The Future of Singapore: Population, Society and the Nature of the State by Kamaludeen Mohamed Nasir and Bryan S. Turner (review)

The Future of Singapore addresses pressing issues surrounding the nation’s demographic changes and population dilemmas. Focusing on Singapore’s history, geopolitical location and neoliberal aspirations, the authors explain the effect of falling fertility rates on the country. Against this background, the book delves into the country’s policy responses, including conscription and pronatalist and immigration policies. The effects of these state-driven efforts are twofold. While encouraging population growth, unevenly distributed policy incentives have perpetuated societal divides, and rising xenophobia has met liberal immigration policies. Through an examination of these trends, the authors unpack the complexities and contradictions of citizenship in Singapore and their implications for individual rights and responsibilities.

This book speaks to scholars interested in Singapore, as well as to those in the fields of multiculturalism, citizenship and social policy. Kamaludeen Nasir and Bryan Turner compare Singapore with European and East Asian societies facing similar population dilemmas. They write that recent developments in Europe “have important consequences for conventional patterns of citizenship” (p. 13). While the authors are right in pointing out that societal fractures arising from labour migration impact notions of citizenship, a one-dimensional discussion of negative public reactions to Muslim immigration undermines their comparison between Singapore and Europe. The discussion glosses over the perspective that the governance of multicultural societies can also be constructive and dialogical; it can encourage new expressions of citizenship rights. For example, productive policies and initiatives in Europe include platforms for political participation and fora for intercultural dialogue, such as those in Germany and Britain, that encourage the acceptance of hyphenated identities and stimulate higher levels of national identification (O’Toole et al. 2013, pp. 61–63).

The third chapter of the book critically examines the People’s Action Party (PAP) and its “soft authoritarianism”. Similarly, the fourth chapter highlights the role of conscription in Singapore in reifying norms of “manhood” and reproducing citizenship norms that marginalize Malay-Muslims and new immigrants. The fifth chapter, contributed by Youyenn Teo, argues that “pro-family” policies promote specific familial norms and deepen gender and class inequalities. While such policies are certainly exclusionary, these critiques neglect the existence of other narratives and identities that contest the status quo. For example, National Service also serves as a site for the expression of a “subaltern Malay masculinity [that] challenges the link between hegemonic masculinity, citizenship and nationalism” (Lyons and Ford 2012, p. 154).

The currency of this book lies in its ability to relate Singapore’s population dilemmas to issues of technological progress, increased migration and emerging population trends. A chapter dedicated to new reproductive technologies (NRT) discusses the implications of modern reproductive solutions to Singapore’s population dilemmas. It argues that state policies supporting NRT promote “reproductive citizenship” (p. 84): the idea that it is the moral obligation of citizens to contribute biologically or reproductively to the nation, if they are to be socially responsible members of society (p. 85). The authors argue that such a concept of social citizenship reproduces national identity and citizenship norms.

The book’s seventh chapter examines the policies and incentives used to attract “foreign talent” to Singapore. The authors view the growing resentment towards these policies as an expression of social unrest as well as a challenge to what they term “state policies designed to supplement the population of Singapore through racial lenses” (p. 111). In the penultimate chapter, transcribed interviews with Singaporean citizens show the anxieties and the sense of social distance towards new arrivals, despite their putatively shared ancestries. These reactions further compound the sense of uncertainty that surrounds Singapore’s future.

This book successfully shows how recent changes in Singapore have affected meanings of citizenship. In particular, it relates issues of race, class, gender and sexuality to state-led expressions of citizenship. However, there is room for further thematic discussion of the ethics of citizenship, which surfaces only...