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Singapore had actually liberalized its immigration

policies during the previous decade, so that skilled immigrants
gain permanent residents. The country had also implemented

programs such as company grant skills for firms to ease the
costs of hiring skilled workers. Even recruitment missions by
Singaporean government agencies had been done. Meanwhile,

given that Singapore hosts many foreign students, another
scheme is to employ foreigners who graduated from Singaporean

schools into the local workforce (Yeoh, 2007). Singapore had
also employed the Internet to allow foreigners to track their
eligibility for an S Pass (see https://services.mom.gov.sg/sat/

satservlet). Previously, the immigration and Checkpoints Authority
launched a “Naturalization eligibility tool” so that foreigners

can check if they can be eligible for permanent residency and
citizenship. But it was later removed from the ICA website given
a review of the program.

However, the liberalization of policies for foreign workers
had received resistance from the Singaporean public. This

is given the rising number of the foreigner population in the
country and the impact of the 2008 global economic crisis on
Singapore. Adjustments made were policy tightening for the

employment pass and the S pass. Skilled foreign workers must
get 11 to 20 percent higher salaries before they be granted the

right to work in Singapore. Also in 2011, a measure that allowed
certain foreign-born professionals to apply for an employment
pass eligibility certificate was scrapped (Lin and Yeoh, 2012).

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