Facing widespread disapproval of liberal immigration policies at time of 2011 general elections, Singapore acted to protect native population. Highly Skilled Foreign workers now must be paid 11-20% higher salaries-Migration Policy Institute

2012 article

4/3/2012, "Rapid Growth in Singapore's Immigrant Population Brings Policy Challenges," Migration Policy Institute, Brenda Yeoh and Weiqiang Lin

(subhead) "Highly Skilled Foreign Labor"...

(parag. 7): "Around the time of the May 2011 general elections, the government of Singapore was facing widespread public disapproval of its liberal immigration policies for the highly skilled. This, coupled with difficult global economic conditions since the Great Recession, brought about a slight reversal of Singapore's policy stance towards skilled labor in the second half of 2011.

In two rounds of policy tightening with regards to employment pass and S-pass eligibility criteria between July 2011 and January 2012, it was decided that skilled foreigners must command 11 percent to 20 percent higher salaries before being granted the right to work in Singapore. And in December 2011, a provision allowing certain foreign-born professionals (those who possess or had possessed selected university degrees and/or skilled migrant visas for other countries) to apply for an employment pass eligibility certificate so that they could remain Singapore for up to a year to look for employment was also scrapped. As a result, foreign-born students in Singapore now have three months after graduation to land a job before having to return to their countries of origin. Additional measures to tighten the demand for S-pass workers are also expected to be phased in
between July 2012 and July 2013."...



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