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By engaging conceptually with the scholarship on narrative analysis and bringing it into dialogue with research on migration narratives, this paper contrasts prevailing economistic narratives on migration with ‘counter-narratives’ (on co-ethnic migration) and ‘absent’ narratives (on ageing migrants). Discussions of migration in Singapore have predominantly centred on skills and wealth differences. Alongside these economistic depictions of migration governance, the politics of co-ethnicity (between past and present migrants from the same source countries) have begun to visibly shape migration and citizenship contestations. Just as important – but hitherto minimally discussed – are less visibly surfaced narratives concerning how different cohorts of migrants are ageing in Singapore. The paper uses news reports, government speeches, social media discussions, arts and cultural sources and wider academic literature to develop the arguments. The discussion demonstrates how competing narratives interact to exhibit the uneven power relations of migration governance. These findings signal that counter-narratives which challenge migration governance can become surfaced in mainstream narratives and trigger policy changes if they are aligned with the master narrative of national belonging. However, narratives that champion the wellbeing of temporary migrants tend to be subsumed or relegated to the informal domain.
Elaine Lynn‐Ee Ho (Thu,) studied this question.