Integrating Singapore

By Goh Chin Lian and Leonard Lim, The Straits Times, 11 Aug 2012

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong flagged the issue of integration in his National Day message this week.

Last month, he raised it twice, warning of a new fault line between older citizens and newer immigrants.

His worry is that friction can arise because new citizens have different norms and habits, even though they may be ethnically similar.

It is an issue that will not go away even with tighter controls on the inflow of foreigners. Fewer babies and more ageing citizens almost surely points to a less dynamic, grey future for Singapore. Unless the door remains open to energetic foreigners, or so the argument goes.

If being open to foreigners is a given, then the focus turns to making sure old and new communities get along.

Mr Lee signalled on Wednesday that it takes two hands to clap, when he said: "Singaporeans must remain confident and open and welcome those who will strengthen our team and help us and our children do better. For their part, new immigrants must make the effort to integrate into our community.

"They must acquire our social values, our cultural values, adopt our social norms and commit their loyalty and love to Singapore."

How can the doors to integration be opened? Who will do it?

In this National Day week, Insight looks at five key suggestions to move the process further.

Better assimilation
Work on bonding upon arrival, not later

ONE immigrant from China, afraid of being scolded, quickly makes way for a Singaporean woman in the library when there are not enough seats.

Another prefers to keep a low profile whenever she shops at the supermarket or visits other public places.

Such anecdotes, related by MPs and other Singaporeans, reflect the fears that new citizens face.

Political leaders and observers say better assimilation of foreigners before they are granted permanent residency (PR) or citizenship will help improve the level of integration in society.

Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC MP Hri Kumar Nair suggests requiring immigrants to perform community service for a meaningful period in the neighbourhoods they live in, before they get the pink IC or PR status.

"This will allow their community to get to know them and vice versa," he says, and such a requirement would be better than just making them recite the National Pledge, answering a few questions and participating in orientation programmes.

He adds: "Their applications should also be supported by a good number of community leaders and Singaporeans, who will testify to their contribution and good conduct."

Chua Chu Kang GRC MP Zaqy Mohamad, meanwhile, wants more programmes at the national level to ensure that these immigrants understand Singapore's culture, social graces and history.

Rules governing national service can also be tweaked.

Dr Leong Chan-Hoong, an Institute of Policy Studies research fellow, suggests doing away with the choice that second-generation PRs have to renounce their residency when they turn 18, if they want to avoid conscription. To ensure that they understand the importance of NS, he adds, parents who want to apply for PR for their children should also be made to put up a security bond.

If their children do not want to serve NS eventually, parents forfeit the bond and their children must give up their residency status.

The bottom line is that well before foreigners decide to become PRs or citizens, there must be substantive programmes to ensure they fit in. Right now, such efforts come only at the tail-end of the process.

THREE STEPS TO CITIZENSHIP
UNDER current rules, all would-be citizens aged between 16 and 60 must undergo an orientation programme known as a Singapore Citizenship journey before they get their pink identity card:

1. Complete an online tutorial and quiz on topics like national symbols, governance and defence.

2. Go on a half-day tour to key national institutions such as the National Museum of Singapore and Parliament House.

3. Engage in a sharing session with grassroots leaders.

Finding common ground
Forging ties across race, social class

AT A recent golf and dinner event to encourage new immigrants and citizens in the Indian community to mix, non-Indians surprisingly comprised a third of participants, and more than half of those who won prizes.

The Integration Cup is one example of how a common interest can draw people from diverse backgrounds and forge friendships, says Singapore Indian Association president K. Kesavapany.

"It should not be all from one race. This should be ingrained," he said of the way forward in Singapore's attempts to enhance integration.

Food, culture and sports, said observers like Marine Parade GRC MP Fatimah Lateef, are sure-fire ways to draw people out of their homes and into void decks and fields to interact.

