HSS: Singapore and Multiculturalism: An Analytical Examination

The foundation and history of Singapore unsettles easy judgments about the immigrant identity and the majority/minority distinction. Within liberal political theory these binaries are always interpreted and recycled in specific circumstances, but these circumstances are also conflations of national/international and domestic/foreign politics. An examination of Singapore's complexity reveals how group identities trouble the theory of liberal multiculturalism. These differences do not render multiculturalism irrelevant in Singapore but instead produce new meanings. Mapping the practices and politics of Singapore on to multiculturalism shows how perceptions of 'difference' give rise to misrecognition. Through analyses of the Little India riot and the gentrification of Tiong Bahru, I show how the case study of Singapore reshapes what multiculturalism means and how it works.