Singapore's success as a global city is in no small part attributable to its stance on foreign labour and immigrants, illustrated by a largely welcoming but discerning immigration regime to fulfil vital socio-economic needs. However, this fairly liberal policy on immigration has been met with substantial disquiet over the last decade. Xenophobic tendencies have surfaced periodically and have been compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic. This edited volume spotlights these contemporary issues on immigrant integration in Singapore, and adopts a functional approach by explicitly bridging academic and practitioner perspectives. The chapters are organised into three sections. The first section on Challenges discusses various dominant trends — obstacles to immigrant integration based on ethnicity, culture and religion, and the fear and associated emotions that characterise reactions to immigration. The second section focuses on Communities, their perspectives and lived experiences in Singapore society. The latter differ substantially depending on migrant statuses and are contingent on social capital defined in relation to locals in the city-state. The last section seeks to illustrate the various Solutioning endeavours in tandem with the contentious nature of immigration. These concrete efforts range from ground-up initiatives, community-based collaborative approaches and government programming; all seeking to advance immigrant integration in Singapore.
Mathew Mathews is Head, IPS Social Lab and Principal Research Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), National University of Singapore. He has conducted over 50 research projects examining social cohesion, identity and inclusion issues. These have spanned the substantive areas of race, religion, immigrant integration, poverty, ageing and family.
Mathews' work on immigrants in Singapore includes studies of their integration at the neighbourhood level and within religious organisations, the role of civic organisations and the process of naturalisation. Mathews is currently leading a large-scale qualitative research project to examine the nuances of integration within various neighbourhoods in Singapore, which leverages surveys to understand the sentiments of Singaporeans towards immigrant integration.
Mathews regularly publishes research reports and opinion pieces on social cohesion. His recent edited volumes include (with Melvin Tay) Religion and Identity Politics: Global Trends and Local Realities (2021), (with Chiang Wai Fong) Managing Diversity in Singapore: Policies and Prospects (2016), and Singapore Ethnic Mosaic: Many Cultures, One People (2017).
Melvin Tay is Research Associate at the Institute of Policy Studies' Social Lab, National University of Singapore (NUS). His research interests lie at the intersection of politics and society, with a focus on societal fault lines, their significance and their management via policy instruments and community platforms. He has scoped, managed and contributed to several public sector-commissioned projects on race, religion, immigration, class, sexuality, age and education ― key fault lines in the Singapore context.
Alongside his research role at the Institute, Melvin is concurrently a PhD candidate at the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Public Policy, where he is perusing issues of social trust and capital, and their intersection with the use of artificial intelligence. A multiple-scholarship recipient of the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Public Policy's Doctoral Fellowship, and the NUS Graduate Teaching Fellowship, Master's, and Undergraduate-UTown Scholarships, Melvin has a Master of Social Sciences (Political Economy) and a Bachelor of Social Sciences (1st Class Honours) in Political Science and Philosophy from NUS.
