Family and Population Changes in Singapore

A unique case in the global family change

Wei-Jun Jean Yeung, Shu Hu, Wei-Jun Jean Yeung, Shu Hu

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781351109857
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Demography
• Index: Social Sciences

This book depicts the evolution of Singapore's family and population landscape in the last half a century, the related public policies, and future challenges. Since the country gained independence in 1965, family and population policies have been integral to her nation-building strategies. The chapters discuss the changes in population compositions, family structures, relations, and values among major ethnic groups. They also discuss policies for vulnerable populations such as female-headed households, cross-cultural families, same-sex partnering, the elderly, and low-income families.

1
Continuity and change in Singapore’s population and families

Wei-Jun Jean Yeung and Shu Hu

Development and global family change

In 1965, Singapore separated from the Federation of Malaysia to become an independent multiracial country. The country’s fascinating journey of transforming from a Third World to a First World country within a few decades is a well-documented miracle of economic development. Along with the country’s economic transformation since independence, there is a lesser known history of the country’s family and demographic transition and policies that form the backbone of Singapore’s national developmental strategies. About the same time when Singapore became independent, an American family scholar, William Goode, wrote World Revolution and Family Patterns (1963) and predicted that all families in the world would converge to conjugal form as a consequence of the industrialization, that parental control and extended kinship would weaken and family size would decline, with fertility rates stabilizing at around three, and that most women would remain home, with few moving into prestigious occupations.

Singapore has experienced one of the most rapid modernization phenomena known in the world in terms of the rise in living standards, urbanization, increase in educational attainment, and technological use. It is a unique case study for evaluating the relevance of Goode’s work and of other subsequent theoretical frameworks that stress the importance of ideational changes in explaining global family changes, most notably, the developmental idealism and second demographic transition (SDT) perspectives. The developmental idealism paradigm posits that the modern form of family seen in Western Europe and the United States is considered as desirable and attainable. A set of beliefs and values about modern Western families including attributes of individualism, marriage at a mature age, courtship as a part of the process leading to marriage, intergenerational independence, gender equality, and planned and low fertility will spread and provide a model of worldview for people in other regions as societies develop (Thornton, 2001; Thornton et al., 2012).

Lesthaeghe and colleagues have argued that secularization as a result of the decline in religiosity will foster an orientation towards individual development and self-gratification, which explain the postmodern family behaviour exhibited in the prevalence of patterns such as cohabitation, high divorce rates, below-replacement fertility, and non-marital childbearing – which they have labelled as the “second demographic transition” (Lesthaeghe, 2010). During this transition, marriage has been decoupled with childbearing, and sexual behavior decoupled with childbearing also. The authors have hypothesized that such behaviour will also spread to other parts of the world. Singapore provides a rare opportunity to examine the complex relationship between development and family changes with its unique hybrid of East and West, of cosmopolitanism and conservatism.

Singapore’s national ideology, family values, and related policies

Singapore is distinct in how the government has institutionalized the family system and officially upheld a set of family values as core national ideology. In January 1991, a white paper on Singapore’s Shared Values was presented to the Parliament which, after two amendments in the phrasing, was adopted by the House as the nation’s ideology (Straits Times, 1991). Note that this was proposed 25 years after the independence when the country’s basic needs had been fulfilled and a range of social problems such as crimes, drug abuse, and abortion began to rise. The objective of establishing the Shared Values was to preserve Singapore’s Asian values and identity by incorporating elements of the country’s cultural heritage, attitudes and values in an era of globalization where Singaporeans would be exposed to external influences, primarily Westernization. The establishment of the Shared Values reflected Singapore leaders’ desire to formulate a set of unified national ideologies and seek a developmental path that is distinct from the Western models for the country (Chua, 1995; Hill and Lian, 1995).

“Family as the basic unit of society” is one of these five core values. The government leaders were concerned over the health of the family as a central institution in the society. Some raised the fear of the “declining morality” exhibited in the more casual sexual behavior, declining fertility, rising divorce rates, and the increasing disputes between parents and children (Tarmugi, 1994).

It was under this context that the government later specified the “Singapore Family Values” in a report as (1) love, care, and concern; (2) mutual respect; (3) filial responsibility; (4) commitment; and (5) communication (Ministry of Community Development, 1994). These family values are intended to facilitate both the private functions of family in providing emotional support and companionship to individuals and its public functions of socialization, maintaining social order and cohesion, and caring for the young and the old. The report begins with the proclamation:

Family is the foundation of the society. It contributes to the formation of civilizations and the survival of human species. The family not only provides love, food, shelter, but security and sense of belonging. Strong family bonds provide a sense of shared identity and a life time of joy and fulfilment.

(p. 1)

It concludes, “Happy, harmonious, and healthy families make for a strong community and a cohesive society. The family is the heart of the nation, family values, its life blood” (p. 16). Subsequently, the government has been depicting the ideal family types through many social policies. As a city state home to three major ethnic groups (i.e. Chinese, Malay, and Indian), another core national value of Singapore is “racial and religious harmony”. The other three values adopted were (1) Nation before community and society above self, (2) Community support and respect for the individual, and (3) Consensus, not conflict. Together, these constitute the key for nation building in Singapore to achieve the national developmental goals of social stability and economic growth.

