SHIFTING COHERENCE OF IMMIGRATION POLICY: STATE-SOCIETY RELATIONS IN JAPAN AND SINGAPORE

WHY SOME STATES HAVE COHERENT POLICIES WHILE OTHERS HAVE MORE MIXED POLICIES WITH CONFLICTING ELEMENTS WITHIN? IN THIS THESIS I EXAMINE THE IMMIGRATION POLICIES OF TWO DISSIMILAR COUNTRIES, JAPAN AND SINGAPORE. THEY ARE DISSIMILAR PARTICULARLY IN TERMS OF ETHNIC COMPOSITION, POPULATION SIZE, AND MIGRATION HISTORY, BUT BOTH ARE EXPERIENCING A SIMILAR OUTCOME. JAPAN IS KNOWN TO HAVE HAD A COHERENTLY RESTRICTIVE IMMIGRATION POLICY WHILE SINGAPORE'S WAS COHERENTLY OPEN, BUT THEIR RESPECTIVE STANCES ARE BECOMING INCREASINGLY INCOHERENT. THIS THESIS ARGUES THAT THE COHERENCE OF THE IMMIGRATION POLICY OF A STATE DEPENDS HEAVILY ON THE NATURE OF STATE-SOCIETY RELATIONS. THIS THESIS FINDS THAT IN THE LATE 2000S, BOTH THE STATE-SOCIETY RELATIONS IN JAPAN AND SINGAPORE HAVE EVOLVED FROM ONE WHERE THE STATE HAS INTEGRATED DOMINATION OVER SOCIETY, PARTICULARLY IN THE ARENA OF IMMIGRATION POLICY, TO ONE WHERE VARIOUS SOCIAL FORCES ARE CHALLENGING THE STATE'S DOMINANCE. THIS CHANGE IN STATE-SOCIETY R

Author dc:creator

• IRNA NURLINA BINTE MASRON

• immigration policy, coherence, state-society relations, Migdal, Japan, Singapore