A Singaporean Story of Migration

Singapore’s history from British colonial trading post to cosmopolitan nation-state is one that is fundamentally entwined with migration flows. This chapter traces the historical development of the nation-state and its people. Migration has contributed and continues to contribute to Singapore in two key ways: first, providing an invaluable workforce vital for the country’s rapid economic development. Second, migration has shaped the social fabric of Singaporean society into one that is ethnically, religiously and linguistically diverse which in turn has created a multicultural national identity. However, this has not simply occurred organically but has involved significant state intervention both before and after independence. These interventions have responded to but also generated tensions within Singaporean society, raising questions of who is a Singaporean, how does one find a balance between a national and ethnic identity in a multiracial Singapore and so forth.