Families: Allow foreign parents of Singaporean children to automatically qualify as PRs

We refer to the article "Married without kids? It's becoming a lot more common in Singapore these days", on the total fertility rate (TFR) of Singapore for 2024 remaining at an all-time low of 0.97, the same as 2023.

- Ruby Thiagarajan Senior researcher Aware

There are many reasons why couples might not have children. Some do not want them; some would, given better financial circumstances or work-life balance; and some cannot due to fertility issues.

The Government has introduced many measures to help, such as reduced pre-school fees, childcare subsidies for non-working mothers, the doubling of paternity leave to four weeks, the new shared parental leave of 10 weeks, and subsidised rates for assisted reproduction technology treatments.

These benefits are helpful, but current trends suggest they do not go far enough to reverse the TFR trend.