Delving into Singapore families
Ms Beck (second from left) fielding a question from the floor during the panel discussion, together with Dr Leong (first from left), Mr Chan (second from right) and Mr Lin
Policy makers and social service providers from voluntary welfare organisations came together to share their insights on the landscape of families in Singapore as well as family dynamics at a workshop titled “Singapore Families: Risk and Protective Factors” at NUS on 29 January. The workshop was organised by Social Lab of NUS’ Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) and NUS Arts and Social Sciences’ Social Science and Policy Research Cluster (SSPRC).
In his opening remarks, Associate Professor Tan Ern Ser from NUS Sociology hoped that the workshop would be a platform for social workers to talk about their experience working with families in Singapore, allowing the participants to engage in inductive theorising. “Family is a double-edged sword…it can be a joy or a pain,” he said. Assoc Prof Tan is the SSPRC Chair, as well as Head of Social Lab.
The workshop consisted of two panel sessions, with the first session, “Family Relations”, moderated by Dr Leong Chan Hoong, IPS Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Head of Social Lab. Elaborating on Assoc Prof Tan’s point, Dr Leong said it was important to hear from social work practitioners to prevent researchers from working in an ivory tower. “Those are the people who are close to the ground, who understand what are the dynamics, particularly the challenges, the risks and what are the potential protective factors you can draw strength from,” he said. He added that the presence of policy makers and researchers was needed to jointly address some of the issues confronting Singapore families.
Ms Charlotte Beck, Senior Director, Family Development Group, Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), provided an overview of families in Singapore, sharing that about 8 in 10 households have at least a family nucleus. “Our household structures, however, are changing, and they are changing very rapidly,” she said. Of particular concern was the increase in proportion of non-nuclear families, such as one-person households, as well as households with empty nesters and childless couples. In view of Singapore’s ageing population, MSF was embarking on two studies — one was on families with aged persons; while the other study was on divorced and widowed older persons in Singapore. The family must remain the basic building block of our society, said Ms Beck, concluding that the Ministry was keeping track of family trends and issues.
REACH Youth Powerhouse’s Centre Head Mr Joe Chan, an NUS alumnus, spoke of his work with teenagers. According to Mr Chan, people dealing with teenagers needed to “learn how to catch the young persons when they are not failing”, and then using those experiences to encourage them. Mr Mark Lin, Deputy Director, Special Projects (Eldercare), Montfort Care spoke of caring for the elderly, and questioned whether caregiving should be assumed by the state or family members.
The second panel session “Family Dynamics”, which dealt with issues pertaining to marriage, was moderated by Assoc Prof Tan. Ms Agnes Chia, Group Director, Family and Community Services, Care Corner Singapore, said, “Out of 10, there are three families whom we see, would comprise one foreign spouse.” She added that society tends to view migrant brides first as migrants, and second as brides. Ms Chia suggested that further discourse was necessary to explore how everyone’s dignity, including that of migrant brides, could be upheld.
Ms Pang Kee Tai, Deputy Director, Centre for Promoting Alternatives to Violence, discussed the issues surrounding domestic violence. She suggested several solutions when managing domestic violence, such as maintaining a respectful social worker-client relationship and leveraging the abuser’s motivation.
Held at the Shaw Foundation Alumni Building, the workshop was attended by some 230 people, comprising mainly academics, policymakers, social service practitioners and students.
