In this webinar, Dr Lana Khong, Dr Jason Tan, Professor Kyoko Kusakabe, and Dr Evi Nurvidya Arifin discuss “Challenges of Demographic Diversity and Inclusivity”.
REGIONAL SOCIAL AND CULTURAL STUDIES PROGRAMME
Managing Demographic Change in Southeast Asia: Challenges and Issues Amidst the ‘New Normal’
Friday, 20 November 2020 – A panel of scholars discussed the topic of “Navigating the Challenges of Demographic Diversity and Inclusivity” framed in the context a highly globalized and transnational environment. This was the third webinar from a four-part workshop series on Managing Demographic Change in Southeast Asia: Challenges and Issues Amidst the ‘New Normal’. Organised by the Regional Social and Cultural Studies Programme and supported by Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS), the webinar featured the insights of Dr Lana Khong (National Institute of Education) and Dr Jason Tan (National Institute of Education), Professor Kyoko Kusakabe (Asian Institute of Technology), and Dr Evi Nurvidya Arifin (Universiti Brunei Darussalam). The discussion was moderated by a Fellow of ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, Dr Moe Thuzar.
The webinar began with Dr Lana Khong and Dr Jason Tan’s presentation which discussed the implications of and responses to “foreign talent” in Singapore on schooling and social integration. In light of global immigration and increased diversity in Singapore, the local-foreigner divide has widened and further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools, seen as key platforms for social integration from young, face more complex challenges with polarizing debates around social-cultural and national identity. While measures to prioritise local admission and initiatives that facilitate social integration in schools exist, they emphasized that mutual commitment and compassion from all parties are required. Teachers must also take on an additional role as “social and cultural integration brokers” to positively shape student attitudes and mindsets in schools.
For the second presentation, Professor Kyoko Kusakabe examined the impact of demographic changes and diversification strategies on fishing communities and the fishing occupation in Thailand and Cambodia. She said that fishing communities, which have access to more resources, are generally better positioned to diversify but are more vulnerable due to fluctuating incomes. Professor Kusakabe found that the outmigration of youths, decreased fishing resources and stricter fishing regulations have caused a polarization of fishing boats in Thailand and a feminization of fishing household income in Cambodia. Despite these changes, ageing fishers have been unwilling to give up their occupation stemming from a strong association to the notion of freedom. Crucially, women and children have featured prominently to support their elder fishers through remittances and engaging in fish trade and processing. She stated that the long-term impact on elderly care of fishing communities remains unclear and likely to be worsened by COVID-19.
In the final presentation, Dr Evi Nurvidya Arifin offered her insights on the disproportionate challenges faced by older persons with hearing disability in Indonesia. She shared that the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the suffering of at least 6 million older people with hearing disabilities and their families due to communication difficulties and impeded access to healthcare services. To better understand the well-being of older persons with hearing disabilities, study findings revealed that these people can be affected by compounding difficulties of controlling emotions and speech. Moreover, older women in rural provinces and the widowed are expected to be the most disadvantaged. In closing, Dr Nurvidya recommended the introduction of promotive and inclusive policies that prevent and minimize the capability deprivation of older people with hearing disabilities.
The webinar concluded with a Question and Answer segment where the panel engaged with the audience on a variety of issues. They included the contradictory phenomenon of Singapore’s education system requiring foreign teachers to teach “mother tongues”; how has Covid-19 has affected the inflow of foreign teachers into Singapore; implications of prioritising Singaporeans in schools for Singapore’s local-foreign divide and social integration efforts; how younger persons be prepared for the future of work; and the relationship between people of hearing disability and their lower socio-economic status in Indonesia.