THE ROLE OF ETHNIC ENCLAVES TO SOCIAL INTERACTIONS AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION AMONG MIGRANT WORKERS

Abstract

Forming more than one-third of Singapore’s total workforce, the migrant population plays a large and vital role in Singapore’s economy and society, and it is of utmost importance to understand their assimilation and integration into the host society to avoid the hefty cost of failed integration. This dissertation specifically analyses the role of ethnic enclaves to social interactions and social integration among migrant workers in Singapore. To estimate the treatment effect of being located in ethnic enclaves for leisure time, Little India (treatment group) and Chinatown (control group) are chosen for the research. A total of 400 South Asian migrants at these two locations were surveyed about the number of Singaporean friends (proxy measure for social interactions) and the level of participation and integration (proxy for social integration). A set of ordinal regression results suggest that controlling for a wide range of sociodemographic characteristics such as income, age, and gender, migrants spent more time in Little India have fewer Singaporean friends compared to their counterparts in Chinatown as well as present a lower participation level in local events and a lower integration into Singaporean society. Also evident is that the number of Singaporean friends has a significant, positive association with the level of participation and integration of migrant workers. These findings provide important policy implications that expanding leisure opportunities for migrant works beyond ethnic enclaves such as Little India would help expose them to native Singaporeans and enhance migrant-native interactions. At the same time, more active promotion of social interactions between migrants and natives could be a useful strategy to engage migrants into Singapore society.