Young Indonesians secure Singapore citizenship as many lament 'skills mismatch' back home

A growing number of young Indonesians, drawn by generous scholarships and attractive job prospects, are renouncing their citizenship to become Singaporean, alarming officials as Southeast Asia's largest economy seeks to become a developed nation by 2045.

Indonesia's immigration agency said earlier this month that almost 4,000 Indonesians had gained Singapore passports between 2019 and 2022, most of them students in the city state, aged 25 to 35. Last year, 1,091 people made the switch, up from 811 in 2020.

Silmy Karim, director general at Indonesia's immigration agency, said the country was losing its best and brightest.

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"For Indonesia it is not good, as we're losing superior talent," he said, as cited by CNN Indonesia. He noted that Singapore had a policy of targeting young talent from around the region.

The revelation was unusual because it was the first time Indonesia had singled out a nationality in relation to its data.

Singapore, a city state of 5.45 million people, has in recent decades sought to augment its population with new arrivals, mainly from other Southeast Asian nations, as well as China and India.

Official data shows that around 15,000 to 20,000 new citizenships are granted each year, in tandem with some 30,000 citizen births annually. Authorities in the city state have declined to reveal the breakdown of new citizens by their original nationalities.

Singapore's passport was named the most powerful in the world earlier this month by the Henley Passport Index, which ranks nations according to the number of places people armed with their passports can visit. A Singaporean passport allows visa-free travel to 192 destinations.

Bhima Yudhistira, executive director at the Jakarta-based Centre of Economic and Law Studies think tank, said that immigration official Silmy's comments were meant as a wake-up call for Jakarta to improve the calibre of its workers.

Silmy himself studied overseas - including at the George C. Marshall European Centre for Security Studies and the Nato School, both in Germany.

"This is a criticism of the quality of civil servants, including at the immigration department," Bhima said. "There really is a brain drain and if you let it, Singapore will get a lot of value from the people who actually enjoy support from the Indonesian government."

Since 2011, Jakarta has provided scholarships for top students to study overseas, under the Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP) scheme.

Recipients are obliged to work in Indonesia for several years after graduating. However, from 2013 to 2022, 413 graduates did not return, the fund said last year.

According to global recruitment consultancy Morgan McKinley, the average monthly salary of a full-time worker in Singapore in 2023 is S$5,783 (US$4,360). In Indonesia, data from the statistics agency showed the average monthly salary of graduates last year was 4.3 million rupiah (US$286).

If given an option to live in Singapore, many Indonesian workers would seize the opportunity, "regardless of whether they will become citizens", said Indonesia-born Sulfikar Amir, an associate professor of science, technology and society at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

"This is an indication of their displeasure with the conditions in Indonesia, and a sign for the government to build a better employment ecosystem for young people," he said.

Indonesia's migration revelation stoked heated online discussions among Indonesians on the pros and cons of living in Singapore.

Some acknowledged the city state had a strong passport, thriving job market, modern healthcare and world-class public transport, but said Indonesia trumped its neighbour in terms of natural landscapes and beauty.

Septian Hartono, 36, gained Singapore citizenship in 2020. He moved to the city state in 2003 after securing a scholarship from NTU, which required him to work in Singapore for three years after completing his studies.

When he graduated in 2007, the Singapore government sent him a letter saying he would be granted permanent residency if he worked in the city state. He became a permanent resident later that year.

"It may sound innocent, but it's one effective way to unconsciously [make you] sink roots in Singapore, as in total you would live here for seven years," said Septian, who works as a medical physicist.

"I have seriously considered several times returning to Indonesia. But in the end, there was a skills mismatch," he said, especially in his biomedical sector, where the gap was "quite obvious".

"Biomedical is one of the key industries in Singapore, so the whole ecosystem is already very mature from training to industry," he said.

Septian estimated that around one-third of the Indonesian students in his graduating class of 2007 had also become Singapore citizens. He married one of them, with whom he now has two children and in 2018 they decided to start the citizenship process.

"It just makes more sense," he told This Week in Asia.

The couple became Singaporean two years after their application, while their children still hold dual citizenship.

Indonesia does not recognise dual nationality for adults, and children with multiple passports are given until they are 18 to decide which citizenship they will keep.

Aside from higher earning power, Singapore's way of life - particularly its efficient public transport - was another attraction for Septian, who said that he despises driving.

Jakarta has notoriously clogged roads that can result in commuters spending as much as six hours getting to and from work each day.

"In Singapore, you can go anywhere easily. I can imagine that I wouldn't be able to survive in Jakarta," Septian said, adding that he was "amazed" that people managed to drive in the Indonesian city each day.

However, he noted that while Singapore is "really convenient", it is also "expensive".

To be sure, not every Indonesian living in the city state has taken the full leap, including NTU's Sulfikar, who has lived there since 2008.

He has not applied for permanent residency, let alone a passport, as he still enjoys benefits from his status as an overseas talent, such as an educational allowance for his children and a housing subsidy, he said.

He did acknowledge that it was less convenient to travel with his current passport, however. "I still use my Indonesian passport, which makes it hard for me to travel everywhere as I still need to apply for a visa first," he said.

According to Sulfikar, scholarships remain one of Singapore's most powerful tools to recruit promising Indonesian talent, and its universities have been proactive in this regard.

He said his university, for example, provides 100 scholarships every year for foreign students, including those from Indonesia, China and India.

Representatives from Singapore universities know which schools in Indonesia, to target, often meeting top students and testing them on the spot.

Those who perform the best are offered scholarships, including full tuition and a S$3,000 (US$2,260) monthly allowance, as well as money towards books, housing and round-trip tickets for flights home.

"They only have to bring their suitcases to Singapore," Sulfikar said.

Singapore isn't the only place courting top Indonesian talent. LPDP data shows that between 2013 and 2022, 58 per cent of some 15,000 Indonesians who received overseas scholarships went to European universities, while 20.7 per cent studied in Australia and New Zealand.

Australia Awards - Indonesia, the largest scholarship programme offered by Canberra, has been running for 70 years. Much like Singapore, it also offers generous packages including full tuition, pre-departure training, living allowances, flight tickets and educational support.

But even as some have committed themselves to Singapore, their love for Indonesia remains strong.

Septian visits the country twice a year, saying it is "impossible to erase" his Indonesian upbringing. Even though he is of Chinese descent, he says he gets on better with ethnic Malays in the city state than the majority Chinese-Singaporean population, because of cultural similarities.

"In some sense, I don't need to maintain my identity as an Indonesian, as it implies that it would require effort. Naturally, I'm different from others here," he said. "What I miss the most about Indonesia is the food. This may sound cliche, but you can't replicate it here."

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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