Singapore gets 20,000 new citizens
Singapore granted its highest number of citizenships last year in more than a decade, even as it has tightened its intake of permanent residents (PRs) in recent years.
In all, 20,693 people became Singaporeans last year, Prime Minister’s Office Minister Grace Fu revealed yesterday in Parliament.
This is higher than the previous year’s 15,777 and follows an up-trend in the number of new citizens.
Between 1987 and 2006, about 8,200 people were granted citizenship papers a year. From 2007 to 2011, that number grew to 18,500 a year, according to statistics previously released by the National Population and Talent Division (NPTD).
An NPTD spokesman told The Straits Times yesterday that the number of citizenships granted each year fluctuates depending on factors such as the number and quality of applicants.
Last year’s successful applications were within the 15,000 to 25,000 range it expects to grant yearly, she said.
The lower number of new citizenships granted in 2011, she said, was due to the introduction of the Singapore Citizenship Journey, a programme to help new citizens better appreciate the country’s history, norms and values. “This process takes about two months to complete. Hence, about 4,000 applicants who began their citizenship formalities in late 2011 were only granted citizenship in early 2012,” she said.
Some exceptions
Last year’s new citizenship figure also includes 2,735 minors under the age of 21, most of whom were born overseas to Singaporean parents, Fu said.
Excluding minors, eight in 10 new citizens who took the oath last year had lived in Singapore for more than five years, while five in 10 had been there for more than a decade, Fu said.
She was responding to questions on citizenship and permanent resident applications by David Ong (Jurong GRC), Baey Yam Keng (Tampines GRC) and Dr Lily Neo (Tanjong Pagar GRC).
To Dr Neo, who felt that only those contributing to society and “not draining our limited resources” should become new citizens, Fu gave assurances that a set of selection criteria is in place.
She assured Ong that citizenships are not granted to people before they start living in the country, though exceptions are made for dependants.
“These are all considered as a family unit and, from time to time, their children, their wives, their parents may be granted Singapore citizenship before they have a long-extended period of stay in Singapore.”
Fu also revealed that 4,100 new citizens per year were foreign spouses sponsored by Singaporeans, while another 4,100 spouses became permanent residents. These figures have been averaged over the past four years. The bulk of them were foreign wives of Singaporean husbands – nine in 10 for new citizens and eight in 10 for permanent residents.
Rejections made up 10 per cent of applications for citizenship, or 580 a year, but slightly more than half of applications for PRs – or 4,400 a year.
Baey was also concerned for Singaporeans whose spouses do not meet the conditions to stay on as PRs.
“Are they expected to migrate, leave Singapore or maybe they shouldn’t marry a foreigner in the first place?” he asked.
