I think the general impression is that these people are gonna kick out butt.
I suppose it all makes perfectly good sense viewed individually.
1. Singapore allows PRC immigrants in to increase the pool of talent in Singapore.
2. We allow students in at the primary and secondary level because we hope that since they are practically brought up here, they'll continue to stay here and contribute to the country somehow but increasing the talent pool available.
3. The top secondary schools offer scholarships to the foreign students studying here, most likely hoping to improve the average standard of the students studying there. (When I was in sec sch, my headmaster would travel to China each year to interview Chinese students and basically recruit those they deem the best to study in my sch.)
4. We allow them into our universities because they provide competition for our local students and raise the average standard of our university.
I think logically, it all makes sense. At the end of the day, whether the PRC Chinese stay or not, they raise the standards in our local institutions. I'm not sure whether most will end up staying, I haven't got any figures on this, but someone with access to some data should at least take a look.
In the end though, I feel rather uncomfortable with the extent to which we have to compete with the Chinese individually all the way from primary school. I'm not saying its wrong, just uncomfortable. Not sure if its xenophobia or something.
But basically, while we're in the process of getting the best foreigners we can find, to the extent that they now make up a significant proportion of our population, I'm basically unsure what Singapore citizenship is anymore.
I'm not sure whats the advantage of being a Singapore citizen in Singapore.
Back to studying for stats... got my butt thoroughly kicked at math yesterday.
