GATHERING SPACES FOR MIGRANT WORKERS IN LITTLE INDIA: A STUDY ON THE SPATIALISATION OF CONTROL

Abstract

In recent years, the influx of migrant workers into Singapore has seen unprecedented numbers of visitors to Little India during weekly Sunday congregations. This necessitates new approaches to surveillance and crowd control to police a larger and more dynamic ethnic enclave than those of the past. Since the 2013 Little India Riot, widely regarded as a watershed event by academics, Little India has witnessed the intensification of surveillance and control, including the designation of two car parks as sanctioned informal gathering spaces for migrant workers. The ideals of public space are understood as being free and accessible to all – hence the desirability and publicness of these two car parks become questionable due to the imposing gaze of surveillance systems in place.

This dissertation uncovers the qualities of these spaces and their urban contexts to postulate the site selection of said car parks, closely referencing urban planning strategies for crime prevention. The effects and effectiveness of surveillance systems on the migrant workers using these car parks are evaluated via perspectives from the ground, eventually revealing that the success of surveillance is highly contingent on contextual differences arising from the profiles of public space users as well as the broader socio-economical context. This dissertation also reasons that present surveillance methods in Little India are successful yet insufficient, and proposes alternative strategies that surpass not just in terms of effectiveness but also urbanity, in hopes that a more encompassing and passionate environment could better assimilate these migrant workers into our society.