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To curb xenophobia, foster dialogue between students of government and international schools

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To curb xenophobia, foster dialogue between students of government and international schools

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To curb xenophobia, foster dialogue between students of govt and international schools

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Singapore has seen a spike in online anti-foreign sentiment since the Covid-19 pandemic started. It is perhaps time to revisit the premise of social integration in Singapore.

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Most Singaporeans agree they can learn from immigrants, but feel the group needs to integrate more into society

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Most Singaporeans agree they can learn from immigrants, but feel the group needs to integrate more into society

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Most Singaporeans agree they can learn from immigrants, but feel the group needs to integrate more into society

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Nearly nine in 10 of the citizens and permanent residents surveyed agreed that there is "a lot to learn" from the immigrants' cultures. Read more at straitstimes.com.

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Understanding xenophobia and integration in Singapore schools

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Understanding xenophobia and integration in Singapore schools

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The Covid-19 pandemic has again brought anti-immigrant sentiment to the fore of public discourse.

This includes a recent commentary published in TODAY encouraging interaction between students of local and international schools, so as to curb xenophobia.

Even as we consider the need to foster better integration amongst locals and foreigners, it is equally important to uncover how and why xenophobia occurs in specific situations in Singapore.

Developing a better understanding of the latter will then help inform the manner in which we try to promote intercultural communication and affiliation.

THE SITUATION IN SINGAPORE SCHOOLS

For a number of years now, the Singapore Government has been recruiting top-performing students from neighbouring countries on scholarships, so as to augment our local talent pool, as well as to build Singapore's soft power.

This is partly why Singapore's secondary schools and universities today are a microcosm of our cosmopolitan society, where local students inevitably meet and develop forms of (dis)affiliation with those who are immigrants.

As is observable and common knowledge, the majority of immigrant students are recruited from the People's Republic of China (PRC), since the assumption is that they should fit in with the majority racial grouping here readily.

In my research (that has recently been published in the Journal of Language, Identity and Education), I sought to examine whether and how race might play a part in the formation of friendships and relations amongst a group of 28 top-performing students (both local and immigrant).

They talked about their experiences whilst attending the same elite secondary school in Singapore and local universities.

What I found was that instead of race, these students referred to themselves and others in terms of Singaporean-ness.

They used different labels of nationality and the varying amounts of time they have spent as immigrants in Singapore to mark themselves and others as different.

Thus, labels of PRCs, Viets or Indons were used by Singaporeans to refer to individuals from China, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

Negative stereotypes of poor English proficiency and forms of anti-social behaviour were most attributed to students from China. These accounts, however, were produced not just by Singaporeans, but by immigrants themselves.

So students from China who have moved to Singapore at age 15 would characterise themselves as more like a Singaporean and produce the same anti-PRC discourse to describe recent arrivals from China at the university level.

Crucially, students from China described how they would avoid speaking Mandarin in the presence of their Singaporean peers, for fear that their accent and choice of words would signal their status as immigrants.

They would even dissociate themselves from more recent immigrants from China.

LESSONS ON XENOPHOBIA AND INTEGRATION

This reasonably complicates our usual view of xenophobia and integration in two ways.

First, overt Chinese practices, such as speaking PRC-accented Mandarin, are seen as an impediment to affiliating with Singaporeans, even if these individuals were recruited precisely because they were assumed to be culturally compatible with the majority Chinese racial group.

Interestingly, it is the Vietnamese and Indonesians who appear more embraced by the local student population. We cannot assume that racial similarity is an overarching factor that facilitates integration.

Second, these accounts of anti-PRC sentiment emerge as a result of inevitable distinctions made by individuals in terms of cultural and social practices, such as the manner in which one speaks, or the way one dresses.

It is not simply due to differences in nationality. This is why even students from China themselves will resort to the same discriminatory language when referring to more recent arrivals from China.

Such a situation is not unique to our schools, nor idiosyncratic to the small sample size of my study.

It is seen in National University of Singapore Associate Professor Elaine Ho's interviews with "new" Chinese immigrants, where similar distinctions are made by them in terms of 老新移民 lao xinyimin (an earlier cohort of PRC immigrants) and 新新移民 xin xinyimin (a newer cohort of PRC immigrants).

In a Hawaiian high school, applied linguist Steven Talmy observes how newly-arrived immigrant students are pejoratively labelled fresh-off-the-boats by earlier immigrants.

In all of these examples, institutional labels of immigration become appropriated by individuals as a source of cultural differentiation.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

What then does this mean for our efforts at promoting integration between locals and immigrants?

It might suggest a need to rethink our assumptions regarding supposed racial and cultural similarities that we employ in selecting immigrants.

One could argue that our CMIO model is not exactly fit for purpose when it comes to social assimilation of immigrants.

Notwithstanding the tendency for people to make cultural differentiations, certain social practices can be promoted amongst immigrants that could facilitate affiliation with Singaporeans.

As my research and others such as Singapore University of Social Sciences Associate Professor Leong Chan-Hoong have found, Singlish use is a far stronger marker of localisation than ethnicity.

That is, one's identity and sense of Singaporean-ness, regardless of whether one is born here or an immigrant, appears to be largely expressed through the use of Singlish.

For the students in my study, Singlish was what they claimed to use on a daily basis, and which allowed the immigrants among them to form friendships with Singaporean peers.

