I just got back from an interview and I must say that the respondent was really ‘spot on’ in terms of talking about things that really fit well into my research aims, even without having me to maneuver the questions towards the trope of temporality and time. It was a really fruitful session and I really learned a lot from her, as well as the other respondents I have interviewed. One thing I really admire is their resolution and determination to start a new chapter in their lives, to embark on a different experience as compared to ‘back home’, and their adventurous and free-spirited nature. Some may criticize that this could be an all-too-convenient labeling of these young people as the archetypal footloose individuals, not carrying much burden with them and are free to navigate the global terrains. I agree and disagree.
I agree that there is indeed a danger of portraying these young migrants as hypermobile subjects. As I’ve written in my previous post on the multiple mobility regimes experienced by student migrants, the fact that coming over to Singapore for education has hastened their pace of life in a more competitive education environment and demanding an ever more portion of time for studies, the everyday mobilities of many student migrants are greatly circumscribed between ‘hostel’ and ‘school’. While there are some of them who exhibit significant resistance to this ‘tyranny of time’, such as the respondent whom I met earlier who shared with me, “I just want to do enough, I don’t need to be A1 or A+, because I need a life. I just want to quickly finish my studies and graduate”, the reality is that they remain complicit with the spatio-temporalities of education. For example, the same respondent revealed that she stayed on for the honors year when she could have graduated after her third year because she thought that an honors degree is better, and she usually stays up late till about 2am to finish up readings and revision because she needs to catch up with her peers, even though she would prefer to sleep because that is her favorite activity! Social activities are rhythmic and relational – and living in a world functioning on clock-time where ‘time’ is limited requires compensation and sacrifices to be made.
On the other hand, I disagree that such ‘labeling’ is extravagant, because these young migrant students do see themselves as footloose individuals and rely a lot on this characterization as a motivation to accumulate social capital in Singapore. For this, such a characterization – the determined and adventurous young migrant – is a crucial marker of their identities, enabling them to navigate the new and strange social worlds in another country. Thus far I only know 3 students out of the 13 that I have informally chatted with had relatives and family friends in Singapore prior to their migration. Even so only 1 of them stays with his relative and the other 2 maintain minimal contact apart from the initial first couple of months when they needed more assistance in settling into Singapore. These young migrant students forge their own friendship networks, usually amongst their own nationality and extended to several other international students who reside in the same accommodation locations, then eventually ‘settle down’ and start to be less selective in terms of nationality in befriending new people. They map out diverse trajectories and flexible plans under the belief that their education in Singapore will (or has) augment(ed) their capital to be mobile subjects. While some are less sure what the future has in stall for them, “When the time comes, I will see how”, is how one of my Indonesian respondent articulate it, the Vietnamese respondent I interviewed earlier today has a clear mapping of her future in terms of length of stay in Singapore and plans to return to Vietnam. Yet, she also added “but you never know what will happen. It can be 3 years or 5 years, or even more, but I know it is definite I won’t stay in Singapore. It’s very flexible”. For her, there is a definite destination – that is back home in Vietnam – but the time it takes for her to return is an indefinite one, because the future remains unpredictable and they can only decide on the best course of action when ‘the time’ comes.
chengyien. 