Actually, my job was just to get them to adulthood and through the military in my son's case. After that, they are on their own. I don't believe in taking care of kids till they are 35 years old. I daresay, I've given much more here than I've taken. In fact, I haven't taken anything here that I'm not leaving when I go. Plus I've left a legacy of giving a lot of knowledge to this country as well.
The only reason I ever took up PR in the first place was for the benefit of a citizen who was being deprived of HER rights as a citizen. By being married to a Singaporean, my wife was not afforded the normal protection of the government insofar as she could not always depend on her husband being allowed to return home at the end of the job. The government wouldn't give those of us who worked in the offshore oil industries PR (we, who kept all their money making refineries in crude oil - I worked offshore for 20 years) or any kind of residency status as we didn't actually work in Singapore, neither, of course, did we pay taxes.
This works out in a rather strange fashion if one thinks about it. The whole scenario borders on stupidity on the governments POV. Back in the early '80's there must have been close of 10K of us here who were married to local women. Back then there were around 60-80K offshore oilfield workers here. A lot of us had children by those women, and those children were all citizens by birth due to their mother's being citizens. Most of us were more than willing to take up PR, contribute to CPF and pay our share of taxes. But, for some reason the gahmen didn't/wouldn't see it. Back then, their reasoning was they didn't want us taking singaporean jobs (sound familiar?) and they would take up much needed housisng. Crap. Who would want their jobs? We worked in the oilfields where a similar job paid 4-8x as much. Take up additional housing? We lived with our Singaporean wives & children who still required housing themselves.
At any rate, to give my wife some peace of mind, I found a job in Singapore and quit working offshore (I hated the job) in order to get an EP. After gaining an EP, I worked for a couple years and then couldn't stand it any longer so I went back offshore (where the money was). That lasted around 2 years and then family anxieties played into it again and I found another job in Singapore. So, to cut to the chase, I applied for PR, was rejected, appealed, was rejected, waited two more years, applied again, was approved.
What did I tell the Immigration officer at my PR interview? (Back then you had an actual interview with two ICA officers - not the interview to finalize your PR like you have today). I told 'em that the gahmen were shortsighted (myopic I believe it the world bandied about today). Both of their jaws dropped and their eyes widened. Then Why? So I told them what I related above about the numbers of oilfield workers who were married to local girls with families, the fact that we were willing to pay CPF & taxes. BUT, for some reason, the gahmen did not want our money (at salaries that produced LOTS of taxes) AND if that wasn't enough, I told him that i's okay though, because the spouse & children are Singaporeans, but the breadwinner isn't allowed residency here and that just means other Singaporeans have to paid the taxes to support my families subsidies, e.g., medical, schooling, housing, etc, etc. You coulda knocked the officer over with a feather! And, his eyes went ka-ching, ka-ching like a cash register. I also told him about all the funny looks I got when I told them "I've already been here 11 years on a tourist visa (between hitches offshore) and have had 1 Singaporean Wife, 2 Siingaporean kids and three cars. Eye's even bigger! Then he told me I will be granted PR AND he was going to look into what I told him. Oh, I had my PR two weeks later and about a hundred of my cronies that I knew personally in similar situations received, within 6 weeks, letters inviting them to apply for PR.
So, as a result of my blunt honesty with ICA officers, I also created another Tax revenue stream for the government as well. Been filling their coffers every since. But, I've never applied for PR in any other country as I planned to stay here for the duration of my working life. I don't, however, intend to be a drain on the economy and take up space here unless I am productive. Once I've outlived my usefulness here I will retire to the US and free up the space I used to occupy here for somebody who will also contribute to this little red dot, and not just line their pockets for a few years until a better offer comes along. What my children do it their business. My daughter is engaged to a Singaporean PhD and will probably stay here (he's working in the Oilfield as well now!
And so does my daughter! My son? Good question, he has his band which, while local indie type, as toured China 2x and Canada once. He also has a local girlfriend. I've stayed through thick and thin and weathered 5 full recessions. I'm definitely not a quitter.
So, until you have walked a mile in my shoes. Think before you end up like this:
