Overseas Singaporean

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Overseas Singaporeans
Flag of Singapore.svg
Total population
217,200 (2019) [1]
Regions with significant populations
Diaspora total340,751 (2019) [2] [lower-alpha 1]
Flag of Malaysia.svg  Malaysia 91,002 [2]
Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 64,739 [2]
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom 58,432 [2]
Flag of the United States.svg  United States 39,018 [2]
Flag of Indonesia.svg  Indonesia 23,524 [2]
Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 12,799 [2]
Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada 12,582 [2]
Flag of Bangladesh.svg  Bangladesh 9,709 [2]
Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand 5,734 [2]
Flag of India.svg  India 4,155 [2]
Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands 4,126 [2]
Flag of Japan.svg  Japan 2,735 [2]
Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 2,638 [2]
Flag of France.svg  France 2,512 [2]
Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg  Switzerland 2,349 [2]
Flag of Vietnam.svg  Vietnam 1,830 [2]
Languages
Religion
Related ethnic groups
Singaporeans

Overseas Singaporeans refers to citizens or people who identify as a nation with the sovereign island city-state of Singapore that are living outside the borders of Singapore. [3] Most Singaporeans overseas are high-income expatriates bringing their expertise or skills to other countries while accompanied by their families or students temporarily studying abroad. [4]

Contents

According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs in 2019, the population of the Singaporean diaspora stands at 340,751 [2] and according to official statistics from the Government of Singapore, 217,200 of Singaporeans overseas continues to retain their citizenship. [1] Most of the Singaporean diaspora are generally located in Malaysia, Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Indonesia and China.

Overview

Most Singaporeans abroad are high-income expatriates accompanied by their families as professionals are sought after in various industries in regions such as China, India, the Middle East, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia, as they are bilingual and highly skilled. Other reasons for living abroad includes students seeking to study in overseas universities or Singaporeans that settled in the home countries of their foreign spouses. [5]

The population of the Singaporean diaspora was at 156,468 in 1990, with the United Kingdom having the largest community of Singaporeans at 33,320 and the second largest in Malaysia, with a population of 31,269. In 2000, the population of the diaspora increased to 192,989, which was a 23.3% increase since 1990. In the same year, the number of Singaporeans in Malaysia increased to 44,779 individuals, surpassing the community in the United Kingdom, which had a population of 39,131. From 2000 to 2015, the number of Singaporeans moving abroad increased to 314,281 individuals. By 2019, there were 340,751 overseas Singaporeans, with 123,551 individuals holding other nationalities. [2]

Most Singaporeans living abroad rarely renounce their citizenship and continues to keep strong ties to the country; there were only an average of 1,000 Singaporeans renouncing their citizenship annually. [6] [7] Furthermore, Singaporean students living abroad increasingly have plans to return to Singapore after completing their studies in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. [8]

According to a 2016 survey conducted by the Institute of Policy Studies, 69.7% of Singaporeans aged between 19 and 30 stated that they could achieve the goals they have without migrating and 62.6% "preferred to improve" their socioeconomic well-being without migrating. [9]

Factors

According to a 2014 survey conducted by Singapore Polytechnic, some of the top reasons why Singaporeans would go abroad were to "increase their spending, find more opportunities overseas for work and education, or have a slower pace of life". [10] Other factors include having different lifestyles, such as having access to more outdoor natural recreational activities in other countries (e.g. backpacking, camping, hiking and skiing). [11]

Notable people

This is a list of notable people of Singaporean origin that includes people who were born or raised in Singapore and Singaporeans living abroad.

Politics

Business

Arts, Entertainment, and Sports

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Singaporeans in the United Kingdom</span> Ethnic group

Singaporeans in the United Kingdom may refer to people who have full or partial Singaporean origin or descent, born or settled in the United Kingdom, or Singaporeans in Britain which are high-income expatriate professionals as well as skilled workers, with many still maintaining close ties with Singapore, especially those who continue to retain Singaporean citizenship while having permanent residency in Britain, as well as students.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British diaspora</span> Ethnic group

The British diaspora consists of people of British ancestry who emigrated from the United Kingdom. For the purposes of this article, the people of British Overseas Territories are not included as British people though the territories are parts of the sovereign territory of the British state, unless they were born in that part of the British Isles that is currently within the British Realm, and only those who self-reported British ancestry are included in the figures for the British diaspora, which in colonies such as Bermuda – where very few of the Bermudians amongst the 63,779 inhabitants lack ancestry from the British Isles – likely results in substantial inaccuracies. This is a subject complicated by the recent history of the treatment of the people of colour, especially, of the British Overseas Territories by the British Government. The largest proportional concentrations of people of self-identified British descent in the world outside of the United Kingdom and its Overseas Territories occur in New Zealand (59%), Australia (45%), Canada (30.6%), the United States (11%), South Africa (2.6%) and parts of the Caribbean. Those who do claim British ancestry form a sub-set of those who could claim British ancestry; the British diaspora includes about 200 million people worldwide.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Overseas Indonesians</span> Indonesians living outside of Indonesia

