The Evolution of Singapore’s Immigration Policies

In the first of this two-part blog series, Partner Dalia Wong discusses the evolution of immigration policy in Singapore and explains recently implemented frameworks affecting companies in their efforts to search for and retain global talent.

Gaining independence just 57 years ago in 1965, Singapore is a relatively young city state in Southeast Asia. With a lack of natural resources and labour shortages due to low fertility rates, Singapore has historically had a relatively liberal immigration policy—particularly for skilled and professional migrants—as a means to grow its talent pool and uplift its economy.

While there is no denying that immigration contributes to the expansion of the labour force and fills skills gaps in the economy, these gains are not without social and economic impact. The percentage of Singapore’s non-resident population grew significantly from 2004 and reached a high in 2008. This rapid growth resulted in negative sentiments toward immigrants, and issues such as job competition and strain on the country’s infrastructure—among other anxieties—surfaced as contentious topics and the effects were keenly felt in what was described as a watershed General Election in 2011, where the opposition made its largest gain since post-independence history.

While Singapore must remain open to foreign talent to bring in necessary skills that complement the nation’s workforce, the government also recognised the need for implementing effective policy that addresses local concerns.

Tightening of Immigration Framework: FCF and Other Measures

With this in mind, the Fair Consideration Framework (FCF) was announced by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) in 2013, and the mandatory job advertising process (unless exempted) was implemented in August 2014.

The FCF was a significant change to the work pass framework and signaled the start of the progressive tightening of Singapore’s immigration policies. The aim of the FCF is to not only promote labour market transparency, but also for companies to engage in fair recruitment practices and to consider Singaporeans fairly in addition to hiring foreigners.

In conjunction with the job advertising process, companies have had to adjust to the longer lead time before providing foreigners the ability to obtain a work pass. While most companies complied with the FCF, there were others that needed to improve their recruitment practices.

Additional requirements were imposed on unresponsive companies, and they could be placed on a watchlist and barred from applying for work passes for a limited period. Between the implementation of FCF in 2014 and the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple enhancements were made to the FCF, such as the need for employers to declare the recruitment information for each position and the reasons why a Singaporean was not selected for the role; tightening the exemption criteria (i.e., the salary and workforce numbers to qualify for the FCF job advertising exemption); increasing the penalties under the FCF and expanding the scope to include the S Pass category.

In addition to the FCF, MOM also increased the minimum qualifying salary for the Employment Pass and S Pass categories multiple times—including setting a higher minimum salary requirement for companies in financial services—to ensure that the wages of foreign talent keep pace with local PMET wages. To safeguard the interests and ensure a level playing field for local workers in all age groups, the work pass qualifying salary will also increase progressively with the age of the foreigner. Further, as part of MOM’s holistic review of its foreign workforce policies, adjustments were likewise made to the S Pass in recent years. These included multiple reductions to the S Pass quota as well as increases to the S Pass foreign worker levy, and these changes varied based on the sector that company was classified under.

As a result of the tightening of the work pass framework, Singapore experienced a slower growth rate in the number of foreign workers.

Complementarity Assessment Framework (COMPASS)

In March 2022, MOM announced yet another significant update, the Complementarity Assessment Framework, also known as COMPASS, that will be implemented in September 2023. COMPASS is a new, points-based assessment system for employment pass applications with an objective of bringing in foreign professionals who are complementary to the workforce, encouraging diversity and building a strong Singaporean core. COMPASS has been designed as a transparent system that provides greater certainty to companies in their workforce planning, and, like the FCF and other policy changes, MOM will continue to implement enforcement measures to ensure that the rules are not circumvented.

Need to know more?

Please be on the lookout for part two of this blog series next week, where Dalia examines COVID-19’s effects on Singapore’s immigration policy.

For further information, please contact Partner Dalia Wong at [email protected]. This blog was published on 20 October 2022, and due to the circumstances, there are frequent changes. To keep up to date with all the latest updates on global immigration, please visit our dedicated COVID-19 site, subscribe to our alerts and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.