Pakistani Students in Singapore - an overview

Statistics

Number of Students

NUS: 100+

NTU: 15+

SMU: 1

Total: approx 130

Male:female ratio is approximately 10:1

The number of Pakistani students coming to Singapore for undergraduate and post-graduate studies is increasing every year. Although many students would consider west as their first choice for their higher education but monetary constraints and the proximity lure them towards this small but prosperous island. This is mainly because of the good educational standards of the main stream universities here like NUS, NTU and SMU, a huge amount of financial assistance, aid and loans they are able to get here combined with a chance to leave Pakistan in hope of a better future.

Many such students do not know anything about Singapore prior to coming here, like they do about the West through the media, relatives and friends. Instead, they assume that being a developed nation, it will be similar to the West. They fantasize about culture, norms and activities that will be similar to the West only to realize that Singapore is different from what they had imagined.

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The higher proportions of Pakistani Undergraduates here are enrolled in Engineering with the exception of a few in Social Sciences and Business. It is so because technical fields such as engineering are looked at highly amongst the Pakistani students’ families as well as in the Pakistani society as a whole. Engineering is considered more professional a field according to the old school of thought. The boys, especially, are not expected to get into unconventional fields like arts or designing. Moreover, engineering schools of NUS and NTU have a high ranking as compared to other universities in the world, which is why it is also considered prestigious to study here.

According to students, studies here are elusive, tougher and harder with an immense competition by the mainland Chinese students who dominate in academics, because of this immense amount of pressure, they are always consumed by their studies, thus leaving little time for leisure. When they compare themselves to their friends in the West who are mostly enjoying themselves with alot of time for leisurely activities, whilst still doing well in their studies, they sometimes regret coming to Singapore. So much so that some students will try to persuade their friends, family members and even acquaintances not to come here for higher education because of the tough time that they are expected to face in universities here. By creating a tiresome, tedious and boring image of universities here, which, generally speaking, no university would like to have, more Pakistani students will be discouraged to come here to pursue their studies. However, a point to note is that some Pakistani students here feel elated when they compare themselves with their peers back home who cover the same course they complete in three months, in a year. Thus, the general belief is that the course here is more intensive, rigorous and keeps one on his toes all the time.

In Singapore, apart from the academic issues, Pakistani students face a number of other dilemmas as a community. Some of the main issues concerned are race, culture and religion. Although religion is not as big as a problem as in the West because of the vast Malay Muslim population here but even then, there are a number of differences between Pakistani Muslims and Malays or the Muslims in South East Asia. South Asian Muslims are mostly Hanafi where as Muslims here are mostly from the Shafi’i sect and have a number of differences in practicing Islam. Some of the main differences include the difference in how Salat(Namaz) is offered and food related issues. According to Hanafis, it is prohibited to eat some forms of non-fish seafood according to the hadith of the prophet Muhammad, whereas Shafi’is think otherwise. There are also other problems like the standardization of all the Islamic events according to the Christian calendar by the Singapore government where as they are supposed to be held according to the Muslim calendar.

Keeping the religious issues aside there are a lot of cultural differences between the Singaporean community and the Pakistani community and a few even with the larger South Asian community here which the Pakistanis want to emphasize upon as they are a minority here. But the most significant is the issue of race and nationality, because most of the Pakistanis are brought up in a very nationalistic environment. Like any other nation, nationalism is forged through a number of tools that the government uses. Pakistanis therefore see themselves as a distinct race, a Pakistani race. This is a big problem as they have a great number of attributes which are similar to other south Asians such as Afghanis, Bangladeshis and most importantly Indians, especially the north Indians which is why they want to emphasize on their differences even more. As Indians have been present here for such a long time and most of the south Asians here are Indians it is quite easy for them to over shadow the small and similar Pakistani community. It is therefore very common for a Pakistani to be called an Indian or a Bengali. In many cases people here don’t even know where Pakistan is, many Pakistanis have had this first-hand experience.

To help the Pakistani students, PakNUS, a Pakistani student society was formed 3 years ago, with the idea of providing a common ground to the Pakistani students, during and after their stay at NUS. Apart from being a platform for Pakistanis to raise their collective concerns to the university administration, the society’s aim is to represent Pakistan positively and to support interaction with the different communities at NUS in particular and other universities in Singapore so that people can understand Pakistanis in a better way and realize them as distinguishable from other South Asian communities.

We can see that just as the other new South Asians coming here from India, Bangladesh, or Srilanka, Pakistanis are also not very good at assimilation, it is quite common to see all these different nationalities in different groups. Just as Bangladeshis, Indian and Srilankans usually hang out amongst themselves, a Pakistani will also hang out with a Pakistani, have Pakistani friends and so on.

Though in some aspects there are exceptions, after some observation and interviews we have found out that even though a lot of Pakistanis stay close to their Pakistani community here but have a female companion (girl friend) who is Singaporean, Malay, Indian, or of some other nationality. This is mainly because of a huge difference in the male to female ratio; in NUS there are about a 100 plus Pakistani students in different faculties, mainly in Engineering out of which only about 8 to 10 are female students. This can be an important point as far as their assimilation into the Singaporean community is concerned because most of them are bonded with Singapore’s Ministry of Education for three years after they graduate and finding a local companion will change how they view Singapore and their future here.

Many students have a really good perception of the Singapore economy which is doing better everyday, and they know the fact that they have a bright future for them here. After they graduate, they will eventually leave Singapore to live with their family or in most cases call their family to live with them while they work. This shows that at large, Pakistanis are extremely family-oriented. Some of those who stay here start families of their own with a local companion, thus assimilating into the Singapore community.

CAUSES AND IMPACTS OF THE RECENT INCREASE IN THE NUMBER OF PAKISTANI STUDENTS COMING TO SINGAPORE

By contacting the Pakistani alumni, we found out that not many Pakistanis were coming to Singapore for education before 2001 or the war on terror. That is mainly because a lot of the students went to the West, especially to the United States. After 9/11, however, there was a lot of discrimination against Muslims, especially youngsters. There were a lot of cases where Pakistani students were deported in between their studies or kept as prisoners without any reason. Furthermore, the Visa authorities became stringent in allowing Muslims to enter their countries in the West. Such reasons, coupled with the ever increasing high cost of education in the West forced Pakistani students to look elsewhere for a good university education and one such place was Singapore. Thus we see an increase in the number of Pakistani students every year from then on. From just about 10 students in 2000, there has been an increase to more than 130 Pakistani students in Singapore today.

This increase has in turn helped the Pakistani community grow not just in numbers but also in terms of recognition of their culture, language (Urdu) and other common issues. Furthermore, it has strengthened the Pakistani community here and hence there is more support for the Pakistanis especially the students, who can get help from the seniors and graduates be it emotional, academic or monetary. Last but not the least it gives them a greater sense of belonging.

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