Seems like the undertone of the initiative is not just that Singaporeans should reproduce but that also, immigration is an unfortunate and inevitable side-effect of the declining birth rate. Am I reading that right?

Here in the U.S., I think the attitude is that immigration is a good and necessary thing (which, being an immigrant myself, I obviously agree with). In any case, white people now account for less than half of all births in the U.S. Here's a notable quote from a demographer:

William H. Frey, the senior demographer at the Brookings Institution, describing the shift as a “transformation from a mostly white baby boomer culture to the more globalized multiethnic country that we are becoming.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/us/whites-account-for-under-half-of-births-in-us.html?pagewanted=all

Anyway, on Singapore, I'd be curious to hear your own thoughts on the question you asked at the end of your post: "What needs to change so that couples who want kids feel like they can do so?"

There is quite a lot of anti-foreigner sentiment now, because in the past 5 - 10 years the government opened the floodgates for foreigners to enter the country, but our infrastructure was not developed to match the rate of influx. It made life much more difficult for everyone – it's more crowded everywhere, public transport breaks down, property prices shoot up, there's more competition for jobs, etc. etc.

We also import a lot of low-wage workers, who have crowded out our own blue-collar workers and cause a lot of unhappiness. There is no minimum wage, so migrant workers on the lower-end jobs are able to price our locals out of the market. On the higher end companies feel that migrant workers from places like India are just as highly qualified as our locals, and possibly work harder and better.

So right now people are fed up. Although most of the should be directed at the government policies, a lot of it has also got directed at the foreigners who are coming in, which is a huge pity.

Some things that need to change so that couples are not dissuaded from having children: - Our corporate culture here can be fairly brutal. Singaporeans work some of the longest hours in the world. People are afraid of going home at 6pm, and many put in overtime anyway, even if it's just so that they can look like they're hard workers. Work-life balance is a huge problem here; sometimes it feels as if your employer owns you and can call you in at any time and you can't say no. I have heard of people who are too afraid to take leave for fear that the company will discover that they're not indispensable!

• Although we have maternity leave for new mothers, it's not uncommon for employers to set aside or unfairly dismiss pregnant women (of course, they won't say that it's because they're pregnant; they'll say it's "poor work performance" or something like that). So women become very reluctant to have children but it makes them anxious about their employment.

• I've heard that paternity leave is only about 3 days, so it becomes very difficult for fathers to help their wives out with taking care of children.

These are just some of the things that need to be looked at.

Kixes - read this today and thought of Singapore

http://www.economist.com/node/21560844?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/attractionofsolitude

I think that's true. There are less marriages here as well. People are either putting it off, or too busy to date, or just not feeling the urge to take that step. I'm not sure how much cohabitation goes on here because unless you're married you're not allowed to buy the (relatively) less expensive public housing until you're 35, so sometimes people get married because if you want to live with your partner and own your own home it just makes more sense to get married and apply for public housing (85% of Singaporeans live in public housing, so it's not like in other countries where "council" housing is only reserved for the low-income).