Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

(Cr)Immigration and Merit-Based Migration in Singapore: The Permanent “State of Exception”

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Criminal Legalities and Minorities in the Global South

Part of the book series: Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies ((PSLS))

Abstract

In 2019, former president Donald Trump expressed interest in reforming the US immigration system to end family reunification policies, which constitutes nearly two-thirds of immigrants to the United States. In its place, he hoped to shift to a “merit-based, high security plan,” similar to what is found in Australia or Canada. But what would this mean? And how would it affect the migration experience for immigrants? Drawing from examples in a developed, global south nation—Singapore—this chapter will explore how merit-based migration creates tiers of migration, exacerbates inequality, and erodes the rights of migrants. Focusing on “low-skilled” migrants, this chapter will explore Singaporean policies toward South Asian migrant construction workers. It will discuss how historical patterns of migration, combined with a highly stratified “merit-based” system, enhances stereotypes along the lines of race and class. It will argue that stereotyping can lead to the over-regulation and inadvertent criminalization of such migrants. Drawing on the (cr)immigration framework, this chapter will argue that “merit-based” migration has the potential to dehumanize the migration process, create categories of people based on “utility,” discriminate/criminalize such individuals along lines of racial bias, and encourage a race to the bottom when migration policies bow to neoliberal economic needs.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

Laws

  • Employment of Foreign Manpower (Work Passes) (Amendment No. 5) Regulations 2020.

    Google Scholar 

  • Internal Security Act (ISA) of Singapore (Cap. 143, 1985 Rev. Ed.).

    Google Scholar 

  • Public Order (Additional Temporary Measures) Act of (No. 12 of 2014).

    Google Scholar 

Books and Articles

  • Abraham, C. 1983. Racial and Ethnic Manipulations in Colonial Malaya. Ethnic and Racial Studies 6 (1): 18–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Agamben, Giorgio. 1998. Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Agamben, Giorgio. 2005. State of Exception. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Agence-France Press [AFP]. 2021. ‘Like a Prison:’ Singapore Migrant Workers Suffer Under Covid Curbs. 13 November 2021.

    Google Scholar 

  • Akram, S. M., and K. R. Johnson. 2002. Race, civil rights, and immigration law after September 11, 2001: The targeting of Arabs and Muslims. NYU Annual Survey of American Law, 58: 295–356.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alfaro-Velcamp, Theresa, and Mark Shaw. 2016. ‘Please GO HOME and BUILD Africa’: Criminalising Immigrants in South Africa. Journal of Southern African Studies 42 (5): 983–998.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Au-yong, R. 2014, January 21. DPM Teo Made Call to Repatriate Those Involved in Riot. The Straits Times. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/dpm-teo-made-call-to-repatriate-those-involved-in-riot. Accessed 17 Sept 2018.

  • Bal, C.S. 2015. Dealing with Deportability: Deportation Laws and the Political Personhood of Temporary Migrant Workers in Singapore. Asian Journal of Law and Society 2: 267–284.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barker, V. 2012. Global Mobility and Penal Order: Criminalizing Migration, a View from Europe. Sociology Compass 6 (2): 113–121.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, M. Barrat. 1974. The Economics of Imperialism. Harmondsworth: Penguin Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beirne, P., and D. Nelken. 1997. Issues in Comparative Criminology. Aldershot: Dartmouth.

    Google Scholar 

  • Belina, B. 2011. Ending Public Space as We Know It. Social Justice 38 (1–2): 13–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhattacharya, J. 2011. Beyond the Myth: Indian Business Communities in Singapore. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bigo, D. 2006. Security, Exception, Ban and Surveillance. In Theorizing Surveillance, ed. D. Lyon, 46–68. Wilan: The Panopticon and Beyond.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bosworth, M., and M. Guild. 2008. Governing Through Migration Control. British Journal of Criminology 48: 703–719.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buchanan, I. 1972. Singapore in Southeast Asia: An Economic and Political Appraisal. London: G. Bell and Sons Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calavita, K. 2003. A ‘reserve army of delinquents’ the Criminalization and Economic Punishment of Immigrants in Spain. Punishment & Society 5 (4): 399–413.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chan, J. 1996. “Legislating Feminism in a Paternalistic State” paper presented at the Joint International Conference of the Law and Society Association and Research Committee on Sociology of Law (ISA), Glasgow.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chiu, S.W., K. Ho, and T. Lui. 1997. City-States in the Global Economy: Industrial Restructuring in Hong Kong and Singapore. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chua, B.H. 2002. Communitarian Ideology and Democracy in Singapore. London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • COI Report. 2013. Report of the Committee of Inquiry into The Little India Riot on 8 December 2013, June 27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ericson, R., and K. Haggerty. 1997. Policing the Risk Society. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Furusho, Carolina Yoko. 2019. Crimmigration in the dominican republic? Decolonizing the human rights of vulnerable Haitian migrants. In Criminal Legalities in the Global South: Cultural Dynamics, Political Tensions, and Institutional Practices, ed. Pablo Ciocchini and George Radics. Routledge: Abingdon, Oxon [UK].

