Response to parliamentary question on tackling fault line formation from immigration and socio-economic status trends
Question
Mr Gan Thiam Poh: To ask the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth what has and will the Government do to prevent (i) fault lines from class and immigration issues to develop (ii) erosion of our Singapore identity and (iii) gaps in the socio-economic status of Singaporeans.
Response
Ms Grace Fu, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth:
1 IPS Working papers No. 37: Faultlines in Singapore: Public Opinion on their Realities, management & Consequences. Respondents were asked whether if they agree that “you can learn a lot from the cultures that foreigners of diff nationalities bring into Singapore” and “(It is) good to have people of different nationalities living in the same neighbourhood”.
2 IPS 2017 Social Capital Study found a fair amount of racial, religious and nationality-types of diversity in Singaporeans’ social networks, with lesser diversity across class and education.
3 Government’s efforts against inequality has led it to stabilise in the last 10 years. The Gini co-efficient was 0.458 in 2018, similar to the 0.459 in 2017 and 0.458 in 2016. After accounting for Government taxes and transfers, the 2018 figure was even lower at 0.404. Income growth per member for households in the lowest quintile was 3.1 per cent per annum on average over the last 10 years (2008 to 2018). This is on par with the median household which was at an average of 3 percent. (MOM and DOS data, 2019)
4 These include Self-Help Groups, Social Service Agencies, grassroots organisations, corporates and citizen volunteer groups.