Between a Rock and a Hard Place

This chapter establishes the INCs’ liminal position between state and society. As grassroots volunteers in Singapore, INCs support the state’s goals of migrant integration not because they are state-agents, like state-employed bureaucrats, but because they believe in the importance of the policy. At the same time, their positionality as local citizen-agents grants them an opportunity to use their local knowledge and expertise to aid in the integration of new citizens. However, as they carry out this role of translating state policy into day-to-day practice, they are faced with uncomfortable realities on the ground where policy may seem vague, inconsistent or even unfair. While eliciting a sense of ambivalence amongst INCs, these volunteers engage in sense-making to help them carry out their role and in doing so, exercise agency beyond that set out by the state.