The second of Singapore’s post-independence riots, the Little India riot on December 8, 2013 led to the rise of distasteful sentiments towards the migrant worker population in Singapore. While dormitories already segregated migrant workers from the general population, the aftermath of the riot saw further limitations being placed on their mobility. Despite the country’s desire for diversity, such measures to further obscure migrant workers’ presence in society may prove to be counter-productive. In ‘Super-diversity and the bio-politics of migrant worker exclusion in Singapore’ (Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 2018), Associate Professor Daniel P. S. Goh (NUS Department of Sociology) investigates how migrant workers factor into Singapore’s aim of achieving super-diversity.

Super-diversity is a concept that refers to the inclusion and integration of multi-origin minority groups of migrants into a cosmopolitan (a city which hosts people from various countries). In Singapore, great importance has been placed on diversity for the economic growth and urban development of the country. However, A/P Goh argues that the spatial segregation of low-wage male migrant workers from the city’s urban areas conflicts with Singapore’s aim of super-diversity.

From 1970 to 2000, the migrant population increased two-fold in each decade. The rise of migrant workers in public housing flats led to discontentment among locals whose access to public space became limited. In response to the public’s outcry, dormitories with fences were built to separate foreign workers from surrounding estates. Furthermore, the state stringently governs the bodies of these foreign workers by scrutinising and disciplining their behaviour in public areas while placing them in dormitories built in isolated locations.

The efforts to distance migrant workers from urban society has accelerated after the 2013 riot in Little India. More self-sufficient dormitories were created to ensure the foreign workers’ needs are met, further cutting them off from the population.  Since the riots, migrant workers’ mobility in the city has been heavily stunted. Seeing the mass exclusion of low-wage migrant workers from cosmopolitan spaces, A/P Goh advises that the varied needs of migrant workers and citizens must be effectively reconciled to create true super-diversity in the global city.

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