Tharman to Singaporeans: Make a special effort to ‘integrate’ new immigrants from India
Posted by temasektimes on April 14, 2012
In other countries, immigrants are expected to assimilate into local society by their own efforts, but it seems to be the other way round in Singapore where leaders have been exhorting Singaporeans to do more to integrate the newcomers with the latest call coming from Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam.
Speaking at the Indian New Year celebrations in Serangoon, Mr Tharman noted that one of the achievements of the Indian Community is that it has become more cohesive over the years.
“It’s a community that’s coming closer together. We’ve got to keep up the spirit and also make an effort as we have new immigrants coming into our society.”
Mr Tharman also urged Singaporeans to make a ‘special effort’ to integrate the new immigrants without elaborating on how to do so:
“Make a special effort to integrate them, and the new immigrants themselves also must make a special effort to understand our society, understand the fact that it is multicultural with major ethnic groups that are from very different parts of Asia.”
The week-long Indian New Year celebrations aim to forge a strong bond among various ethnic Indian communities as well as other racial communities within Singapore.
Due to the government’s open immigration policies, the number of Indian immigrants have increased over the past few years. However, many of the newcomers hail from other parts of India which are different from the original ethnic Indians in Singapore, many of whom are Tamils from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
THE TEMASEK TIMES 
dog of the dogs said
The problem lies with the new immigrants, they do not want to integrate with the locals. Is this the fault of the locals ?
stevenado said
Yes! Well Said!….They only click around their own.They were problematic.Ministers never understand the ground.
aeronchew said
Yes, they bring in the cast system and I hate this discriminating! Please show respect to the local born Singaporeans!
voice of the people said
my friends in IT industry are out of jobs.. govt never listen to me… why should i listen to you?
easyesay lim said
What do you expect the locals to do? Do we need to show new immigrants that we must appreciate their presence here if they are the ones having problems integrating?
blackmondy (@blackmondy) said
We citizens should make a special effort to vote out these treacherous scums in 2016 !
Hasie said
I totally agree!!! Vote them out in 2016!!!
chaseouthepap said
why wait til 2016? Any better way to vote them way to vote them immediately.
Ricky Chin said
You should be making extra effort to integrate opposition party into parliament.
caroline3sg said
Why should we make the effort? We didn’t open our arms to let them in, it is the govt.
PRsFTsOUTofSG said
“Make a special effort to integrate them…” is code-speak for “We should let them bring their corrupt Delhi practices, poor hygiene and social etiquette here, BUT true-blue Singaporeans must embrace them and their dodgy habits”. Fcuk off!
Exaggerated said
Hmm…..we integrate new immigrants? Why are our ministers not integrating into the Singaporeans way of lives when structuring policies? Leaders should lead by examples. No?
True singaporeans said
Just look around, there are number of indian managers who become the Singapore Permanent Residence or new Singaporeans help to hire, protect and promote their foreign own kind, many such cases continue to happen in most big Corporations and MNCs, due to the government’s open immigration policies.