Transitory community hubs

Abstract

This paper showcases how temporary migration leads to urban transformation processes in inner-city Singaporean neighbourhoods, creating unique localities which I call ‘transitory community hubs’. Building on a case study of Little India, it demonstrates how the settlement and incorporation process of transient migrants, specifically foreign workers, has economic, environmental and social impacts on the neighbourhood. Urban transformation processes are driven by both global and local influences; their instigators are globally operating transient migrants, yet they are shaped by national and local conditions (e.g. migration policies), or the vernacular urban context. Ethnic-focused businesses play an important role in this process and render it visible for outsiders. However, the transient migrants themselves are not permitted to open their own businesses; rather, they feed the ethnic-focused economy as customers or employees, while the businesses serving them are run predominantly by permanent residents of Singapore, some with a migration background. Building on field research conducted between 2011 and 2014, which involved semi-structured interviews, participant observation, time-based research and visual analysis, the paper demonstrates how migrants, on the demand side, and ethnic-focused businesses, on the supply side, both become agents of urban transformation, yet in ways that differ from conventional accounts of the ‘ethnic economy’. The paper also shows how ‘transitory community hubs’ are characterised by particular time rhythms making their presence only temporarily visible.