring awareness to the living conditions of migrant workers. MPs have also voiced their concerns about the working conditions for migrant workers in Parliament. One recent example is the adjournment motion on the transportation of migrant workers on lorries, which was made following a series of road accidents involving migrant workers transported in lorries.²⁸
A major turning point for Singaporeans’ perceptions was the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, major outbreaks across migrant worker dormitories brought attention to their dire living conditions.²⁹ This led the Government to implement regulations to prevent the overcrowding of dormitories and increased efforts to disseminate health information in the workers’ native languages.³⁰ While this may have been driven out of concerns for the health and safety of the general public, it still encouraged Singaporeans to care more about migrant workers.
Singaporeans’ change in perception eventually created an impact at the government level too. This is evidenced by the implementation of a rest day, the enforcement of policies preventing kickback schemes by employment agencies, and the granting of workers’ rights to switch employers without returning to their home country if they face mistreatment.³¹
Migrant workers are not the only party that has suffered from negative perceptions. Foreign talents have been subjected to it too. As recently as 2017, landlords were known for frequently rejecting rental offers from Indian and Chinese tenants due to their ethnic preferences, even to the point of explicitly advertising “No Indian/ No PRC (People’s Republic of China)”. This is despite an oversupply of housing available and fewer well-paid foreign labour, indicating that landlords would have rather kept their flats unoccupied than rent them out to tenants of certain ethnicities.³² Even to this day, Indian expats are perceived as arrogant to Singaporean Indians and cliquish to the point of engaging in nepotism.³³
A key aspect of Singaporeans’ perceptions of immigration policies stems from their concept of fairness. Unlike Western liberal democracies, where fairness is based on the equality of rights, fairness to Singaporeans is based on the differences in rights and entitlements between locals and migrants. This concept, called differential fairness, has led to a lack of migrant integration into Singaporean society.³⁴ In response to this attitude, migrants tend to form ethnic enclaves to find friendship and help from their own people.³⁵ This perpetuates the issue as it leads to less intermingling between locals and migrants, further widening the gap between them.
Conclusion
Immigrants make up a large part of Singapore’s population and have contributed significantly to Singapore’s economy and society. However, instances of mistreatment and a lack of effective integration of new migrants into society remain. Many integration efforts have achieved limited effect due to clashes between policies and the concept of differential fairness embedded in Singaporean society. This begets the formation of immigration policies that render the status hierarchy more salient and contribute to overt discrimination against migrants.
Given current trends in Singapore’s birth rates and sentiments towards different jobs, it is unlikely that Singapore’s immigrant population will shrink anytime soon. Moving forward, Singapore must therefore look beyond the economic consequences of immigration policies, acknowledging its societal implications and finding ways to integrate immigrants. This will help us prevent rising nativism, thus keeping Singapore an open, harmonious society.
This Policy Explainer was written by members of MAJU. MAJU is an independent, youth-led organisation that focuses on engaging Singaporean youths in a long-term research process to guide them in jointly formulating policy ideas of their own.
By sharing our unique youth perspectives, MAJU hopes to contribute to the policymaking discourse and future of Singapore.
Ng, Clara, and Siddhant Vaduvur. 2024. “Singapore’s Immigration Policies: An Economic Perspective.” MAJU. “https://www.maju.sg/post/singapore-s-immigration-policies-an-economic-perspective.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
National University of Singapore. n.d. “ASEAN Undergraduate Scholarship.” National University of Singapore. Accessed August 13, 2024. https://nus.edu.sg/oam/scholarships/scholarships-for-freshmen-singapore-permanent-residents/asean-undergraduate-scholarship; Nanyang Technological University. n.d. “ASEAN Undergraduate Scholarship.” Nanyang Technological University. Accessed August 13, 2024. https://www.ntu.edu.sg/admissions/undergraduate/scholarships/asean-scholarship.
Ibid.
Ministry of Manpower. n.d. “Work Passes” Ministry of Manpower. Accessed August 15, 2024. https://www.mom.gov.sg/passes-and-permits.
Ministry of Manpower. n.d. “Medical examination for migrant worker” Ministry of Manpower. Accessed August 14, 2024. https://www.mom.gov.sg/passes-and-permits/work-permit-for-foreign-worker/sector-specific-rules/medical-examination.
Ministry of Manpower. n.d. “What are the marriage and pregnancy regulations for Work Permit holders in Singapore?” Ministry of Manpower. Accessed August 15, 2024. https://www.mom.gov.sg/faq/work-permit-for-foreign-worker/what-are-the-marriage-and-pregnancy-regulations-for-wp-holders-in-singapore.
Hirschmann, R. 2024. “Number of migrant domestic workers employed in Singapore from 2013 to 2022.” Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/953137/singapore-foreign-domestic-workers-employed/.
