Wherever I am, the world comes after me.
It offers me its busyness. It does not believe that I do not want it.
Now I understand why the old poets of China went so far
and high into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist.
"The Old Poets of China" by Mary Oliver

Transnationals in Singapore | A Public Lecture

Details

The UP Asian Center will be holding a public lecture on September 22; 1:30 p.m Seminar room, GT-Toyota Asian Cultural Center, UP Diliman.

The UP Asian Center will be holding a public lecture on September 22; 1:30 p.m Seminar room, GT-Toyota Asian Cultural Center, UP Diliman.

The Singapore government has made it a national priority to recruit foreign human capital in order to sustain economic growth. However, some of the “spillover” effects has been rising inflation, escalating property prices and overcrowding on its public transport. In terms of debates on identities, societal tensions have emerged around the concept of “us” and the “other” in Singapore. The majority of foreign human capitals are transnationals with transboundary ties and loyalties between two or more countries (normally host and sending countries). Singapore provides a useful model of how the flow of transnationals and their economic, political and social impacts are managed as part of the global economy. Often deemed as a cosmopolitan city, the role of the state in Singapore has moved towards integrating foreign human capital into society instead of assimilating them. The majority of foreign residents working in Singapore are from China, India, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Faizal Bin Yahya is a Research Fellow with the Institute of Policy Studies, a research center at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. His current research focuses on Singapore, human capital, ethnic minorities, state owned enterprises, state enterpreneuralism and economic linkages between South Asia and East Asia (including Southeast Asia) at the regional and bilateral levels. He is the co-author of “The Migration of Indian Human Capital” (Routledge 2010), author of “Economic Cooperation between Singapore and India” (Routledge 2008) and author of “New Temples of India: Singapore and India Collaboration in Information Technology Parks” (Brill, 2008).

Arunajeet Kaur is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore. Her research is concerned with the Indian Diaspora in Southeast Asia including Sikh identity, flow of professional Indian immigrants and political marginalization of the Indian minority communities such as in Malaysia. She is the co-author of “The Migration of Indian Human Capital” (Routledge 2010).

The Asian Center offers M.A. degrees in Asian Studies with four fields of specialization: Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and West Asia. The Center also has an M.A. program in Philippine Studies that allows students to major in Philippine society and culture, Philippine foreign relations, or Philippine development studies. The Center offers a Ph.D.  program in Philippine Studies in conjunction with the College of Arts and Letters and the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy. For an overview of these graduate programs, click here. The Asian Center also publishes Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia, the latest issue of which can be downloaded at the journal's website. For other news and upcoming events at the Asian Center, click here.