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Civic Multiculturalism in Singapore: Revisiting Citizenship, Rights and Recognition
Dr Terri-Anne Teo Research Fellow and Coordinator of Social Resilience Programme
Dr Terri-Anne Teo
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This book is about multiculturalism, broadly defined as the recognition, respect and accommodation of cultural differences. Teo proposes a framework of multicultural denizenship that includes group-specific rights and intercultural dialogue, by problematising three issues: (i) the unacknowledged misrecognition of non-citizens within the scholarship of multiculturalism; (ii) uncritical treatment of citizens and non-citizens as binary categories; and (iii) problematic parcelling of group-specific rights with citizenship rights. Drawing on the case of Singapore as an illustrative example, where temporary labour migrants are culturally stereotyped, socioeconomically disenfranchised and denied access to rights accorded only to citizens, Teo argues that understandings of multiculturalism need to be expanded and adjusted to include a fluidity of identities, spectrum of rights and shared experiences of marginalisation among citizens and non-citizens.
| Theme: | General / Non-Traditional Security / Religion in Contemporary Society / Singapore and Homeland Security |
| Region: | East Asia and Asia Pacific / Southeast Asia and ASEAN / Global |
| Entity: | CENS |
