族與國、國與國之間—大馬華族人才外流至新加坡之國家認同

Abstract

馬來西亞（簡稱大馬）在過去50年來面臨人才外流問題。自優惠土著的新經濟政策於1970年代被制度化後，大馬的人才外流問題即呈現種族化（華、印族）傾向，且以地理上鄰近、具相同歷史文化淵源、經濟高速發展、積極吸納大馬人才的新加坡為最大移居國。本研究藉由訪談34位於1990年代後被新加坡國立大學及南洋理工大學錄取，並從教育移民轉化為技術移民的大馬（或原籍大馬）華族青年，探討這群外流人才的國家認同內涵及國籍選擇趨向。由於“認同”是與所處社會互動的結果，筆者亦依循他們在兩國的生活經歷，探討其現階段國家認同的形成軌跡。訪談於2011年9月至12月進行，正值大馬國內在野黨及民間反政府聲浪高漲、新加坡移民政策收緊之際，國籍選擇問題在此一特定時期更具張力。 研究結果顯示，受訪者對於“國家”所賦予的主觀定義決定他們的國家認同及國籍選擇傾向。重視制度層面國家認同勝於文化層面國家認同者，往往無法在主觀意識上認同於馬來西亞。能成功調適政治化族群認同與國家認同兩者的衝突者，傾向以家庭、鄉土、族群文化等文化層面的認同做為對馬來西亞的國家認同基礎。新加坡的生活經歷讓這群大馬華族青年對新馬兩國在政治、經濟、社會、文化上的差異有深刻體會，促使他們反思身為“馬來西亞人”的政治及文化意義。全球化的衝擊亦削弱了部分受訪者對於國家的忠誠感。這類受訪者傾向於以公民權利及義務關係決定其國籍。 2008年起新加坡政府明確區別新加坡公民及永久居民所能享有的社會福利，部分永久居民的居留權亦不獲更新，以吸引永久居民歸化為公民。基於政治制度因素無法認同於馬來西亞者，傾向於歸化為新加坡籍。對馬來西亞具文化認同的受訪者，出於現實生活中的就業、家庭及經濟考量，不少亦表示會在必要時更換國籍，但情感上仍歸屬於馬來西亞。有家庭的馬來西亞移民多採取配偶中一方歸化為新加坡籍的身份策略，以享有兩國公民權利。另有一類受訪者表示不會更換國籍，他們大部分將身為“馬來西亞人”視為自我認同中不可分割的一部分。值得一提的是，近年來新加坡社會對於馬來西亞移民的接受程度因其他新移民的湧入而提高。筆者認為針對這群馬來西亞移民之國家認同研究，仍要回到新馬關係的歷史背景中探討。For the past 50 years, Malaysia has been facing the serious issue of human capital flight. Ever since the Pro-Malays New Economic Policy was constitutionalized in the 1970s, this issue has been more prominent among particular races such as the Chinese and Indian. Most of these immigrants have chosen Singapore due to her geographical location, similar historical and cultural background, fast growing economy and the government’s open-door immigration policy. The aim of the thesis is to identify and investigate the key factors behind this growing issue. 34 Malaysians had been interviewed from September to December 2011, amidst a period of political tension within Malaysia and Singapore’s tightening of her immigration policy. All interviewees share the similar profile of being alumni from the two Singapore universities (National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) since the 1990s and are current skilled immigrants in Singapore. The interview mainly focuses on their definition of national identity, reasons behind their leaving of Malaysia and comparisons between their social experience in both Singapore and Malaysia. Through the research findings, one factor that was revealed as a key reason was interviewees’ definition on ‘nation’ and ‘state’. Many interviewees defined their national identity based on their personal experience, and these identities consist of both political and cultural aspects. The interviews produced the following main findings – 1) Those who valued political identity above cultural identity were less inclined towards Malaysia. 2) Despite being marginalized by Malaysia's new economic policy, there is still a group who perceive family and cultural roots as the main determining factor of their national identity. 3) Their personal social experiences in Singapore have brought about a comparison made between the two countries' politics, economy, social and culture aspect. Thus pushing them to re-look at their national identity. 4) Globalisation has brought about a pragmatic attitude in another group of immigrants, who acknowledge individual’s welfare as the key factor for their national identity. Since 2008, Singapore nationality policies have been modified to provide a distinction between the social benefits between Singapore permanent residents (PR) and Singapore citizens. As a result, quite a number of PR re-entry permits were not renewed so as to persuade some of these residents to convert to citizens. Due to pragmatic considerations such as career development, standard of living etc., many of these Malaysian immigrants eventually opt to change their citizenship despite their sense of rootedness in Malaysia. There are also Malaysian couples whom one still hold onto their Malaysia citizenship so as to enjoy dual citizenship benefits. Of course, there is a group who perceive their nationality as part of their self-identity and thus unwilling to simply change their citizenship. It is also interesting to note that Singaporeans and the Singapore government have once again adopted a more open attitude towards Malaysian immigrants due to a surge in numbers of other foreign immigrants during recent years. This thesis will be exploring the historical background of Singapore and Malaysia to further discuss on this issue.