In order to build an integrated and vibrant country, the Singapore government has rolled out a set of critical developmental policies. The government has long taken an interventionist strategy with regard to both population and family policies by influencing marriage and fertility behaviour as well as inter-generational relations. In the early years, the focus has been to reduce the rapid population growth due to a combination of a decline in mortality rate and the high fertility rate. The family planning policies were implemented with the aim of bringing down the total fertility rate of about six children per women in the 1960s. Family planning programs such as the one with the “Please Stop at Two” slogan launched in 1972, along with the very rapid economic and social development during that time, brought down fertility rates at an astonishing rate to a replacement level in 1975. Since then, fertility rates have continued to decline to a level that were much lower than expected, which has subsequently raised concerns among policy makers about population sustainability. In 1987, the government started to reverse the population strategy and launched pro-natal policies, which have since grown to an expansive set of measures to promote marriage and parenthood (detailed in Saw, 2012). Currently, these measures include providing cash incentives of the one-time baby bonus, establishing a child development account with government matching of family savings for a child’s education and health expenditures, a 4-month maternity leave, 2-week paternity leave, childcare leave, childcare subsidies, and so on. Other social policies introduced in the country include its public housing policy and social assistance programmes that reward marriage, parenthood, filial piety, and prioritize family as the first line of defence, and self-sufficiency. Examples include priorities for public housing for married couples, particularly those with children, and substantial subsidies for choosing to live with or nearby one’s parents. Singles do not have access to public housing until 35 of age. Despite these efforts, fertility rates had continued to decline. During these decades of low fertility, a carefully calibrated immigration policy has brought a large number of immigrants into the country to help maintain economic vitality and growth. Through these policies, state defines ideal family types and behaviour, and set limits around the formation and dissolution of Singapore families. Specifically, the policies have largely awarded heterosexual two-parent families with children and three-generation families. Other family forms such as never-married or divorced single-parent families have received limited social benefits (to be discussed in Chapters 5 and 8). Behaviors such as cohabitation and divorce have been discouraged. Out-of-wedlock births are treated as illegitimate and same-sex marriage as illegal. Today, Singapore faces a different set of challenges in its family and population.

As the country culminates its national history of half a century in celebration of its vibrant economic growth and multiculturalism, the issues of population sustainability and social integration have become vital concerns that need to be addressed for its next phase of development. The Singapore story can shed light on global social changes and contribute to studies on the relationships among families and populations, public policy, and stratification in an international comparative context.

This book provides an overview of the key aspects of population and family changes in Singapore, highlighting the critical policies that help shape the transformation, and identifying the challenges posed by these demographic factors for the country’s development in the next few decades. We begin with a description of the historical trends of population compositions, family structures and attitudes, socio-economic status, and values prevalent among major ethnic groups. Subsequently, the chapters investigate how the definitions of the family and its functions, gender roles, and the intergenerational relations as endorsed by government policies have changed and been contested on the ground over the years by examining daily practices and family relations. The book also highlights the circumstances for vulnerable populations such as female-headed households, the elderly, low-income families, cross-border families, and same-sex partners. This introductory chapter presents a broad view of the shifting demographic and family landscape and related policies in Singapore to provide a context for understanding the continuity and changes in this country.

Changing demographic landscape

The total population of Singapore in 1965 was slightly shy of 2 million. In the subsequent few decades, with an annual population growth rate between 1 and 3 per cent, the population had doubled to about 4 million by 2000. By 2010, the population had further increased to about 5 million through a combination of natural growth and immigration. In recent years, however, the annual growth rates have declined rapidly to the current level of 0.1 per cent in 2017 due to a conscious effort to reduce immigrants. These fluctuations in growth rates can largely be explained by changes in marriage, fertility rates, and the country’s migration policies. As of 2016, Singapore’s total population has tripled from its original size to 5.6 million. Among its total population, 3.4 million are Singapore citizens, 0.53 million are permanent residents, and the remaining population, that is, 1.65 million or about 30 per cent of the total population, consists of non-residents, including dependents, international students, and individuals who have come to Singapore to work.

Age, gender, and ethnic compositions

Across the three major ethnic groups, the population of Singapore in the late 1950s was characterized by a large proportion of children and young people, as indicated by the acute triangle shape of the age-gender structure of the population in Figure 1.1. As of 1957, the population comprised approximately three-quarters Chinese, 15 per cent Malays, 8 per cent Indians, and a small “other” category consisting of people of other ethn...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Contributors
• Dedication
• Acknowledgement
• 1 Continuity and change in Singapore’s population and families
• 2 Origin and transition of Singapore families
• 3 Dual-income households among Singapore Malay families: changing economy, unchanging gender roles
• 4 ‘Indians’ under official multiracialism in Singapore: unpacking heterogeneity
• 5 Falling short: class and the performance of the familial
• 6 Intergenerational support to and from older Singaporeans
• 7 Singapore’s approach to ageing policies: tackling the limits of the family in supporting seniors
• 8 Divorced and never-married mothers in Singapore: practices, challenges and hopes
• 9 Cross-cultural families in Singapore: transnational marriages and divorces
• 10 Same-sex partnering and same-sex parented families in Singapore
• 11 Conclusion
• Index