Fair is foul: Nativist politics in Singapore and the enactment of the Workplace Fairness Act

Abstract

In 2025, Singapore’s first anti-discrimination law, the Workplace Fairness Act (WFA), was enacted after decades of resistance against the use of legislation by the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP). This was a rare policy u-turn by a technocratic government well known for its long-term strategic policymaking. Informed by interest convergence theory, this article argues that the WFA was enacted primarily not because of a new-found political commitment to the principle of equality but because of the PAP’s misappropriation of the language of discrimination in response to an increasingly anti-immigration electorate. Given Singapore’s reliance on open flows of capital, trade and labour, the PAP shifted the discursive frame from its liberal immigration policies to labour protectionism disguised as anti-discrimination to balance between its electoral objectives and the country’s economic development. As a result, the WFA is not only narrowly drafted in terms of the protected characteristics and the types of proscribed conduct but also ironically enshrines discriminatory treatment on the basis of nationality against non-resident workers. Theoretically, this case study reveals the slippery foundations of the legal concept of discrimination and the risk that it may result in the entrenchment, rather than eradication, of inequality at the workplace and beyond.