JULY 19 — There are currently over 540,000 Permanent Residents (PRs) in Singapore.

Over the past 20 years or so, somewhere in the range of 150,000 to 300,000 foreign citizens have been naturalised as Singaporeans.

Given this island has a total full-time resident population of about 3.8 million, about 25 per cent of us are — or were until quite recently — foreigners.

This is not to include the over 1.5 million non-permanent-resident foreigners who are also domiciled here — students, domestic workers, foreigners employed locally — who make up the rest of the island’s total 5.3 million population.

What this all means is that at a very rough guess, natural-born Singaporeans comprise about 2.5 to 3 million of the population and foreign-born residents about the same — so it’s broadly 50/50 (again, this is my estimate).

This is a bit complicated on account of those born in Malaysia but my point is a rather obvious one: there are lot of foreigners in Singapore. But rather than endorsing the xenophobia that seems to be increasingly fashionable and heroic apparently — I want to say: this is not new.

This island was built on immigration from every community.

The very first census on the island — taken in 1924, not long after Stamford Raffles’ original treaties — recorded 10,683 residents comprising 74 Europeans, 16 Armenians, 15 Arabs, 4,580 Malays, 3,317 Chinese, 756 natives of India and 1,925 Bugis.

Today 190 years later, we are at 3.2 million and let’s be honest — not many of us here are actually descendants of these original inhabitants.

Tourists visit Singapore’s famous Merlion in front of the skyline of the city’s financial business district on February 25, 2015. — AFP pic

We have had waves and waves of immigration — however, the scale of the latest wave with the government, at one point, announcing 20,000 new citizens every year and a long-term plan for a population of over 6.9 million led to a visible backlash among those born in Singapore.

Even a government famous for top down policy-making has, in this case, had to defer to public opinion and distance itself from these numbers. With anti-immigration sentiment rising, we now see anti-immigration measures to encourage the employment of Singaporeans announced.

While I’m also not keen on seeing 6.9 million people crowd into this island I do somewhat appreciate the basic economic and demographic realities the government is dealing with.

Singaporeans don’t have nearly enough babies to sustain our economy and workforce; certainly not on a level that can support the growth trajectory we are used to.

Fundamentally this country has always relied on foreign labour and given our cost structures, a Singapore manned and run completely by Singaporeans is utterly unviable.

Immigration is deep-rooted in this country’s DNA so what we must do is manage it so it contributes to the nation without diluting and destroying our basic identity.

This, of course, is much easier said than done — but a good start I believe would be a reassessment of the government’s attitude towards dual citizenship.

Currently under article 134 of the Constitution Singaporeans who acquire foreign citizenship can and effectively will have their Singaporean citizenship revoked.

And foreigners who acquire Singaporean citizenship are required to give up their previous citizenship. 

There are no exceptions. Now this isn’t entirely unusual as many countries do not permit dual citizenship. However, given Singapore’s position as an open economy, and entrepot it is somewhat at odds with our reputation for pragmatism.

Most Western nations do permit dual citizenship, while in Asia the situation is more mixed — India, China and Japan do not — but many of the smaller nations are moving to liberalise their policies.

Of course given Singapore’s diminutive size, complex ethnic makeup and its proximity to powerful neighbours; it’s easy to see where the initial urge to prevent dual allegiances came from. As we approach SG 50, however, those original conditions have changed.

Today external security is no longer our greatest challenge and our problems are largely economic, and demographic.

With a large foreign-born population, an economy dependent on foreign labour and the simple fact that one in four Singaporeans now marries a foreigner, more flexibility with citizenship is beginning to look like a good option.

So much of the original resentment against foreigners in Singapore stemmed from the fact that while citizens had to serve compulsory National Service, PRs enjoyed many of the same benefits of citizens without this obligation. 

There was also the matter of foreigners receiving citizenship without an NS obligation. Though recent regulations have rectified many of these imbalances, there is still considerable tension.

The raw number of PRs doesn’t help, and it might be time to look to turning many of these PRs into citizens on the fulfilment of certain criteria.

National Service, proficiency in English +1 of our other national languages, a course in a local educational institution and maybe the ability to accurately tell apart Singapore Hokkien Mee from its KL counterpart (I may be serious).

And for these citizens retaining their citizenship should perhaps be an option. It would be an incentive to move from PR to full committed citizens.

On the other hand, natural-born Singaporeans who emigrate or marry foreigners should be allowed to retain their citizenship on acquiring foreign nationality. This would allow the increasing number of Singaporeans who leave for any number of reasons to maintain their connection with the land of their birth and also extend that option to their children.

Personally, I am married to foreigner who is a citizen of two countries and any future children (hypothetical offspring for now) will in theory have a choice of three citizenships. I  would like one of these  to be Singaporean. To me, being Singaporean is an authentic, unique and deep  identity — one my children and hopefully their children will choose to retain.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.