Debated in Parliament on 6 Feb 2018.
Mr Saktiandi Supaat asked the Minister for Home Affairs (a) how is the trend among foreign students applying for Permanent Residency in the last 10 years; (b) what is the percentage of success; (c) how many stayed on and continued to work in Singapore and subsequently take on citizenship.
Mr Speaker, from 2008 to 2017, 7,251 foreign students applied for Permanent Residency (PR) on their own merits. Close to 82%, or 5,932, have been granted PR. Of these PRs, 1,072, or 18%, have subsequently taken up citizenship as at the end of 2017. Eighty-five, or around 1%, have renounced their PR.
Mr Speaker: Mr Saktiandi Supaat.
I thank the Second Minister for the reply. I have one follow-up question.
Can I ask Mr Saktiandi to repeat his question? I did not quite hear it.
The question I have is the nationalities of the students who had been successful in getting their PR and also those that had been successful in getting their citizenship as well.
Mr Speaker, I do not have the detailed breakdown. But suffice to say that they would have to reflect the profile of the foreign student population in Singapore. By and large, unless my memory serves me wrong, I think a good majority of them come from Asia. The important thing to point out is that in assessing whether an applicant should be granted PR or Singapore Citizenship, an important consideration is the applicant's ability to integrate with the local population as well as his potential to contribute to our society. These considerations apply to all applicants, including the foreign students.
Order. End of Question Time.
[Pursuant to Standing Order No 22(3), provided that Members had not asked for questions standing in their names to be postponed to a later Sitting day or withdrawn, written answers to questions not reached by the end of Question Time are reproduced in the Appendix.]
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