What makes immigrants stay?

Although I’m not particularly interested in politics, I take a keen interest to keep myself abreast of the political development in various countries. The simple reason lies in that political changes usually make or break an economy. History has proven it time and time again that when politicians are involved in getting themselves re-elected in the next election, they are often preoccupied in making electors happy but not foccused on long term economic development.

In an immigrant society like Singapore, our early forefathers were not natives here. Indeed, a lot of them were born in Malaysia and China. Some were of course born in Singapore. In my case, I’m only a 3rd generation Singaporean. As I was reading the Straits Times article on the life of JBJ, I can’t help but notice that he was borned in Singapore but later chose to make Singapore his home. That was what struck me. What made him, an immigrant, so commited to pursuing his call and pushing his ideas and dreams for Singapore?

I will justapoxe this with naturalised Singaporeans. How many of them would fight for their cause like JBJ? How many of them would pump in the energy and time like JBJ did to do his part for Singapore? I wonder what makes him tick; what made him decide to fight it all out for Singapore? Why do we not see it in new citizens of today? Is it cultural, or is it the set of values he held to?