KNN!
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=452 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Published December 5, 2008
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>When foreign workers become dispensable
By JOHN GEE
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ABOUT a week after Lehman Brothers' collapse on Sept 15, I paused to glance at the notice board in a local supermarket in a neighbourhood with a large expat population. Normally, there are two or three notices put up by domestic workers seeking employers to whom they could transfer; that day, there were nine.
There were hints in some notices of what had happened: bosses needing to leave 'unexpectedly' and workers with years of experience here urgently seeking new jobs - as well as one unfortunate with just three months of her first job completed.
Stricken international companies were summoning foreign staff home and cutting jobs for locals: it seems that quite a few of those losing out were decent enough to give their domestic workers the best chance possible to transfer to another employer.
The financial crisis was quick to bite. The impact of the financial troubles on migrant workers has been one of the less considered stories of the past couple of months. A few resident employers have already decided to dismiss their domestic workers as an economy measure, and the trend may be expected to grow.
It must be particularly galling for workers who have never had a day off because their employers said they needed them 365 days a year to now find themselves totally dispensable.
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</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>For the individuals who suddenly find themselves unwanted and on their way home, the blow will be hard. Some are the main supporters of their families, and an interruption of employment will mean hardship and a threat to the educational opportunities of their children or brothers and sisters. Most workers who have been here for less than eight months will not have completed repaying the debts they accrued in order to obtain their jobs: they will return home worse off than when they left.
Countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia and Bangladesh will see a cornerstone of their economies weakened as demand from more developed countries for their workers declines, and there is the danger that this will feed social and political discord. Their home markets will shrink and the rural communities from which the majority of low-salary migrants originate will be disproportionately hit.
Danger of more abuse
The impact within Singapore is unlikely to stop at job losses. Even during the recent years of economic growth, there have been some employers who have tried to save money by not paying or underpaying their foreign worker employees. Some resort to sending them to their point of departure from Singapore under escort, to prevent them from lodging complaints of non-payment with the Ministry of Manpower.
The temptation to behave in this way is unlikely to lessen in a time of general economic difficulties. Likewise, there is a danger that the tendency among a small minority to resort to physical violence and abuse against workers may grow.
Stress has undoubtedly been a central factor in many of the incidents of 'maid abuse' that have occurred over the years, and it is likely to increase as families find their incomes squeezed. Societies and institutions concerned with the well-being of migrant workers are bracing themselves for an increase in calls upon their services in the coming months.
Migrant workers should not be regarded as disposable human beings - a kind of living crash barrier that can absorb much of the shock of an economic slowdown. Their numbers will no doubt fall, but it would inflict less hardship upon workers here, and less of a net loss to their communities, if they were given every chance possible to find other employers instead of being sent home even as new workers continue to be brought in.
They should not go home short- changed by employers who plead poverty, nor should those who stay be the objects of discontent and resentment when they did not make the conditions that are the real cause of the economic distress.
=> Shortchanged? Who are the real victims of the Familee's SCAM?
To retreat into one's own home and community and shut out everyone else is one way of tackling an economic crisis, and if everyone does it, it will be hard to climb out. Cooperation, community spirit and a readiness to share difficulties may not solve the economic problems, but they offer a surer way to come through them with our humanity intact.
How migrant workers are treated in every country and region where they are now present will be a great test of the higher values of human society in our time.
John Gee is a freelance writer based in Singapore and president of Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), an advocacy group for migrant workers
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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=452 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Published December 5, 2008
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>When foreign workers become dispensable
By JOHN GEE
<TABLE class=storyLinks cellSpacing=4 cellPadding=1 width=136 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR class=font10><TD align=right width=20>
</TD><TD>Email this article</TD></TR><TR class=font10><TD align=right width=20>
</TD><TD>Print article </TD></TR><TR class=font10><TD align=right width=20>
</TD><TD>Feedback</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>ABOUT a week after Lehman Brothers' collapse on Sept 15, I paused to glance at the notice board in a local supermarket in a neighbourhood with a large expat population. Normally, there are two or three notices put up by domestic workers seeking employers to whom they could transfer; that day, there were nine.
There were hints in some notices of what had happened: bosses needing to leave 'unexpectedly' and workers with years of experience here urgently seeking new jobs - as well as one unfortunate with just three months of her first job completed.
Stricken international companies were summoning foreign staff home and cutting jobs for locals: it seems that quite a few of those losing out were decent enough to give their domestic workers the best chance possible to transfer to another employer.
The financial crisis was quick to bite. The impact of the financial troubles on migrant workers has been one of the less considered stories of the past couple of months. A few resident employers have already decided to dismiss their domestic workers as an economy measure, and the trend may be expected to grow.
It must be particularly galling for workers who have never had a day off because their employers said they needed them 365 days a year to now find themselves totally dispensable.
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Countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia and Bangladesh will see a cornerstone of their economies weakened as demand from more developed countries for their workers declines, and there is the danger that this will feed social and political discord. Their home markets will shrink and the rural communities from which the majority of low-salary migrants originate will be disproportionately hit.
Danger of more abuse
The impact within Singapore is unlikely to stop at job losses. Even during the recent years of economic growth, there have been some employers who have tried to save money by not paying or underpaying their foreign worker employees. Some resort to sending them to their point of departure from Singapore under escort, to prevent them from lodging complaints of non-payment with the Ministry of Manpower.
The temptation to behave in this way is unlikely to lessen in a time of general economic difficulties. Likewise, there is a danger that the tendency among a small minority to resort to physical violence and abuse against workers may grow.
Stress has undoubtedly been a central factor in many of the incidents of 'maid abuse' that have occurred over the years, and it is likely to increase as families find their incomes squeezed. Societies and institutions concerned with the well-being of migrant workers are bracing themselves for an increase in calls upon their services in the coming months.
Migrant workers should not be regarded as disposable human beings - a kind of living crash barrier that can absorb much of the shock of an economic slowdown. Their numbers will no doubt fall, but it would inflict less hardship upon workers here, and less of a net loss to their communities, if they were given every chance possible to find other employers instead of being sent home even as new workers continue to be brought in.
They should not go home short- changed by employers who plead poverty, nor should those who stay be the objects of discontent and resentment when they did not make the conditions that are the real cause of the economic distress.
=> Shortchanged? Who are the real victims of the Familee's SCAM?
To retreat into one's own home and community and shut out everyone else is one way of tackling an economic crisis, and if everyone does it, it will be hard to climb out. Cooperation, community spirit and a readiness to share difficulties may not solve the economic problems, but they offer a surer way to come through them with our humanity intact.
How migrant workers are treated in every country and region where they are now present will be a great test of the higher values of human society in our time.
John Gee is a freelance writer based in Singapore and president of Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), an advocacy group for migrant workers
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