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Multiculturalism on Its Head: Unexpected Boundaries and New Migration in Singapore

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Abstract

This study investigates how discourses of multiculturalism shape public debates surrounding new migration in Singapore. Singapore’s immigration policies led to the influx of Chinese and Indian professionals, many of whom share race and class identities with local Singaporeans. However, Singaporeans of Chinese and Indian backgrounds rejected these presumed similarities, using discourses of multiculturalism to differentiate themselves from co-ethnic migrants. Based on a content analysis of news reports and online forums, this study shows how local actors portrayed new migrants as too prejudiced or bigoted to adapt to Singapore’s multiracial society, thereby creating a paradoxical application of multicultural ideals. This example highlights how contemporary immigration is creating diverse forms of inclusion and exclusion within migrant-receiving nations, challenging models, and policies of multiculturalism based solely on ethnicity and race. This paper also demonstrates how individuals can utilize the discourse of multiculturalism in forwarding their own interests and concerns. Scholarly debates have often portrayed multiculturalism as an ideology or policy imposed by state institutions, where local actors are left to either resist or accommodate such ideas. In the Singapore context, individual Singaporeans transform discourses of multiculturalism, creating a counter-discourse that challenges state immigration policies.

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Notes

  1. Singapore’s total population is at 5.4 million people. This number includes approximately 531,000 permanent residents and 1.5 million foreigners working and studying in Singapore (Department of Statistics Singapore 2013). Professionals and white-collar workers comprise about 175,100 of the 1.3 million total foreign workforce (Ministry of Manpower 2013).

  2. The merger of Singapore and Malaysia lasted from 1963 to 1965. Hill and Lian (1995) provide a comprehensive discussion of the events that led to its failure in their book, The Politics of Nation Building and Citizenship in Singapore.

  3. Recent policy changes allow children to choose either of their parents’ racial designation or adopt a double-barrelled race classification in official documents (see Yeoh, Leng, and Dung 2013).

  4. A large proportion of construction workers come from South Asia and “can be generalized locally as ‘Indians’,” domestic workers from the Philippines can be considered “Malay,” while many workers from Vietnam and Thailand also have ethnic Chinese origins (Chua 2003).

  5. This comment was taken from a Facebook page named, “Say ‘NO’ to an overpopulated Singapore.” A full list of comments was featured in The Online Citizen (www.theonlinecitizen.com/2014/04/revisiting-the-protest-on-the-philippine-independence-day-event).

  6. Internet forums criticizing white foreigners are especially common when white expats are caught “misbehaving” in public. When Anton Casey, a British wealth manager, uploaded offensive posts against a local taxi driver and called Singaporeans “poor,” online forums called for the cancellation of his permanent residency and lambasted the government for being “too easy” on white immigrants.

  7. Why do we need more foreign talent? August 26, 2006. http://sgforums.com/forums/10/topics/207012

  8. S’poreans will always do worse than us, says PRC student. November 24, 2011. Sgforums. http://sgforums.com/forums/3317/topics/442154

  9. “Indian nationals, and why they are so proud.” SgForums, August 6, 2011. http://sgforums.com/forums/8/topics/435604

  10. “PRC family to Sporean Indian neighbors: Can u not cook curry?,” August 13, 2011. (http://sgforums.com/forums/3545/topics/435878?page=6).

  11. “Number of neighbour disputes hit high,” The Online Citizen, August 8, 2011. (http://theonlinecitizen.com/2011/08/number-of-neighbour-disputes-hit-high/)

  12. “Foreign talent or Singaporean?,” Sgforums, September 21, 2004 (http://sgforums.com/forums/8/topics/94515)

  13. “Why do we need more foreign talent?,” SgForums, August 28, 2006. (http://sgforums.com/forums/10/topics/207012)

  14. This statement appeared under the comments section of the following article: Pritam Singh “Foreign talent policy remains contentious, and for reason too,” The Online Citizen, August 18, 2009. (http://theonlinecitizen.com/2009/08/foreign-talent-policy-remains-contentious-and-for-reason-too/)

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  1. Department of Sociology, 302 Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, 13210, USA

    Yasmin Y. Ortiga

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Ortiga, Y.Y. Multiculturalism on Its Head: Unexpected Boundaries and New Migration in Singapore. Int. Migration & Integration 16, 947–963 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-014-0378-9

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