Speaking of Asia Ep 7: Will immigrants really define our destiny?

37:57 mins

Synopsis: Join The Straits Times's associate editor Ravi Velloor, in this series of podcasts as he distils his experience from four decades of covering the continent.

In this seventh episode, he hosts Dr Parag Khanna, a scholar, global thinker and the author of several books. His experience varies from working at the World Economic Forum to advising the US Special Operations in the Middle East.

Now living in Singapore as a citizen, Dr Khanna has launched his latest book called MOVE-The Forces Uprooting Us. He separates demographic facts from the usual emotions stirred by debates over migration. The book’s central point is that human mobility is destiny.

They discuss the following timestamped points:

1. The global potential of Asian youth and Asian migrant trends: Who will be the winners and losers in the 21st century? (6:17)
2. Dr Khanna breaks down the Asian diaspora: Why the Indian diaspora will be far larger than the Chinese diaspora in the next few decades (8:50)
3. Assess countries' historical actions and just the demographic facts, as no attempts to boost fertility have worked (15:00)
4. Lessons for Singapore as it practises a complex but rather constructive tinkering approach mixed with Singaporean-first policies? (17:35)
5. Why Singapore's constructive tinkering can be advertised and branded better to the world; why "collecting" people is "collecting power" (20:00)
6. Dr Khanna says there are 35 million global companies that are location-independent: Why Dubai wants a slice of that action, and can Singapore learn from it? (25:53)
7. Only two countries offering digital nomad visas pre-Covid; now there are 75 countries (29:40)
8. Can societies not be affected when the immigrant is physically present but has loyalties elsewhere? (34:34)

Produced by: Ravi Velloor (velloor@sph.com.sg), Ernest Luis, Hadyu Rahim and Fa'izah Sani

Edited by: Dan Koh & Fa'izah Sani

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