Overseas Indonesians are people of Indonesian birth or descent who live outside of Indonesia. As of 2021, there are about 9 million overseas Indonesians globally, 5.3 million undocumented overseas Indonesian workers, 4.7 million overseas Indonesian officially, and 3.254 million overseas Indonesian legal workers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emigration from the United States</span>

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Overseas Indians, officially Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) are Indians who live outside of the Republic of India. According to the Government of India, Non-Resident Indians are citizens of India who are not living in the country, while the term People of Indian Origin (PIOs) are people of Indian birth or ancestry who are not citizens of India, but are citizens of other nations and may additionally have Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI), with those having the OCI status known as Overseas Citizens of India. According to a Ministry of External Affairs report, there are 32 million NRIs and OCIs residing outside India and overseas Indians comprise the world's largest overseas diaspora. Every year 2.5 million Indians migrate overseas, which is the highest annual number of migrants in the world.

Multiple/dual citizenship is a legal status in which a person is concurrently regarded as a national or citizen of more than one country under the laws of those countries. Conceptually, citizenship is focused on the internal political life of the country and nationality is a matter of international dealings. There is no international convention which determines the nationality or citizenship status of a person. This is defined exclusively by national laws, which can vary and conflict with each other. Multiple citizenship arises because different countries use different, and not necessarily mutually exclusive, criteria for citizenship. Colloquially, people may "hold" multiple citizenship but, technically, each nation makes a claim that a particular person is considered its national.

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The Malaysian diaspora are Malaysian emigrants from Malaysia and their descendants that reside in a foreign country. Population estimates vary from seven hundred thousand to one million, both descendants of early emigrants from Malaysia, as well as more recent emigrants from Malaysia. The largest of these foreign communities are in Singapore, Australia, Brunei and the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malaysians</span> Citizens or people of Malaysia

Malaysians are citizens who are identified with the country of Malaysia. Although citizens make up the majority of Malaysians, non-citizen residents and overseas Malaysians may also claim a Malaysian identity.

Singaporeans in Malaysia refers to people that are holding Singaporean citizenship or are of Singaporean descent who reside or were born in Malaysia. With a population of 91,002 in 2019, according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, they are the largest community of overseas Singaporeans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tamil Nadu diaspora</span>

The Tamil Nadu diaspora comprises people who have emigrated from South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, to other non-Tamil Indian states and other countries, and people of Tamil Nadu descent born or residing in other non-Tamil Indian states and other countries.

Malaysians in Singapore refers to citizens of Malaysia or Singaporeans of Malaysian origin residing in Singapore. According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the community had a population of 952,261 in 2019, making them the world's largest Malaysian diaspora community. The community is also the largest foreign community in Singapore, constituting 44% of the country's foreign-born population and an additional 350,000 Malaysians cross the Johor–Singapore Causeway daily for work and school in the city-state.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "2019 Singapore Population in Brief" (PDF). Strategy Group Singapore, Prime Minister's Office. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 "International migrant stock 2019". United Nations. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  3. "More S'poreans overseas, but brain drain concerns dissipate". Today. 7 March 2015. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  4. "Chart of the Day: 200,000 Singaporeans live overseas". Singapore Business Review. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  5. "Singaporeans living aboard" (PDF). National University of Singapore. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  6. "Are Singaporeans renouncing their citizenship and rapidly being replaced?". gov.sg, Government of Singapore. 19 January 2020. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  7. "Commentary: More Singaporeans going abroad, but are no less Singaporean for it". Channel News Asia. 2 September 2017. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  8. "Harder for skilled Singaporeans to live, work overseas". The Straits Times. 2 May 2017. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  9. "Survey on Emigration Attitudes of Young Singaporeans (2016)" (PDF). Institute of Policy Studies, Singapore. 2016. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  10. "Six in 10 young Singaporeans have considered leaving the country to fulfill their dreams, Singapore News & Top Stories". The Straits Times. 14 January 2014. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  11. "Working Overseas: Singaporeans Share 7 Things They Had to Get Used to When Living Abroad". MoneySmart Singapore. 8 May 2019. Retrieved 25 June 2020.

Notes

  1. This number includes Singaporean citizens and people of Singaporean descent who renounced their citizenship, statistics of overseas Singaporeans retaining their citizenship stands at 217,200. [1]