Abstract
In this chapter, I first lay out what it means to be a non-citizen in Singapore and the various gradations of rights within that category. I concurrently situate these differentiations within neoliberal economic logic, demonstrating the intersection of local narratives with hierarchies within the global migration regime. Second, I focus on the ways in which low-waged migrants are particularly vulnerable to domination while facing high exit costs. Being caught within the trappings of multiple structures of instability creates conditions that render low-waged migrants susceptible to exploitation, a status that Lewis et al. (2015: 582) term ‘hyper-precarity that emerges from the ongoing interplay of neoliberal labour markets and highly restrictive immigration regimes’. Hyper-precarity lends a parallel lens through which domination is understood as a spectrum of unfreedoms. Through policy, political rhetoric and interviews, I address how the specific status of low-waged Bangladeshi workers negatively affects their everyday lives, from work and living conditions to the constraints of prayer, and access to claims-making.
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- 1.
There are additional conditions for households that include a Singaporean citizen married to a Singaporean PR, a denizen with a work or visit pass, and a denizen without any pass. Premium charges and eligibility clauses vary across these permutations. An HDB webpage entitled ‘Promoting Citizenship in HDB Households’ explicitly encourages non-citizens to apply for citizenship to gain eligibility for housing privileges (HDB 2014).
- 2.
See Saw (2012: 268) for more details on other public housing restrictions, including housing loans and upgrading subsidies. In addition, all male Singaporean citizens and permanent residents are liable to register for National Service (NS) under the Enlistment Act. Only PRs under the Professionals/Technical Personnel and Skilled Workers (PTS) Scheme or the GIP are exempted from NS, unless they were previously PRs or Singaporean citizens (ICA 2014).
- 3.
- 4.
Kwok and Low (2002) explain how policies and initiatives work towards constructing Singapore as a cultural global city through processes of theming, which they describe as ‘a process of Disneyfication’. They highlight the role of national bodies such as the Ministry of Information and the Arts, the National Arts Council, the Advisory Council on Culture and the Arts and the Urban Redevelopment Agency. Collaboration between these bodies enables the emulation of events such as the Edinburgh Arts Festival and the portrayal of ethnic enclaves and old colonial buildings as architectural ‘treasures’, creating a ‘spectacle’ of heritage. The intersection of multiracialism and cosmopolitanism is also revealed through cultural festivals. Daniel Goh (2011: 120) observes how the Chingay parade, a Chinese religious festival, has expanded to portray a vast array of cultures, as well as including travelling troupes from Europe and hip hop acts.
- 5.
Public policies refer to low-skilled and unskilled categories as ‘non-residents’ and Singapore’s ‘transient population’.
- 6.
In the same article, Huang and Yeoh further problematise how the ‘unskilling’ of foreign domestic work reflects the broader gendering of domestic work, that is ‘work that women “naturally” and “flexibly” perform’. As such, the exclusion of foreign domestic workers from public spaces , particularly in places such as Singapore where they fall beyond the remit of the Employment Act, is regarded as an issue that needs to be addressed by the state.
- 7.
Employees under the P, Q and S passes are eligible for dependant’s passes, except those who earn less than $2500. Only P pass-holders are eligible for long-term social visit passes as well, which provides long-term visit entitlement to family members who do not wish to live in Singapore under a dependant’s pass. The R work pass is issued to skilled or unskilled foreigners, who are ineligible for both dependant’s and long-term social visit passes.
- 8.
The Employment Act (EA) applies to all economic migrants in Singapore. The Employment of Foreign Manpower Act is enforced on top of the EA for low-waged migrants.
- 9.
The Controller here is the Controller of work passes, appointed by the Minister of Manpower.
- 10.
Studies show that among naturalised citizens and PRs, 45% are from Malaysia (mostly of Chinese origin), 20% from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, 14% from South Asia, 16% from other parts of Asia and 5% from other countries (Lai 2012). This agenda was explained by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (in Hussain 2013), who stated that ‘[w]e will maintain the racial balance among Singaporeans. The percentage of Malays among Singapore citizens will continue to be stable, even into the long-term’. As such, there are quotas for how many Chinese, Malay, Indian and ‘Other’ (CMIO) migrants are permitted to work in Singapore.
- 11.
When the pro-Chinese immigration policy was introduced in 1989, a national poll showed opposition from Malays and Indians (Tamney 1995: 97).
- 12.
I recognise the breadth of work on precarious labour and precarious life as an ontological concept (Butler 2004), as well as critiques that precarity essentialises the migrant as the world’s ‘paradigmatic worker’. I use the concept here solely to highlight labour conditions among workers in the lower echelons of the labour market. For further elaboration on the term, see Lewis et al. (2015).
- 13.
While the Singapore Government does not release the ethnic breakdown of the foreign workforce, an estimate by the High Commissioner of Bangladesh suggested that there are over 160,000 Bangladeshi workers in Singapore, with over 90% of them in the construction and marine industries (Tan 2016).
- 14.
Ten Bangladeshi Work Permit holders underwent semi-structured interview schedules. An interpreter was present at all interviews. Participants were provided with written information sheets in English and Bengali before consenting to be interviewed. All interviews were anonymised for transcription in recognition of the vulnerable position these workers hold in Singapore’s employment system.
- 15.
Beyond this study, there are also reports that workers have been told not to pray in the dormitories provided by their employers (Solidarity for Migrant Workers, 2011).
- 16.
Also see Alkhatib (2014).
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Teo, TA. (2019). The Costs of Migration. In: Civic Multiculturalism in Singapore. Palgrave Politics of Identity and Citizenship Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13459-4_5
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