Immobilization and Decolonization in Singapore, 1945-1953

Perhaps the greatest challenge in preparing Singapore for independence was defining and assigning citizenship to its highly heterogeneous populations, a challenge magnified by the entrepot’s majority of ethnic Chinese residents and its uncertain political relationship to Malaya. Affixing citizenship rights would determine balances of power in these future, presumably democratic, multiracial states and required the immobilization of their newly enfranchised residents while also enabling the legal exclusion of persons newly identified as aliens. Madeline Hsu from the Department of History at the University of Maryland will discuss how regulation of citizenship and immigration were necessary projects for decolonization and nation-state formation during the mid-twentieth century.

Co-sponsored by the Department of History, CRAAV (Critical Responses to Anti-Asian Violence Initiative), and the International Studies Program.