Move beyond identifying Singaporeans based on ethnicity
To integrate effectively suggests the acceptance of each ethnic group’s culture and practices. How do we expect to achieve a comprehensive Singaporean identity — which new citizens should assimilate into — when it may still be difficult to accept one another’s differences?
Nur Diyanah Anwar, Today Online
Recent calls by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his ministers for new citizens to play a part in assimilating into Singapore society are not new. Neither are the often-repeated suggestions for Singaporeans to strengthen their Singaporean identity before their ethnicity.
However, the two calls are mutually contradictory, as being Singaporean comes with a caveat — one must belong to a “race”. Inevitably, this has largely encouraged citizens to view themselves according to their ethnic identities first.
Expectations for new citizens to easily assimilate into Singapore society are unrealistic if ethnic identity already commonly precedes a Singaporean one, and where stark differences among ethnic groups are maintained.
Both government and society should move beyond identifying Singaporeans according to their ethnic group first, if a more substantial Singaporean identity is to be forged.
This now becomes increasingly pertinent, considering the diversity of new citizens domiciled in Singapore, in fostering nation building and, ultimately, the resilience of society in times of need.
IS ASSIMILATION OF NEWCOMERS POSSIBLE?
Assimilation requires new additions to a society to adopt and conform to a central common identity in a homogenous society.
This differs from integration, in which boundaries among various ethnic groups are preserved in the attempt to bring them together. Although the terms “assimilation” and “integration” may be used interchangeably by the Government, we should note the nuances in them.
Singapore’s multicultural policies primarily encourage integration of the “races”, but it nonetheless recognises the need for new citizens to assimilate into a common Singaporean identity to foster nationalism.
In this regard, there lies an impediment in assimilating new citizens into Singapore society if being Singaporean necessitates the categorisation into a racial group in the first place.