    Google Scholar 

  • Fouratt, Caitlin E. 2014. ‘Those Who Come to Do Harm’: The Framings of Immigration Problems in Costa Rican Immigration Law. The International Migration Review 48 (1): 144–80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freier, L.F., and L.M. Pérez. 2021. Nationality-Based Criminalisation of South-South Migration: The Experience of Venezuelan Forced Migrants in Peru. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research 27: 113–133.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ganapathy, N. 2008. Criminal Justice Policy: Social Order, Risk and the ‘Governmental Project’. In Social Policy in Post-Industrial Singapore, ed. C.K. Tong, and K.F. Lian. Boston: Brill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gomberg-Muñoz, Ruth. 2015. The Punishment/El Castigo: Undocumented Latinos and US Immigration Processing. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 41 (14): 2235–2252.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Griffith, K.L., and S.M. Gleeson. 2018. The Precarity of Temporality: How Law Inhibits Immigrant Worker Claims. Comparative Labour Law and Policy Journal 39 (1): 111–141.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, D. 1990. The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change. Cambridge and Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hernández, C.C.G. 2013. Creating Crimmigration. BYU Law Review 6 (4): 1457–1515.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hernández, C.C.G. 2018. Deconstructing Crimmigration. U.C.Davis Law Review 52(1): 197.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hirschman, C. 1986. The Making of Race in Colonial Malaya: Political Economy and Racial Ideology. Sociological Forum 1 (2): 330–361.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ho, A. 2008. Face It: You’re on Candid Camera, Everywhere. The Straits Times, Oct 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ho, A. 2012. Safeguards Needed for Govt Access to Personal Data. The Straits Times, Sep 15.

    Google Scholar 

  • HOME and TWC2. 2020. Response to Post-Circuitbreaker Amendments to the Employment of Foreign Manpower (Work Passes) Regulations. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a12725612abd96b9c737354/t/5ef95a5861489c0a0245a119/1593399904516/Response+to+Post-Circuitbreaker+Amendments.pdf.

  • Hor, M. 2002. Terrorism and the Criminal Law: Singapore’s Solution. Singapore Journal of Legal Studies 1: 30–55.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huang, S., and B.S.A. Yeoh. 1996. Ties that Bind: State Policy and Migrant Female Domestic Helpers in Singapore. Geoforum 27 (4): 479–493.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hussain, A. 2013, December 18. 28 Charged as Police Complete Riot Probe. Today. https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/28-charged-po-lice-complete-riot-probe. Accessed 17 Sept 2018.

  • Jiow, H.J., and S. Morales. 2015. Lateral Surveillance in Singapore. Surveillance & Society 13 (3): 327–337.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy, B.E. 1973. Anglo-French Rivalry in Southeast Asia 1763–93: Some Repercussions. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 4 (2): 199–215.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kitiarsa, Pattana. 2014. The “Bare Life” of Thai Migrant Workmen in Singapore. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Silkworm Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kratoska, P.H. 1983. Ends that We Cannot Foresee: Malay Reservations in British Malaya. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 14 (1): 149–168.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lian, K.F. 2006. Race, Ethnicity, and the State in Malaysia and Singapore. Boston: Brill.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Low, L. 2001. The Political Economy of Singapore’s Policy on Foreign Talents and High Skills Society, 1–21. Research Paper Series: Faculty of Business Administration, National University of Singapore. RPS 2001–036 (BP).

    Google Scholar 

  • McDonald, Timothy. 2021. Singapore has COVID-19 Well Under Control—But Its Migrant Workers Still Face Year-Old Restrictions. Fortune. 7 April 2021.

    Google Scholar 

  • McNevin, A. 2006. Political Belonging in a Neoliberal Era: The Struggle of the Sans-papiers. Citizenship Studies 10 (2): 135–151.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Menjívar, C., A. Gómez Cervantes, and D. Alvord. 2018. The Expansion of “crimmigration.” Mass Detention, and Deportation. Sociology Compass: 1–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ministry of Home Affairs [MHA]. 2016. Arrests of 27 Radicalised Bangladeshi Nationals under the Internal Security Act. https://www.mfa.gov.sg/Overseas-Mission/Geneva/Mission-Updates/2016/01/press_20160120.

  • Ministry of Home Affairs [MHA]. 2019. Innovating to Keep Singapore Safe and Secure. https://www.mha.gov.sg/about-us/innovating-to-keep-singapore-safe-and-secure.

  • Ministry of Health. 2020. https://www.moh.gov.sg/news-highlights/details/confirmed-imported-case-of-novel-coronavirus-infection-in-singapore-multi-ministry-taskforce-ramps-up-precautionary-measures.

  • Ministry of Law. 2013, December 21. Ministry of Law’s Statements on the Repatriation of Foreign Workers https://www.mlaw.gov.sg/news/replies/statement-on-the-repatriation-of-foreign-workers.html. Accessed 1 May 2014.

