Disciplining deserving subjects through social assistance : migration and the diversification of precarity in Singapore

Cities are not only associated with incommensurable human diversity but also play a pivotal role in generating, assembling, and mobilizing differences. Alongside neoliberal processes that drive migrant-led diversification in global cities, we are witnessing growing inequality and precarity in popula...

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Main Authors: Ye, Junjia, Yeoh, Brenda S. A.
Other Authors: School of Social Sciences
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2020
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/143708
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1437082020-09-18T01:21:56Z Disciplining deserving subjects through social assistance : migration and the diversification of precarity in Singapore Ye, Junjia Yeoh, Brenda S. A. School of Social Sciences Social sciences::Geography Citizenship Diversity Cities are not only associated with incommensurable human diversity but also play a pivotal role in generating, assembling, and mobilizing differences. Alongside neoliberal processes that drive migrant-led diversification in global cities, we are witnessing growing inequality and precarity in populations of long-term residents that are themselves heterogeneous. Indeed, the diversification of peoples in the global city is also paralleled by the diversification of precarity. Yet, the ways in which new configurations of difference are producing more nuanced if still shadowy subjects of citizenship deserve more conceptual and contextualized attention. Although much has been written on the management of migration, far less attention has been focused on the management of multiplying forms of precarity resulting from insecure sociolegal status, disadvantaged labor market position, and deeply inscribed social prejudice. Even less has been documented on how these forms of management set up specific vernaculars about and subjects of citizenship, migrancy, and precariousness. This article addresses social inequality and the relationality of subject making in the context of diversification in Singapore, a city-state that has a particular historical understanding of diversity through a fixed formulaic “multiracialism.” Drawing on state narratives and interview data, we analyze organized social support for both migrants and citizens both by state organizations and nongovernmental organizations to demonstrate the limits and possibilities of change and continuity in the production of precarity in the diversifying city. In doing so, we aim to extend scholarship of the global city beyond the well-debated issue of social polarization in the global city and to highlight the diversity and relationality of precariousness in a contemporary non-Western global city. This work was supported by the Humanities and Social Sciences Seed Funding (R-109-000-177-646), National University of Singapore. 2020-09-18T01:21:56Z 2020-09-18T01:21:56Z 2017 Journal Article Ye, J., & Yeoh, B. S. A. (2017). Disciplining deserving subjects through social assistance : migration and the diversification of precarity in Singapore. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 108(2), 478-485, doi:10.1080/24694452.2017.1374826 2469-4460 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/143708 10.1080/24694452.2017.1374826 2 108 478 485 en Annals of the American Association of Geographers © 2018 American Association of Geographers (Published by Taylor & Francis). All rights reserved.
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
country Singapore
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Social sciences::Geography
Citizenship
Diversity
spellingShingle Social sciences::Geography
Citizenship
Diversity
Ye, Junjia
Yeoh, Brenda S. A.
Disciplining deserving subjects through social assistance : migration and the diversification of precarity in Singapore
description Cities are not only associated with incommensurable human diversity but also play a pivotal role in generating, assembling, and mobilizing differences. Alongside neoliberal processes that drive migrant-led diversification in global cities, we are witnessing growing inequality and precarity in populations of long-term residents that are themselves heterogeneous. Indeed, the diversification of peoples in the global city is also paralleled by the diversification of precarity. Yet, the ways in which new configurations of difference are producing more nuanced if still shadowy subjects of citizenship deserve more conceptual and contextualized attention. Although much has been written on the management of migration, far less attention has been focused on the management of multiplying forms of precarity resulting from insecure sociolegal status, disadvantaged labor market position, and deeply inscribed social prejudice. Even less has been documented on how these forms of management set up specific vernaculars about and subjects of citizenship, migrancy, and precariousness. This article addresses social inequality and the relationality of subject making in the context of diversification in Singapore, a city-state that has a particular historical understanding of diversity through a fixed formulaic “multiracialism.” Drawing on state narratives and interview data, we analyze organized social support for both migrants and citizens both by state organizations and nongovernmental organizations to demonstrate the limits and possibilities of change and continuity in the production of precarity in the diversifying city. In doing so, we aim to extend scholarship of the global city beyond the well-debated issue of social polarization in the global city and to highlight the diversity and relationality of precariousness in a contemporary non-Western global city.
author2 School of Social Sciences
author_facet School of Social Sciences
Ye, Junjia
Yeoh, Brenda S. A.
format Article
author Ye, Junjia
Yeoh, Brenda S. A.
author_sort Ye, Junjia
title Disciplining deserving subjects through social assistance : migration and the diversification of precarity in Singapore
title_short Disciplining deserving subjects through social assistance : migration and the diversification of precarity in Singapore
title_full Disciplining deserving subjects through social assistance : migration and the diversification of precarity in Singapore
title_fullStr Disciplining deserving subjects through social assistance : migration and the diversification of precarity in Singapore
title_full_unstemmed Disciplining deserving subjects through social assistance : migration and the diversification of precarity in Singapore
title_sort disciplining deserving subjects through social assistance : migration and the diversification of precarity in singapore
publishDate 2020
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/143708
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