Population policy and reproduction in Singapore: Making future citizens

• Main Author: STRAUGHAN, Paulin Tay
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2014
• Subjects: Asian Studies; Demography, Population, and Ecology
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2171
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Singapore, a small city-state that can only boast of her people as resource, has been suffering sustained decline in fertility since the 1980s. Singlehood statistics have also inched up, and in a fairly tradition society where procreation is sanctioned only within a legally recognized union, there is little hope that the total fertility rate (TFR) will go up any time soon. To augment the shortfall in labor supply, the government had resorted to expansion of the nonresident population. However, recent antiforeigner sentiments have sent loud signals to the leadership that this is not acceptable to a significant segment of the local population.