Thursday, September 30, 2010

Immigrants


Immigrants are people who came from other countries. They consist of women and men. But most of them were men. They consist of Chinese, Malay, Indian and European. They were from :
- China
- Britain, Portugal and Holland
- Arabia
- India and Ceylon
- Melaka and Penang
- Malay Archipelago

Immigrants come to Singapore to work as they hoped to make enough money to send it to their hometown reguarly so that their families will not starve and will eventually return home after earning enough. Instead, some immigrants chose to live in Singapore permanently. They either brought their wives or children to Singapore or married local women or men who were mostly Malays or Chinese born in Penang and Melaka.

The Push Factors that lead the immigrants to come to Singapore was due to unfavourable conditions.
- Unemployment
- War / High Crime Rate
- Poor Living Conditions
- Discrimination

The Pull Factors that attracted the immigrants to Singapore, a new enviroment.
- Employment
- Peace / Low Crime Rate
- Good Healthcare
- Better Living Conditions

The immigrants were settled in different races at the mouth of the Singapore River. In 1822, Lieutenant Philip Jackson was appointed by Raffles as the Assistant Engineer to plan as to improve the haphazard way in which buildings were in built in the settlement. It was to prevent conflicts among different groups and fire.

Raffles has plan to segregate the races. Each race has a specific residential area leading to minimising contacts and conflicts. Kapitan, chief of a designated area, was appointed to be in-charge of the internal affairs of each community.

Raffles left Singapore in 1823, the new Resident, John Crawfurd was in-charge of the town plan.
Here are some development restricted to the southern parts of Singapore.
- Roads were laid out.
- Commercial buildings such as offices and shophouses were put up.
- The roads of the town were widen.
- Street lighting was established, using coconut oil.
- Land along the seafront was reclaimed.
- Many churches, government offices and public buildings were built.

Contributions that the immigrants made

Europeans set up big trading companies and agency houses that had links with Europe in Singapore.
These are some trades going on :
From Britian and Western Europe
- Cotton
- Wollen Cloth
- Iron
- Steel
- Guns
- Gassware
- Clocks

From India
- Opium
- Cotton
- Cloth

From China
- Tea
- Silk
- Foodstuffs
- Medicines
- Porcelain

From Siam, Annam and Cochin China
- Rice
- Sugar
- Salt

From Malay Archipelago
- Rice
- Spices
- Coffee
- Birds' Nests
- Sharks' Fins
- Sea Cucumbers
- Precious wood

The goods were unloaded off the ships into warehouses. Agency houses brought in all the goods. They were all then repackaged in smaller quantities. They are then exported to places like Europe, India, the Malay Archipelago and China. 

There were middlemen known as coolie-agents, they helped trader and merchants to look for workers who came from India and China.

The Chinese, they contributed to the society by :
- Chinese barbers cut hair and provided ear-picking services
- Chinese provision shops supplied daily necessities of the immigrants
- Chinese street hawkers sold food that gave the Chinese a taste of their homeland food
- Chinese rickshaw pullers provided transportation for people around and outside of town areas.

The coolies who worked at the docks and construction are a large number of chinese who were unskilled. The jobs there were given were unskilled labour . They carried cargoes at docks and wood for construction purposes.

The Indians, were in-charge of the areas of banking and transportation, they held the monopoly of transportation in Singapore until the 1860s.

The Malays, they were mostly engaged in providing basic necessities like firewood and foodstuff. They had jobs like gardeners, huntsmen and shipbuilders. They made ships and boats for the malay traders to ferry their goods to neighbouring islands.

Many of there immigrants worked very hard and some succeeded in fulfilling their dreams. However, those who did not succeed lived in poverty and hardship till death.

Even though the immigrants boost Singapore's economy and social states, but they also brought some diseases in Singapore. 
- Malaria
- Cholera
- Typhoid
- Smallpox
- Tuberculosis

The more successful businessmen were motivated to help their less fortunate countrymen, thus they provided social services like hospitals and schools.
Tan Tock Seng and Syed Mohamed bin Alsagoff spent large sums of money on providing medical services and amenities like water wells for the community.
Some examples are
- Paupers' Hospital on Pearl's Hill, established in 1844
- Thong Chai Medical Institution in 1867

Their acts of philanthrophy made life for the less fortunate better for those who received help.
Philanthrophy meant the act of giving of money and other help to people who need them, without asking for anything in return.

Christian missionaires from Europe and America came and set up schools too. One example is the st.Margaret's School



18 comments:

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