Being more Singaporean : Singaporeans and immigrants’ performance of national identity

Abstract

National identity has always been an issue in Singapore. With the influx of immigrants, Singaporeans have expressed concern of a dilution in national identity. As such, this paper will examine how locally-born Singaporean Chinese imagine and perform the Singaporean identity and how the largest immigrant groups in Singapore, the Mainland Chinese and Malaysian Chinese negotiate and perform their national identities. Drawing from the findings of fifteen in-depth interviews, this paper will discuss how locals and immigrants perform their identities both externally and internally, converging in the ways they use boundary-making strategies and their imagination of the Singaporean identity but diverging in the ways that immigrants have fluid identities which acts as a cultural capital, and are influenced by factors of time and family. Finally, the paper also argues that Singaporeans regard national identity to be more important than racial identity.