Events

Organised by Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, and supported by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

What form does difference take in the diversifying Asian city at a time of global migration? What are the conditions under which newly arrived migrants are included or excluded?

These are two of the key questions we will address in this workshop. After all, migration matters are not only spatial and temporal matters, but also political and emotive matters. Under increasingly unstable global conditions, migration is not only increasing but also diversifying. Migrant-led (super)diversification in these cities is transforming how difference is generated, experienced, and managed. That is to say, the diversification of peoples in the city is also paralleled by the diversification of migrant management and, consequently, how various migrants themselves challenge and reinscribe the dominant use of spaces in the city. Instead of beginning with the conventional focus on exclusion and expulsion, the key theoretical point of departure for this workshop is that inclusion and exclusion are both sides of the same coin. Places such as public transport, social and residential enclaves, retail spaces, markets and parks are spaces where both newcomers and longer term residents co-exist with difference of various configurations. Examining these everyday spaces of urban life, social science scholarship is now raising new questions about the study of social difference. On the one hand, these are spaces of exclusion, discrimination, and prejudice and on the other, they can also be spaces of mixing, integration and living with difference. Our conversations over this workshop will think through the constitution of “diversity” by examining how various migrant groups are differentially included in the city of migration.

WORKSHOP CONVENORS

Dr Junjia YE
Division of Sociology, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Prof Brenda S.A. YEOH
Asia Research Institute, and Department of Geography, National University of Singapore

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