"You can be a tourist here or on an EP pass or be a Permanent Resident and give birth in Singapore and your child will not be classified as a Singaporean.
An oxymoron surely? You must take on the nationality of the place where you are born?
Ordinarily and in many other other countries in the world yes but not in Singapore.The irony is of course that Singapore has the lowest fertility rate in the world which is one of the main reasons that foreigners have to be imported here to fill jobs. That in turn is one of the main reasons why Singaporeans are increasingly anti-foreigner and believe that foreign workers should be second to infrastructure development to cope with population growth.
I have tried to find out why this is the case and can only conclude that the policy is designed to stop people from poorer neighbours like the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia from just hoping over the border to visit Sentosa and having a baby here at the same time and gaining all the benefits.
However this overlooks the small fact that there is virtually no welfare system here. Born here does not give you any benefits unless you really are on the poverty line.
Even then the reason why so many older Singaporeans work in fast food outlets (way past any age they would do so in the West) is because there are no freebies, no safety net beyond your child looking after you (they must do so legally but if you have no family it becomes a problem).
The UK and US could learn much in this context from Singapore. They are billions in debt while Singapore is billions in surplus mainly due to welfare bills for the two western countries. As PM Lee recently said foreigners should be welcome as long as they integrate and contribute to society."
I think it makes perfect sense for us to not be able to claim Singaporean citizenship.
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