This forum letter was originally published in The Straits Times on 25 March 2025.

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.

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.

Speaking at a citizenship ceremony on March 9, Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the low TFR necessitated bringing in “more people, more talent, more contributions”.

Given how immigration is positioned as a solution to the TFR’s steady decline, it is past time for us to reconsider our policies regarding the many Singaporean families with non-citizen family members.

In the last 10 years, more than a third of marriages each year were between a citizen and a non-citizen. These foreigners are closely linked to Singapore and have planted their roots here. In 2023, 23 per cent of all babies born had one citizen and one non-citizen parent. Despite this, many foreign parents of Singapore citizens are not given residency status.

These are Singaporean families. We recommend that foreign parents of Singaporean children automatically qualify as permanent residents (PRs) in Singapore. Being guaranteed their ability to stay here for the long term is critical to the well-being of their children and the stability of their whole family.

They are also the best candidates for successful integration. Not only have they contributed to increasing the number of citizen births in Singapore, but by putting down roots here the immigrants in these families have already demonstrated their commitment to calling Singapore home.

In 2023, 26.2 per cent of marriages were between a citizen and a non-resident. As transnational couples continue to make up a sizeable portion of all new marriages, more should be done to support them in making their lives in Singapore. Singapore should demonstrate its commitment to being Made For Families, even if one parent is not a citizen. The additional security may even encourage more people to have more children. This is a win-win for Singapore.

Ruby Thiagarajan is the senior researcher at AWARE.