Metrolingual multitasking and differential inclusion: Singapore’s Chinese languages in shared spaces

Arrival cities are defined through migration-led diversification that structures integration, notably through everyday language practices. In Singapore’s multilingual landscape, we find hints of historical waves of migrants from Southern China speaking Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien and Teochew and the recent contributions of new migrants from Mainland China. In light of the work of Pennycook and Otsuji, this article explores how the norms of metrolingual multitasking – of adaptation through language – structure differential inclusion in Singapore through banal and commonplace interactions in shared spaces, such as markets. By focusing on historically situated linguistic scripts of inclusion and exclusion in the city-state, we contrast the linguistic adaptations of older and newer arrivals to show how integration is continuously constituted through the differential inclusion of new arrivals. Based on a series of interviews, we shed light on how metrolingual multitasking, as praxis of differential inclusion, sets up the normative framework for the coexistence of various linguistic forms and resources, whether recognised officially or not, and their use in creative ways for pragmatic communication in completing daily tasks. In this context, the norms of metrolingual multitasking reveal an overall sense of ordinary coexistence in living with such diversity as a requirement for successful integration, despite necessary instances of differential treatment and exclusionary practices, including a refusal to engage with difference.