Classifying the new migrants

Channel U talk show, Shoot 2, dealt with the sticky issue of new migrants (in Singapore) two nights ago.

The hot potato topic centred around the incumbents’ resistance towards new migrants. There are two remarks that strike me as economically sensible and morally challenging:

(1) Rationally speaking, as Chua Kim Kang, the co-anchor social commentator, has implied, a capitalistic, meritocratic society such as Singapore should encourage incoming foreign talent but not foreign labour.

(2) On the other hand, I do recall a couple of years back, a senior cabinet minister mentioned the necessity to introduce foreign labour so as to fill the demand for blue collar positions shunned by a growing middle class Singaporeans.

(3) So with a concurrent need to meet the demand for and control the immigrant population, is it any wonder how we view the sexuality of these foreign labourers with anxiety (see Lenore Lyons 2004)?

(4) If we relate this back to the earlier case studies on Indian construction workers and study ma mas, all these indicate a social stratification of new migrants in a eugenic nation-state.

(5) Yet as a guest speaker representing the voice of an early Hong Kong migrant has mentioned, by disadvantaging the study ma mas, the nation-state runs into the risk of alienating their young, who may indeed in turn be the bright talent of our nation’s future?

Understandably, as a program for Chinese TV channel, the talk show mainly framed the issues round the Chinese migrants (and hence the study ma mas and the potential of their offspring). There is perhaps limited room of discussion to bring in the wider issue of foreign labourers.

However, if it is as the hosts, commentators and guest speakers had concluded towards the end of the program, that the young should not be constrained by social stratification to fulfill their potential, then we should seriously relook into the policies that may in any way, disadvantage the second generation new migrants – whether it be the Chinese or ethnic minority diaspora.

Are we as a nation ready for a radical change in our mindsets – socially and morally – to break down the class barriers, in order to harness the benefits of a new migrant tolerant era?