Xenophobia and ethnocentrism? Understanding the attitudes and perceptions of local undergraduates towards the undergraduates from the People's Republic of China (PRC)

• Main Author: Tay, Esther Hui Yi
• Other Authors: Kamaludeen Mohamed Nasir
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/66175
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Xenophobia and Ethnocentrism is often questioned and observed in Singapore due to the increase in the migrant population. This final year project examined and uncovered the attitudes and perceptions that local undergraduates in Singapore have towards foreign undergraduates, specifically the undergraduates from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on 4 main domains: academic competition posed, cultural differences, lack of integration and government policies that favor specifically the undergraduates from the PRC in comparison to the local undergraduates. This paper presents some findings and analysis from an ethnographic study of local undergraduate students in local tertiary institutions gathered through interviews and participant observation over an 8- month period. In this study, 20 tertiary students; 10 males and 10 females, of varying racial and socioeconomic backgrounds were interviewed. Major findings that emerged from this research were that governance and cultural differences had different scales of impact according to one’s race and socioeconomic class. In addition, the reasons for dislike and prejudice that have local undergraduates are not firmly fixed as it may be reshaped by other factors such as the courses they are in, the benefits that they can receive, and if the academic competition they face presently is perceived as absent.