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.”
