How Singapore Manages Labor Migration and Diversity

Singapore has long relied on migrant workers, using a framework of racial categories dating from the colonial era to manage diversity. More recently, the city-state has turned to classifying migrants’ skills as a means of regulating their access to employment, rights, and longer-term settlement. This system consigns those deemed unskilled to transient status, making life even more precarious for foreign workers. But migrant communities still find ways to adapt to these constraints and claim informal enclaves in public spaces.