It might be that one solution to promote integration has been under our noses all this while - our beloved vernacular, Singlish.

But can the Government encourage the use of Singlish amongst immigrants without diminishing the value of Standard English?

Why and when should we ever embrace Singlish as a wider social practice?

These are questions worth pondering as Singapore deals with increasing tensions between demographic diversity and national identity.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Luke Lu is a lecturer in linguistics and multilingual studies at the School of Humanities, Nanyang Technological University.

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Understanding xenophobia and integration in Singapore schools

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The Covid-19 pandemic has again brought anti-immigrant sentiment to the fore of public discourse. Even as we consider the need to foster better integration amongst locals and foreigners, it is equally important to uncover how and why xenophobia occurs in specific situations in Singapore.

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Minister for Law and Foreign Affairs K Shanmugam has shed light on a dispute between two neighbours over the cooking of curry. The mediation case, first cited in Today earlier this month, sparked a backlash online over its settlement terms … <a href=“http://blog.tools.news.yahoo.com/singaporescene/2…

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Marsiling Neighbour Told To Cook Only 3 Times A Day After Resident Complains Of Pungent Cooking Smells

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Marsiling Neighbour Told To Cook Only 3 Times A Day After Resident Complains Of Pungent Cooking Smells

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Must Share News - Independent News For Singaporeans

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Marsiling Resident Complains Of Pungent Cooking Smells From Their Neighbour's Unit

In land-scarce Singapore, many of us live in close proximity with our neighbours.

Inevitably, this could lead to disagreements and disputes.

In Marsiling, a neighbourly dispute started after a family living upstairs complained about pungent cooking smells coming from their downstairs neighbour's home.

The Marsiling residents eventually went for mediation at the Community Mediation Centre (CMC).

As a result, the family living downstairs was told to cook within certain hours a day.

Pungent cooking smells coming from unit of Marsiling neighbour

Speaking to Shin Min Daily News, a resident at Block 26 Marsiling Drive, Ms Wang - surname translated from Chinese - shared that her downstairs neighbour often cooks food like curry, fried fish, and fried chicken.

The oily smoke will waft up to her house, the smell of food permeating the living room and bedrooms.

As a result, Ms Wang's family closes their windows every day.

Now that her daughter is pregnant and her son works from home, she said the heat and lack of circulation are even more unbearable.

She also worries that the fumes may affect her daughter's pregnancy.

Having lived there for about 6 years, Ms Wang said she had reported the problem to the police over 10 times.

Cooking restricted to certain hours

Ms Wang and her neighbour then approached CMC to mediate the situation.

According to Shin Min Daily News, they came to an agreement that the neighbours would only cook within certain hours in a day.

Their restricted hours start from 10.30am-12.30pm, 4pm-6pm, 8pm-10pm.

However, within 2 weeks, there seemed to be a lapse.

Neighbour explains she needs to cook for a family of 8

The neighbour told Shin Min Daily News that she needs to cook for longer periods as she lives with her husband and 6 children.

She lamented that it was difficult that she couldn't cook as she pleased in her own home.

She also said her family had to stave off hunger and wait until she could start cooking at 10.30am to have breakfast sometimes.

Hope neighbours can resolve the issue amicably

High-density living certainly presents its own set of challenges.

While problems can be difficult to resolve, it requires both kindness and understanding of one another at the end of the day.

Hopefully, after airing their grievances, the neighbours can find a middle ground and put this longstanding dispute to bed.
Have news you must share? Get in touch with us via email at hello@mustsharenews.com. Featured image adapted from Shin Min Daily News and Google Maps.

Sabrina is always facing some form of existential crisis but other than that, she's pretty chill.

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Marsiling Neighbour Told To Cook Only 3 Times A Day After Resident Complains Of Pungent Cooking Smells

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In land-scarce Singapore, many of us live in close proximity with our neighbours. Inevitably, this could lead to disagreements and disputes. In Marsiling, a neighbourly dispute started after a family living upstairs complained about pungent cooking smells coming from their downstairs neighbour's home. The Marsiling residents eventually went for mediation at the Community Mediation Centre (CMC).

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Letter of the week: Having kids of foreigners in local schools helps promote integration

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Letter of the week: Having kids of foreigners in local schools helps promote integration

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Letter of the week: Having kids of foreigners in local schools helps promote integration

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National Development Minister Desmond Lee makes the point that without the Ethnic Integration Policy (EIP), different ethnic groups might have a tendency to gravitate to separate enclaves, to the detriment of national integration and unity (Nearly 1 in 3 HDB blocks has hit ethnic quota limits, so EI…

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Having moved to Singapore as a young boy, watch as Jia Hui recounts the ups and downs of settling into a new country, and how he retraces the journey he made from China to Singapore - the place which he now calls home.

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It may take a while for everyone to 'get' our Singaporean quirks, but with a little understanding and effort, it can make us appreciate each other better!

Let's work together to build an inclusive and cohesive Singapore. #OurSG

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What is Integration? - National Integration Council

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Becoming Singaporean | The Straits Times

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Becoming Singaporean | The Straits Times

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China-born Ou Ningfei, Indian national Mark Sathyan and Israeli Dr Ori Sasson are immigrants who have made Singapore their home. They share their experiences and challenges integrating into society.

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Becoming Singaporean | The Straits Times