Trackback from Street71’s Perspective of Singapore:

so PR literally pays pays and pays… but never gets anything in returns. WHY?...

Compare that payment to what the real citizens here have to pay without free scholarship and stuff that other government provide for their own citizens.
The amount the low net worth FTs pay is chicken feed.
How to survive in the next better country then ?

Just shut up and convert to SG citizenship. PR so what? Anyone with an S Pass can get it.

Many people apply for PR here cos its easy and comes with benefits, and they do not renounce citizenship at their own country cos they wanna earn as much as can here while transferring $$ back to their hometown. Then when they get sick of SG, they move back.

It's the same anywhere in the world. I don't think the Singaporean gov't is the only one sucking money out of foreigners who have acquired the PR status.

How easy/difficult it is for a PR to gain citizenship?

I have a PR friend from Malaysia who has been in Singapore since young, and he is now serving National Service with me, and he told me that he isn't even offered citizenship for serving. I think it sucks that I'm serving. I think it sucks even more for him.

I think they will only offer him citizenship after he has finished serving NS. My cousin got his citizenship after he served NS.

He did share with me me that he was told citizenship was not guaranteed to him even if he were to complete his National Service.

I think it's quite sad for him. He has a score of A B C and was rejected by local universities, and the only reason I can think of is his lack of citizenship. I have a Singaporean (female) friend who scored B C C and managed to get into the exact same faculty he applied for.

Seeing as how he lived and studied in Singapore from young, and is doing time in army, I see no difference between him and a fellow Singaporean, so I can't help but feel that he is getting the short end of the stick.

I dun understand why Ms Chan does not want to switch her citizenship. If she is having so many problems with being a PR, she should just switch.

Her reasons of not changing citizenship are really excuses. Having a Singaporean citizenship will open more doors than a Malaysian passport. To say that you still have family overseas and that you want to visit them regularly are really just excuses.

If she plans to stay here permanently, then what is the issue with changing citizenship? What I get from Ms Chan is that after the 6 years bond, she will be leaving for Australia, that is honestly the vibe that I get from her.

I also wonder about the granting of scholarships to foreigners. Does this mean Singaporeans are not good enough to get this scholarships?

From the last paragraph in this post, I truly truly get the vibe that if the Singaporean govt can grant PR and citizenship so easily as well as let foreigners come in, we Singaporeans can also leave just as easily. That is a very very sad thing to feel.

I dun understand why Ms Chan does not want to switch her citizenship. If she is having so many problems with being a PR, she should just switch.

Her reasons of not changing citizenship are really excuses. Having a Singaporean citizenship will open more doors than a Malaysian passport. To say that you still have family overseas and that you want to visit them regularly are really just excuses. It is not as if once you convert, you can no longer visit them regularly.

If she plans to stay here permanently, then what is the issue with changing citizenship? What I get from Ms Chan is that after the 6 years bond, she will be leaving for Australia, that is honestly the vibe that I get from her.

I also wonder about the granting of scholarships to foreigners. Does this mean Singaporeans are not good enough to get this scholarships?

From the last paragraph in this post, I truly truly get the vibe that if the Singaporean govt can grant PR and citizenship so easily as well as let foreigners come in, we Singaporeans can also leave just as easily. That is a very very sad thing to feel.

guys, PR here. i have been in singapore for 14 years and my whole family still remains PR. well, my dad has been paying taxes for as long as we are here, i have been giving up my edusave awards to my friends who are citizens because i am not eligible for them, i have chionged two years of suah in an infantry unit and my superiors can testify that i work harder than anyone else in the same platoon, and i believe i am the only guy from singapore in my school in the US that actually flies the singapore flag in my room.

there are a lot a lot a lot of reasons why some PRs do not want to convert their citizenship... it is not an easy decision as you think. if you guys feel that the singapore citizenship is made cheap by the government, please also consider the fact that giving up our own citizenships to become a singapore citizen can be an extremely difficult decision to make for some of us. i am not complaining that i am not getting as much benefits as citizens; but as i see that the government keeps cutting our benefits for whatever reason, it just makes my heart ache...

So long as you PRs remember that you have 1 big privilege that nobody else has - citizenship in another country - and you remember that it is for this that you are giving up the privileges of Singapore citizenship there is no problem. Nobody likes to hear people complain about not being able to have their cake and eat it.

talks of priveleges. biggest problem with so many people here - always worried about others, think themselves underprivileged and always complain.

So What keeping you from taking citizenship?
Not as bad lah. Singaporean citizens also got benefit cut what.
But If treat all PR like king, What the point of Citizenship/NS even?
Plus lucky Mrs Chan can get PR status in eight month time and she can also go to Aussie cos her hubby aussie. That many open option but still complain because she cannot make it here.
Compare that to getting PR stat in US of A. Green card hard to get leh.
Also a lot of local medical professionals got invite to EU and US of A .
So Why they neber invite Miss Chan leh? I wonder..?

If you have stayed in Singapore for a long time and thinks of settling PERMANENTLY. Then the decision is not hard. Its only hard when you want a exit route when things go wrong.

I have been following the many tens of pages of flaming in the ST forum... PR-ship is a sticky issue in SG. And i ain't going into why Ms Chan is not taking up citizenship here.

A commenter on Sunchair's blog said : "If there isn't many radiographers around, then increase the renumeration and surely someone will take it up, or let them train locally."

I'd just like to comment at large about these 2 issues pls, from the healthcare perspective. Don't flame me for my opinions.

#1. LOCAL TRAINING
- Radiography is not a study-night-classes-for-1-year kind of diploma skills qualification. X-rays can kill/mutate if mishandled. We surely want the person behind those X-ray machines (incl MRI and CT scanners) with access to the buttons to know exactly what they are doing! None of our local institutions of higher learning offer a proper degree programme in radiography. So, folks must go overseas to learn, cannot train locally.
- Allied health jobs, like radiography, are often seen here as sai-kang compared to being a loh-kun, so few locals are willing to take up this career, nor the few scholarships available. Plus the post-scholarship bond is pretty long. Don't we all hate being bonded?
- FYI there is also no local degree programme in SG for some other allied health professions (eg. podiatry, physiotherapy, speech therapy), so must study overseas for these degrees as well...

#2. INCREASED REMUNERATION
... to hire expats and/or retain local staff leads to increased healthcare costs. The expat professionals i have interviewed this year for allied health job demand in the order of S$80k per year starting salary fresh out of school, and this is slightly below what they could earn at "home" in Oz, UK, US, wherever. We cannot afford to hire these expats without ultimately resulting in a hefty increase in your healthcare bill.

So, the reality is that our local healthcare system (as it currently is today) would collapse without our non-citizen labour. I, for one, am damn thankful for the Malaysian and Filipino colleagues at my hospital, ok. Otherwise our patients (including YOU) would be the ones that suffer. In fact, if it were poss to take a survey of all the allied health depts in all the restructured hospitals in S'pore... A large % of the allied health professional workforce are NOT S'pore citizens! BTW we are also chronically short of pharmacists and nurses. I don't need to tell you the potentially serious effects of a medication error.

Our hospital doctors do work very very hard, but they ain't perfect. We need a team to provide healthcare. For now, part of this team has to be PRs and non-citizens. Let's think about that for a bit?

I'm sick of this PR shit. Bunch of PRs are nothing but freaking greedy blood suckers. If you want benefits convert to singapore citizenship!

i'm sick of your kiasu krap. no prs then economy would be krap. don't like then why not fooking emigrate.