<論文>還流する移民 : 中国と華人社会シンガポールを往来する中国人から

Abstract

Singapore is known as a multi-racial society that consists of Chinese, Malay, Indian and Others. Today we can see a new group known as 'Chinese Nationals', who are new immigrants from China. The fact that the majority of the host society Singapore and immigrants to Singapore share the same ethnicity of Chinese is unique. From my pilot survey conducted in Singapore, I found that the sameness of ethnicity played a very important part in attracting immigrants to Singapore, but both Chinese Nationals and Chinese Singaporeans found differences amongst each other after meeting in Singapore. Some Chinese Nationals said that they are looked down upon by Chinese Singaporeans, and that they also look down on Chinese Singaporeans themselves. More interestingly, some Chinese Singaporeans felt Malay Singaporeans to be nearer to themselves than Chinese Nationals. This shows unintended consequences of the migration policy based on the sameness of Chinese and the ethnic policy in general that emphasizes distinction between ethnic groups. From this case we can also see interesting relations between ethnicity, nation(ality) and nation-state. Consequences of the state emphasizing ethnicity include difference of nation rather than ethnicity being emphasized, and the distinction of ethnicity in nation-state being reduced.