Lau, Jean. 2023. “True Crimes of Asia: Myanmar maid's death sparks reform in worker protection but gaps still exist.” The Straits Times, 27 June 2023. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/true-crimes-of-asia-myanmar-domestic-worker-s-death-sparks-reform-in-worker-protection-but-gaps-still-exist. ;Alkhatib, Shaffiq. 2020. “Over 10 months' jail for woman whose maid climbed down 15 storeys to escape abuse.” The Straits Times, 18 November 2020. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/over-10-months-jail-for-woman-whose-maid-climbed-down-15-storeys-to-escape.
Ministry of Manpower. n.d. “Contracts and safety agreement for migrant domestic worker.” Ministry of Manpower. Accessed August 13, 2024. https://www.mom.gov.sg/passes-and-permits/work-permit-for-foreign-domestic-worker/employers-guide/contracts-and-safety-agreement.
Ibid.
Ronald Loh. 2016. “Inside a Foreign Workers’ Dormitory,” The New Paper, June 2, 2016. https://tnp.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/inside-foreign-workers-dormitory.
Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth. n.d. “Resilience and Engagement Sector.” Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth. Accessed August 12, 2024. https://www.mccy.gov.sg/sector/initiatives/national-integration-council.
Ibid.
Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth. n.d. “Hi! How can we help?” Singapore Journey. Accessed August 12, 2024. https://www.sgjourney.gov.sg/help/.
Migrant Workers’ Centre. n.d. “How we help.” Migrant Workers’ Centre. Accessed August 13, 2024. https://www.mwc.org.sg/how-we-help.
Ministry of Manpower. n.d. “Recreation centres for migrant workers.” Ministry of Manpower. Accessed August 13, 2024. https://www.mom.gov.sg/passes-and-permits/work-permit-for-foreign-worker/recreation-well-being-and-other-resources-for-migrant-workers/recreation-centres.
Its Raining Raincoats. 2023. “IRR Annual Report 2023.” Its Raining Raincoats. https://itsrainingraincoats.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/IRR-Annual-Report-2023_final_compressed.pdf. Accessed 10 August 2024.
Zhan, Shaohua, Min Zhou, and Lingli Huang. 2022. “Differentiation from above and below: Evolving immigration policy and the integration dilemma in Singapore.” Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 31, no. 1 (March). https://doi.org/10.1177/01171968221083703.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Kesavapany, K. 2011. “Reflections on the Singapore general election.” East Asia Forum. https://eastasiaforum.org/2011/05/12/reflections-on-the-singapore-general-election/.
Zhan, Shaohua, Min Zhou, and Lingli Huang. “Differentiation from above and below: Evolving immigration policy and the integration dilemma in Singapore.”
Ministry of Manpower. n.d. “Fair Consideration Framework (FCF).” Ministry of Manpower. Accessed August 13, 2024. https://www.mom.gov.sg/employment-practices/fair-consideration-framework.
Reuters. 2013. “Singapore shocked by worst riots in decades, as migrant workers vent anger.” The Guardian, December 9, 2013. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/09/singapore-riots-decades-migrant-workers.
CNA. 2023. “Adjournment motion on transporting workers on the back of lorries.” CNA, July 5, 2023. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/watch/adjournment-motion-transporting-workers-back-lorries-3608076
Ng, Abigail. 2023. “Living conditions in dormitories better since COVID-19 but more improvements needed, say foreign workers.” CNA, May 24, 2023. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/migrant-worker-dormitories-living-conditions-catered-food-hygiene-3458881.
Elangovan, Navene. 2023. “Outbreak at worker dorms, supply chain concerns in spotlight as Parliament debates Covid-19 White Paper.” TODAY Online, March 21, 2023. https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/outbreak-worker-dorms-supply-chain-parliament-debates-covid-19-white-paper-2133561. Accessed 11 August 2024.
Koh, Poh Koon. 2022. “Response to Adjournment Motion at Parliament.” Ministry of Manpower, Ministry of Manpower. https://www.mom.gov.sg/newsroom/speeches/2022/0215-response-to-adjournment-motion-on-a-fairer-and-more-inclusive-singapore-for-mws.
Chandran, Nyshka, and Michelle Loh. 2017. “Singapore rental racism: PRC and Indian tenants often deemed undesirable.” CNBC, March 3, 2017. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/02/singapore-rental-racism-prc-and-indian-tenants-often-deemed-undesirable.html.
Thomas, Sudhir. 2020 “Why always Indians? ” Musings from Singapore. https://sudhirtv.com/2020/08/22/why-always-indians.
Zhan, Shaohua, Min Zhou, and Lingli Huang. “Differentiation from above and below: Evolving immigration policy and the integration dilemma in Singapore.”
Mathews, Mathew. 2023. “What's holding back migrant integration in Singapore and ways to break barriers.” The Straits Times, July 4, 2023. https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/what-s-holding-back-migrant-integration-in-singapore-and-ways-to-break-the-barriers.