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Written by Secondary 2 students from Westwood Secondary School. Members: Yaohui, Jasmine, Brenda, Junhao, Choiying
Immigrants are people who come from other countries. They consisted of women and men. But most of them were men. They consisted of Chinese, Malay, Indian and European.
They came from :
China
Britain
Portugal and Holland
Arabia
India and Ceylon
Melaka and Penang
Malay Archipelago
Immigrants came to Singapore to work hoping to make enough money to send it back to their hometown so that their families would not starve. They hoped to 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
The Pull Factors that attracted the immigrants to Singapore
The immigrants were settled in different areas, according to their race, 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 and to prevent conflicts among different groups and fire.
Raffles planned to segregate the races. Each race had a specific residential area to minimise contacts and conflicts.
A Kapitan, chief of a designated area, was appointed to be in-charge of the internal affairs of each community.
The Chinese
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 were unskilled. They carried cargo 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 foodstuffs. 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 immigrants worked very hard and some succeeded in fulfilling their dreams. However, those who did not succeed lived in poverty and hardship till death.
Oral Histories Project - Listen to first 5 mins to get an idea of someone's history
Seah Kia Ger - My Grandfather was a coolie
Dr Maurice Baker - My Father was an English farmer's son
Govindasamy, Dhanalakshmi - My father came from India
Chand, Meira - I was born in London and I settled in Holland Village
