English Commentary

'No magic wand to integration'
Section: Singapore
Publication: Tabla 10/07/2009
Page: 17
No. of words: 436

HOW to get new immigrants integrated into Singapore society? Law Minister K. Shanmugam, who is also Second Home Affairs Minister, said the Government cannot be the "total solution" to this.

Rather, the tricky problem takes three parties to solve – Singaporeans, who have to be welcoming; new immigrants, who have to adapt to a new culture; and the Government, which has to provide a framework for people to bond.

Mr Shanmugam stressed this three-way partnership at an hour-long dialogue with Punggol Central residents on July 5, in response to a question from a resident who wanted to know what could be done to integrate the growing pool of new immigrants here. Last year, 20,513 foreigners became Singapore citizens, while 79,167 took up permanent residency.

It is the people themselves – Singaporeans and new residents – who have to mingle and forge friendships with one another, said Mr Shanmugam. Singaporeans, he said, should welcome "newer residents with an open heart and help them integrate, bring them in". This is already taking place in housing estates, he noted.

He met many new residents during his visit to the constituency and also watched a game of cricket played by a team hailing mostly from India (above).

Mr Shanmugam, who is a member of the National Integration Council, noted that there is no such thing as instant integration. "You can't just wave a magic wand and say, 'okay, integration'. It takes many years," he said.

Noting how Singaporeans and new residents have come together to be involved in the programme for his ministerial visit, Mr Shanmugam added: "That is a way integration takes place, at the ground level." As for new settlers, his advice was that they should "take the attitude that they want to integrate".



How to get immigrants to integrate into Singapore society?

Basically, in this article, Minister or Law and Second Minister for Home Affairs K. Shanmugam discusses about the issue of how to get new immigrants to Singapore to integrate into their new society. The number of immigrants in Singapore is increasing, now totalling 1.8 million. As a student of Raffles Institution, I get to meet with many students who were born in immigrant families, and so I feel that this topic is especially pertinent to me as well as Singapore.

I realize that it is not easy for new immigrants to integrate into Singapore society because they have to live in a society with different cultures and possibly different languages. Furthermore, some Singaporeans have a negative view of these immigrants, as they feel that they are here to compete for the already limited resources of Singapore, such as education and jobs, and are threatening their livelihood in Singapore.

So how can Singapore get immigrants to integrate into Singapore society? Instead of looking at what different groups can do to help them, I will instead be looking at the qualities that all parties involved must have in order to improve the current situation.

Firstly, I believe that having an open mind is an important step to help immigrants integrate into Singapore society. To begin with, the local population must understand that they stand to gain from immigrants and vice versa, as immigrants bring along their talent into Singapore’s workforce and improve it as a whole. They also can get a better living in Singapore than in some other countries. Thus they should learn to accept immigrants in Singapore as part of globalization and aim to help them as much as possible to integrate into Singapore society. On the other hand, new immigrants should also bring along an open mind as well. Since they have chosen to make Singapore their home, they should also learn to accept the country and the people that they are in.

Secondly, I believe that being sensitive to others’ needs can also help immigrants integrate into Singapore society. In my opinion, the local population can aim to be more involved in the needs of immigrants through simple methods such as paying visits to neighbours who are immigrants and being genuinely concerned about their lives. Also, on the part of immigrants, they could also be more pro-active and volunteer their services to society, helping to make a difference in the environment that they live in. These are small actions, but actions that go a long way in helping immigrants to integrate into Singapore society. Through such methods, I believe that there will be more trust between immigrants and local Singaporeans and a stronger sense of belonging to Singapore, building a more cohesive society, one where immigrants have fully integrated into Singapore society.

I believe that the way to help new immigrants integrate into Singapore society should not be one which is led by the government, but one led by the people. The local population in Singapore can do a lot to help the people through many initiatives, but what is more important that they must have open minds and the sensitivity to others’ needs. If they have open minds and the sensitivity to others’ needs, I believe that they can do much better in helping new immigrants integrate into Singapore society. However, even that is not enough. I hope new immigrants also have the above two qualities as well so as to become willing participants in integration. I hope that through this way, the question on how to help new immigrants integrate into Singapore society will be answered.

(600 words)

Orchard Road Facelift

So, Orchard Road had a makeover. What's new?