  • Ministry of Manpower [MOM]. 2014. Ministerial Statement on Findings of Committee of Inquiry (COI) on Little India Riot. https://www.mom.gov.sg/newsroom/parliament-questions-and-replies/2014/ministerial-statement-on-findings-of-committee-of-inquiry-coi-on-little-india-riot.

  • Ministry of Manpower [MOM]. 2022a. Work Passes. https://www.mom.gov.sg/passes-and-permits.

  • Ministry of Manpower [MOM]. 2022b. Foreign Workforce Numbers. https://www.mom.gov.sg/documents-and-publications/foreign-workforce-numbers

  • National Population and Talent Division [NPTD]. 2022. Population Trends. https://www.population.gov.sg/our-population/population-trends/overview.

  • Ng, Esther. 2010. Employer’s passport to trouble. Today (Singapore). January 25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ong, A. 2006. Mutations in Citizenship. Theory, Culture & Society. 23 (2–3): 499–505.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ong, J. 2016. Singapore Moves to Bolster Counter-Terrorism Security Measures. Channel News Asia. March 18. https://web.archive.org/web/20170709201946/; http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/singapore-moves-to-bolster-counter-terrorism-security-measures-8156576

  • Packer, H. 1964. Two Models of the Criminal Process. University of Pennsylvania Law Review 113 (1): 1–68.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parliament (Singapore). 2014. Parliamentary Debates. Singapore Official Report Twelfth Parliament, Part IV, Volume 91, Feb. 18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rahman, M. 2017. Bangladeshi Migration to Singapore: A Process-Oriented Approach. Singapore: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rajah, J. 2012. Authoritarian Rule of Law. NY: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenbaum, Carrie L. 2018, September 22. Crimmigration – Structural Tools of Settler Colonialism. Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law, 16 (1): 9–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salehin, Ahmad, and Laura Vitis. 2020. Cruising, Space and Surveillance: Decolonizing Sexuality in Singapore. Globalizations 17 (7): 1225–1240.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sandhu, K.S. 1969. Indians in Malaya: Some Aspects of their Immigration and Settlement (1786–1957). London: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Silverman, S., and P. Molnar. 2016. Everyday Injustices: Barriers to Access to Justice for Immigration Detainees in Canada. Refugee Survey Quarterly 35: 109–127.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spykerman, K. 2016. Better Technology, enhanced Home Team Needed to Fight Terror Threat: MHA. Channel News Asia. April 6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stanley, E. 2017. Expanding Crimmigration: The Detention and Deportation of New Zealanders from Australia. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology 51 (4): 519–536.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stenson, M.R. 1980. Class, Race, and Colonialism in West Malaysia: The Indian Case. St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stumpf, J.P. 2013. The Process is the Punishment in Crimigration Law. In The Borders of Punishment: Migration, Citizenship and Social Exclusion, ed. K.F. Aas and M. Bosworth, 58–75. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Tafira, Kenneth. 2011. Is Xenophobia Racism? Anthropology Southern Africa 34 (3–4): 114–121.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tarling, N. 1962. Anglo-Dutch Rivalry in the Malay world 1780–1824. Sydney: University of Queensland Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Teo, T. 2019. Civic Multiculturalism in Singapore: Revisiting Citizenship. Rights and Recognition: Springer International Publishing.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Tumlin, Karen C. 2004. Suspect First: How Terrorism Policy is Reshaping Immigration Policy. California Law Review 92 (4): 1173–1239.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • TWC2. 2021. Short of foreign labour, Singapore sending workers home even when they want to stay and work. 23 May 2021. https://twc2.org.sg/2021/05/23/short-of-foreign-labour-singapore-sending-workers-home-even-when-they-want-to-stay-and-work/.

  • Vazquez, Yolanda. 2015. Constructing Crimmigration: Latino Subordination in a Post-Racial World. Immigration and Nationality Law Review 36 (2015): 713–772.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walters, W. 2002. Deportation, Expulsion, and the International Policing of Aliens. Citizenship Studies 6 (3): 265–292.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wong, T. 2013. Somebody’s Watching Me; Does US-Style Prism Surveillance of Citizens’ Online Outpourings Happen Here? The Straits Times, Jul 6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ye, J. 2016. Class Inequality in the Global City: Migrants, Workers and Cosmopolitanism in Singapore. Houndsmill, Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yeo, G. L. 2008. $29m for More Cameras at MRT Stations; Work Due to Start Next Month in Move to Beef Up Commuter Safety. The Straits Times, Aug 29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yeoh, B.S.A., and W. Lin. 2013. Chinese Migration to Singapore: Discourses and Discontents in a Globalizing Nation-State. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 22 (1): 31–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    George B. Radics

Authors
  1. George B. Radics
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to George B. Radics .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    George B. Radics

  2. Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology, University of Liverpool, Singapore, Singapore

    Pablo Ciocchini

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Radics, G.B. (2023). (Cr)Immigration and Merit-Based Migration in Singapore: The Permanent “State of Exception”. In: Radics, G.B., Ciocchini, P. (eds) Criminal Legalities and Minorities in the Global South. Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17918-1_6

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17918-1_6

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-17917-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-17918-1

  • eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation