Perspectives swapped on impact of S'pore's population challenges

How can foreigners better integrate into Singapore society? And, what more can be done to ensure their commitment to Singapore is more than just a cost-benefit one? Perspectives on these topics were exchanged on Thursday at a conference on Singapore's population challenges - organised by the Behavioural Sciences Institute (BSI) at SMU. The conference - attended by some 250 people - was a forum for participants to share their thoughts, including those on the Population White Paper. BSI Director and Professor of Psychology David Chan said in his welcome address: "The population debate has rightly focused on issues of economic implications, liveability and quality of life due to the mismatch between population growth and infrastructure support. But we need to give more attention to other equally important issues associated with changing population profiles. Many of these issues are social and psychological in nature, inextricably tied to how people think, feel, and act in the changing socio-political contexts through which population matters evolve. This means that policy design and execution needs to seriously take into account the science of cognition, emotion, and behaviour."