EP Renewal Quandary

[TropicalExpat]

Zombie post resurrection.

PR was rejected in 2012 (mentioned above). Reapplied in 2014 with better education quals (for myself), still rejected. Reapplied in May this year, figured we had nothing to lose although did not expect any positive outcome because my wife and I are in the "others" bracket and that's 1.5% of the quota AFAIK - something I didn't know in 2012/2014.

Got the IPA in 6 months. Differences from the 2014 application: increased pay; kid (female); better educational quals (wife) - not sure if that was relevant as I was main applicant.

Congratulations! I think the fact you also have been in Singapore for something like a decade also shows your staying power in Singapore!

Congrats again!

[randomluser]

I "heard" that in the past non-Chinese Filipinos were in the "Malay" bracket and that resulted in a large number of PR's from PH (I know a lot of people who came in pre-2008). I am fairly sure we're "Others" now though..

[smoulder]

I "heard" that in the past non-Chinese Filipinos were in the "Malay" bracket and that resulted in a large number of PR's from PH (I know a lot of people who came in pre-2008). I am fairly sure we're "Others" now though..

Interesting. I was told that Indians have also been put into the other's category. I know that this goes against the posts in this forum and I don't know if it's true, but this is what my wife was told by a friend who's husband works in the ICA.

[malcontent]

For the purposes of the HDB ethnic integration policy, Indians and Others are lumped together and can make up no more than 15% of a block or 12% of a neighborhood.

https://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/d ... -spr_q.pdf

[smoulder]

For the purposes of the HDB ethnic integration policy, Indians and Others are lumped together and can make up no more than 15% of a block or 12% of a neighborhood.

https://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/d ... -spr_q.pdf

What I was told was that Indians are lumped together with others for PR approvals as well.

[malcontent]

If Indian+Others is taken together, it has the largest growth of any group, from 8.3% in 2000 to 9% in 2019. As for Chinese, it dropped nearly one percentage point over the same period. That hardly makes a dent, but does indicate willingness to accept a greater proportion of non-Chinese here.

There are two reasons why I think that is important. First, to facilitate better integration with ASEAN (both as a regional neighbor and member state), and second, it could dissuade an increasingly rapacious China from getting any ideas about annexation on ethnological grounds.

[sundaymorningstaple]

The percentage between 2000 & 2019 was because of the early drive for a IT Hub when they allows 10's of '000's of Indian IT personnel come to Singapore and a fairly large number of them started applying for PR to add to their collections of PR worldwide. The government did not pay too much attention at the time until the 2011 GE when the drop in the Chinese demographic has dropped by well over 1% (closer to 2%) and the Indian demographic had fully increased by 2%. This shocked the PAP and over the next 5 to 8 years (This forum is full of the rejections) It was virtually impossible for Indian to get PR (and it's is still being felt today). This is why it was brought up in Parliament and linked to earlier as to the fact that they are using immigration to achieve the demographic that they desire. Singapore is and has been in the bottom three countries for the past 30 years with a TFR of only about 1.13. Of the three main races here, Chinese are the lowest and Malays the highest with Indians somewhere in the middle.

[smoulder]

The percentage between 2000 & 2019 was because of the early drive for a IT Hub when they allows 10's of '000's of Indian IT personnel come to Singapore and a fairly large number of them started applying for PR to add to their collections of PR worldwide. The government did not pay too much attention at the time until the 2011 GE when the drop in the Chinese demographic has dropped by well over 1% (closer to 2%) and the Indian demographic had fully increased by 2%. This shocked the PAP and over the next 5 to 8 years (This forum is fully of the rejections) It was virtually impossible for Indian to get PR (and it's is still being felt today). This is why it was brought up in Parliament and linked to earlier as to the fact that they are using immigration to achieve the demographic that they desire. Singapore is and has been in the bottom three countries for the past 30 years with a TFR of only about 1.13. Of the three main races here, Chinese are the lowest and Malays the highest with Indians somewhere in the middle.

Right. I suppose the point I brought up earlier cannot be viewed in isolation. Obviously, it's in conjunction with whatever you bring up.

I suppose the majority of (the few) Indians getting PRs these days are either in very niche areas of specialization which are in demand or ones who have proven their desire to integrate.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Spot on. We are seeing more approvals now than we have since 2011. It's still not great but at least it appears the pogrom is more or less over and those who are getting through are, as noted, the creme de la creme, as it should be. Before if one had a degree in IT from one of the only 2 noted Indian Universities (with world rankings - not just an everyday Indian "reputed" university) between 2000~2010 you were a shoe-in as Singapore didn't have squat of their own. That has changed immensely today so now, you have to be sufficiently able to grab the brass ring before one will be considered for more permanence here.

[PNGMK]

I "heard" that in the past non-Chinese Filipinos were in the "Malay" bracket and that resulted in a large number of PR's from PH (I know a lot of people who came in pre-2008). I am fairly sure we're "Others" now though..

Yes - there was a legitimate stink kicked up by the local Malay community over that. For what it's worth I personally think there are good historical reasons to consider some Filipinos to be the same as Malays - the Bugis and others are actually originally from the south of the Philippines historically but the problem is religion....

[malcontent]

People have a tendency to attach something beyond ethnicity to a race. Hispanic as a race is a good example of this. Technically, Malays are Austronesian, an ethnic group that spans much of Southeast Asia the Pacific. Even aboriginals in Taiwan and to some extent the Ainu of Japan share that same ethnic origin.

Linguistically, they are all Malayo-Polynesian. Fun fact, the number 5 (lima) in Malay is the exact same word in Malay, Indonesian, Javanese, Tagalog (Filipino), Bisaya (Cebuano), Fijian, Samoan and even Hawaiian! The other numbers share similarities, but the 5 is consistent across all.

I guess the main argument is that Filipinos are not Malays in the cultural sense. There is a better argument for ethnic Indonesians, especially those from neighboring Riau. I doubt the same yardstick is used for other races despite the cultural heterogeneity.