Even then, some activities attract only certain groups so the challenge is finding one with broad appeal. Joo Chiat MP Charles Chong recalled how the grassroots soccer games he organised would see mostly locals and few foreigners, while cricket matches, on the other hand, attracted largely new citizens.

He settled on soccer and cricket clinics to teach residents the respective sports. These proved far more successful than competitive matches, especially with children. He said: "When we have more of such interactions, there will be better understanding. We sensed neighbours getting closer."

Small communities of new citizens abound in the heartland as well, said Pasir-Ris Punggol GRC MP Teo Ser Luck, and they organised events only within their enclaves.

"We must identify such groups, work with them and get them to engage more and interact more with others," he said.

But observers say those better-off and living in private estates, who tend to skip community centre and grassroots activities, should not be forgotten.

For instance, the Indian Women's Association has organised a writers' festival and community service outings to bring Indian expatriates and Singaporean Indians together, said its president Subina Khaneja.

She said: "Once you engage on a common talent like writing, any lines of who you were and where you came from fell away."

HOW FRIENDS ARE MADE
The top two ways, based on an Institute of Policy Studies poll of 937 foreign-born and 888 local-born citizens living in HDB estates in 2010:

Immigrants made Singaporean friends by...

- Casual interaction around where they live: 67 per cent 

- In shops or service outlets: 49 per cent

Singaporeans made immigrant friends by...

- Casual interaction around where they live: 69 per cent 

- Introduction by friends or relatives: 35 per cent

Starting young
Singapore schools the way to go

SINGAPORE schools are where children of different races mix and make friends and most observers say they are the best places to seed the belief that diversity should be embraced.

The idea sounds simple but is hard to do as a one-size-fits-all policy, educators counter.

First, some newly arrived parents prefer to send their children to international schools.

One local school teacher tells the story of a couple who were told that as new citizens, their child must attend a Singapore school. Although exceptions are made for children who have been schooled abroad for sometime, their child did not qualify as she was in lower primary.

Still, the parents vented their displeasure on the local school officials, saying they would have chosen an international school any time.

Second, some PRs are still undecided if they are here for good and so, to ensure that their children do not lose out if they go back home, they send them to international schools.

But they are doing so in numbers that cause concern. In the book Hard Truths, former Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said the Government had considered requiring young Indian nationals who want to become Singapore permanent residents to attend local secondary schools, not Indian international schools.

Mr Atul Temurnikar, a co-founder of Global Indian International School, the largest of five Indian schools here, says parents worry about transition issues as school terms and curriculum in India differ from the local schools'.

"Maybe at the primary level, it's possible," concedes Mr Atul, a Singapore PR here for 21 years. He sits on a National Integration Council workgroup for schools.

Indian Women's Association president Subina Khaneja, 50 and a PR here, is all for local schools. "Once you study together, you are not strangers to each other," she says, adding that the multicultural exposure prepares children for the working world.

But this is where a third concern emerges: Non-citizens do not get an equal chance as citizens to vie for the best local schools. She says: "Singaporeans built Singapore and feel their child should be given a higher chance, but those coming here to make a better life want to give their child the best as well."

The Government's delicate balancing act of making sure Singaporeans get priority over PRs in school places while ensuring young immigrants and locals have enough opportunities to interact and bond will require further calibrating, observers say.

Another way, says former National Integration Council member Edward De Silva, is to bond students from international and local schools through combined activities like camps.

Bonding at work
Office cliques out, inclusive culture in

WHEN Associate Professor Ng Kok Yee and two researchers peered into 30 organisations, they found a string of integration challenges between local and foreign professionals at the workplace.

These included different communication styles and norms like work hours and the amount of instruction expected, and status issues where "Western employees are implicitly conferred higher status than locals as well as Asian employees", says the Nanyang Technological University don.

Also on the list were "the lack of a common identity, the sense of threat and the lack of trust that locals may have of foreigners", the researchers said in their 2010 study commissioned by the Institute of Policy Studies.

Prof Ng is therefore all for equipping line managers to handle cross-cultural conflicts between subordinates "in a sensitive and effective way that recognises and respects cultural differences".

Organisations that did fairly well in integration trained their managers to be confident in inter-cultural interaction, to be aware of their assumptions of other cultures, and to be flexible in verbal and non-verbal behaviours.

They also created opportunities for positive contact, fostered team and organisational identity, and celebrated cultural differences, says Prof Ng.

"When we recognise strengths, we increase our respect for the culture, and also are more likely to assign jobs that fit better, which will yield better results for the team or organisation."

Recruitment and human resource experts such as Robert Walters' managing director (Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia) Andrea Ross suggest including such cultural sensitivity training as part of all employees' induction programmes.

The organisations in Prof Ng's study also ensured equal opportunities for promotion and training, a point HR experts like Paul Heng stress is critical if offices are to minimise conflict.

Businesses are now expected to make reasonable efforts to attract and consider Singaporeans for jobs on merit, train them and develop their careers, since national guidelines on fair employment practices added this expectation last October.

Since then, the Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practices (Tafep) has met more than 100 employers over nationality-related allegations.

Half of the complaints related to discriminatory job ads, one in six concerned foreign supervisors preferring to hire their own kind, and a handful on exclusionary behaviour of colleagues or supervisors, such as speaking in a different language.

The issue of hiring past work associates from one's own former country bears watching and keeping a lid on, if workplace efforts at integration are to succeed, say HR experts.

Tafep's spokesman said: "So far, employers approached by Tafep heed Tafep's advice and accept that it is in their interest to attract and develop Singaporeans on merit."

Finding a new narrative
Move away from ageing population angle

APART from recent moves to ease the strain on transport and housing, more measures, some radical even, are needed to deal with the thorny topic of integration.

One academic suggests moving away from the oft-cited argument by the Government - that immigrants are necessary to top up an ageing population and abysmal birth rates.

Others moot a monetary bonus for citizens that is linked to the number of immigrants currently in Singapore.

Dr Leong Chan-Hoong, vice-chairman of the 2010 Reach Policy Study Workgroup on integration, says there is little persuasive impact in harping on the benefits of avoiding an ageing society as this is evident only in the distant future. The cost of a liberal immigration policy, however, is immediate and personal, with Singaporeans competing with foreigners for jobs and space daily.

The research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies suggests focusing on sharing with Singaporeans the anxieties of new citizens or immigrants - such as how their children cope with National Service or when they sit for major exams - similar to the worries faced by local-born citizens. "We need this new narrative because... we forget how vulnerable we all are, both immigrants and locals. In fact, we share so much more in common in negotiating day-to-day difficulties," he said.

The downside, however, is that this is based on sympathy and could trigger the opposite reaction of apathy, says Mr Norman Vasu.

The S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) assistant professor advocates more transparency on immigration.

"Who specifically is the nation taking in, and why, are questions that, if clear answers are provided for, will go a long way in assuring Singaporeans," he says.

Instituting a points system of application for new citizens, similar to Australia's, would also indicate what skills Singapore needs and how individuals managed to become citizens or permanent residents.

Mr Vasu, along with two colleagues, also suggested having an "immigration bonus" in a commentary published in this newspaper on Wednesday.

This would be given to only Singaporeans, and come from levies collected from Work Permit and S-Pass Holders, and possibly from the introduction of a one-off entry levy for Employment Pass Holders.

This bonus, they wrote, will serve as an "important signal" to Singaporeans of how their fortunes are intertwined with foreigners, as the amount will rise and fall in tandem with the number of foreigners allowed in.

Meanwhile, former Nominated MP Viswa Sadasivan wants to see more dialogue between immigrants and homegrown Singaporeans, where they can hear each other's frustrations and start honest discussions about integration.

Peaceful co-existence and tolerance of idiosyncrasies are more realistic targets in the short-term rather than exhortations to forge firm friendships, he believes.