1. What Part did the Different
Immigrants Play in Singapore’s
Development?
Date

2. Who were the immigrants?
✤ Mostly men
✤ permanent stayers
✤ temporary stayers
✤ 1824 - 10683 (31% - Chinese, 60% - Malays, 7% - Indians, 2% - Others)
✤ 1931 - 418640 (75% - Chinese, 12% - Malays, 9% - Indians, 4% - Others)

3. Push Factors
✤ Natural disasters
✤ Shortage of jobs
✤ Scarcity of food

4. Pull Factors
✤ Job opportunities
✤ No natural disasters
✤ Plentiful food supplies

5. From Europe
Britain, Portugal, Holland

6. From China
Southern provinces, Fujian, Guangdong, Hainan Island
Date

7. From Arabia
Yemen
Date

8. From India and Ceylon
Tamils from Madras and Negapatam, Punjabis, Bengalis, Gujeratis, Parsees, Sinhalese
Date

9. Malay Archipelago
Sumatra, Riau-Lingga Archipelago, Javanese, Boyanese, Bugis
Date

10. From Penang
and Melaka
Straits Chinese (Peranakans)

11. Where do they stay?
1822, Singapore Town Plan

12. How did the town plan work?
✤ Jungles were cleared for plantations (gambier, rubber)
✤ Different races to be segregated
✤ Chinese were separated according to their dialect group
✤ kapitan to be appointed to take charge of internal affairs of each
community
✤ John Crawfurd undertook the town plan after Raffles left in 1823

13. Singapore Town Plan, 1822
✤ Chinatown
✤ Commercial Square (centre of commerce activities)
✤ Chulia Kampong
✤ European Town (Big houses and tree-lined roads)
✤ Kampong Bugis

14. Contributions of
✤ Europeans
✤ set up big trading companies and agency houses
✤ sold goods through Chinese middlemen (Straits-born Chinese)

15. Contributions of
✤ Chinese
✤ unskilled labourers working at docks and construction sites
✤ Straits Chinese (Middle-men/ coolie agents) provided support
services

16. Contributions of
✤ Malay
✤ provided basic necessities
✤ gardeners and huntsmen
✤ shipbuilders

17. Contributions of
✤ Indians
✤ labourers carrying cargoes at docks, clearing jungles
✤ Chettiars provided banking and transportation services (till 1860s)
✤

18. Social Impacts
✤ Situation of the immigrants:
✤ Poor and diseased
✤ abused as coolies in the slave trade
✤ secret societies
✤ opium smoking

19. Social Impacts
✤ Tan Tock Seng, Syed Mohamed bin Alsagoff
✤ philanthropy acts
✤ Paupers’ Hospital on Pearl’s Hill, 1844
✤ Thong Chai Medical Institution, 1867

20. Social Impacts
✤ Christian missionaries from Europe and America set up schools
✤ Chinese Girls’ School (St. Margaret’s School)