The Influence of China and India on Smaller Nations in Southeast Asia: A Study of Singapore

Abstract

The emergence of China and India has profoundly influenced the policies of Southeast Asian countries. For a small country like Singapore, with a uniquely majority ethnic Chinese population in Southeast Asia, the process of engagement with China and India is historically entrenched and multifaceted. Historically, China and India constitute two major immigration streams into Singapore. Since the 1990s, with low total fertility rates, Singapore has viewed both China and India as sources for not only increasing its overall population to maintain its ethnic demographic profile, but also towards sustaining its economic growth. This article will examine the impact of large foreign manpower and migrant inflows from China and India into Singapore. It will argue that while the prevailing population shrinkage and manpower shortages in Singapore have been eased with migrants from China and India, at the same time they have created new socio-political fissures in Singapore’s increasingly diverse population.