I haven't been to Orchard Road for a very long time already, but as I have heard in the newspapers, the Singapore Tourism Board has spent $40 million and almost a year to upgrade Singapore's premier shopping district, in the hope that more tourists will be attracted by it. But according to a poll by LifeStyle, 40% of respondents did not notice any of the changes made. I find that such a facelift is not an effective one, ie. it does not improve Orchard Road and therefore is not worth it.

Why do I think so, then?

Firstly, I simply cannot understand what the point of such a huge facelift is for if few can notice the changes made. It totally defeats the whole purpose of the facelift in the first place since tourists are meant to see the improvements made to Orchard Road. If they cannot see the changes made, perhaps the facelift was uneccesary to start with, and therefore ineffective.

Secondly, the huge facelift brought new problems of its own. Some found problems with the glass panels, which they said could be easily broken by drunks who smash it. They also did not understand the purpose of adding them. Others said that newly-erected flower totems were irritating as they blocked one's view. Worse still, some complained that there were even more dead leaves on the floor than before the makeover. With so many problems, how can such a facelift be effective?

However, I do not think some views expressed regarding the Orchard Road facelift are valid, such as the view held that people would be angered with the facelift because the money could have been saved to perhaps solve the financial crisis in Singapore. This is because the facelift started in the earlier half of last year, when Singapore's economy was still growing, and naturally there was probably no need to save money if it could be used to further grow Singapore's tourism sector. Unfortunately, it so happens that the facelift was completed only in the midst of the financial crisis and that is why some are saying that people would be angered with the facelift due to this reason.

Despite that, I still believe that the Orchard Road facelift was ineffective and therefore unecessary. I hope this will be a lesson to everyone that before one embarks on a big project, it is important to think carefully before beginning the project.

What is an exposition?

Firstly, I believe I'm actually blogging now :) Not that I've never blogged before...

Anyway, back to the question: What is an exposition? Mr Yap claims that this is a "piece of cake', which I heartily disagree with :)

He meant the question though, haha.

Of course, knowing that this is an English assignment, I have neglected to write about other uses of the word 'exposition' in ways outside English - like the use of the term to refer to the first section of a fugue or sonata form in music, or an exposition which is in essence an exhibition where people go to a place to learn more about things.

Also, since I believe I'm in an English class and not an English Literature class, I will not be talking about the dialogue, description, etc. of a play or a novel that gives the audience or reader the background of the characters and the present situation. Oh, wait a minute, have I actually written about them?

So I went along rather happily and found this from the net, from http://www.bartleby.com/68/77/2377.html - the first thing I saw after googling for it -

"Exposition is explanation. Expository writing is nonfiction prose that sets forth ideas, facts, values, arguments, and the like."

Sounds a bit too simplified for a question I thought to be deserving of an answer better than that, so I decided to elaborate. Yes, exposition is the explanation of a topic, which aims to expose the reader to new things about the topic he/she does not already know, and also includes the author's own personal point of view regarding the topic.

It goes on to add:

"Expository writing is a term used frequently to distinguish that sort of prose from the writing we often call creative..."

Unlike what we know as creative writing, such as the kind of work we had been getting some time ago in Term 1 like anecdotes and personal narratives, an exposition (or expository writing) has a more rigid structure. There is a title, a thesis, argument(s) and ending off with a section called reiteration. Just in case some viewers of this blog learn better with graphics, here's one for you that I found at www.lmpc.edu.au. Enjoy!

Title Integrated pest management

Thesis position

preview ->

argument1

argument2

argument3

argument4

argument5

reiteration

Whew, I think I've really exhausted the topic on what an exposition is now. That's all for now then. Stay tuned for more on expositions!

"Thank you class."

*Thank you sir.*

Haha.

acknowledgements.

(in no particular meritocratic order)

• EXPOSITORY WRITING, EXPOSITION. The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993. Retrieved March 30, 2009, from Bartleby.com Web site: http://www.bartleby.com/68/77/2377.html
  
• exposition definition Dictionary.com. Retrieved March 30, 2009, from Dictionary.com Web site: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/exposition
  
• Text type: Exposition. Retrieved March 30, 2009, from www.lmpc.edu.au Web site: http://www.lmpc.edu.au/resources/Science/research_projects/text_types/5_exposition_eg.html