<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Sep 8, 2008
FOREIGN WORKERS IN SERANGOON GARDENS
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Where's the harm?
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->SOME residents of Serangoon Gardens are incensed or anxious about the idea of a large number of male foreign workers coming to live in their area.
They have concerns about increased traffic on their roads and uncouth behaviour by workers, with which anyone could sympathise - though the behaviour could be tackled with a little education and an assurance of good onsite provisions for the workers.
But what about the hints of danger and criminality posed by these workers? This seems to reflect preconceived ideas that are not based on reality. The number of foreign workers in Singapore has risen sharply over the past 10 years. At the same time, the prison population has fallen.
=> Heard of cost cutting?
Wouldn't the opposite have occurred if foreign workers represented a wave of criminality? Is there any evidence that they are more disposed towards criminal behaviour than Singaporeans?
Suggestions that elderly people and children left alone will have cause to live in fear are unwarranted. There is undeniable evidence that some workers are messy, but none of a predisposition to break into other people's homes, use violence towards them or sexually menace the more vulnerable. John Gee
President, Transient Workers Count Too
http://maruahsg.wordpress.com/about/the-committee/
John Gee worked chiefly on Middle East issues before coming to Singapore from Britain in 1999. He has worked as a freelance John Gee writer since then. He was an early member of The Working Committee 2 and has continued to volunteer with Transient Workers Count Too, of which he is currently president.
FOREIGN WORKERS IN SERANGOON GARDENS
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Where's the harm?
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->SOME residents of Serangoon Gardens are incensed or anxious about the idea of a large number of male foreign workers coming to live in their area.
They have concerns about increased traffic on their roads and uncouth behaviour by workers, with which anyone could sympathise - though the behaviour could be tackled with a little education and an assurance of good onsite provisions for the workers.
But what about the hints of danger and criminality posed by these workers? This seems to reflect preconceived ideas that are not based on reality. The number of foreign workers in Singapore has risen sharply over the past 10 years. At the same time, the prison population has fallen.
=> Heard of cost cutting?
Wouldn't the opposite have occurred if foreign workers represented a wave of criminality? Is there any evidence that they are more disposed towards criminal behaviour than Singaporeans?
Suggestions that elderly people and children left alone will have cause to live in fear are unwarranted. There is undeniable evidence that some workers are messy, but none of a predisposition to break into other people's homes, use violence towards them or sexually menace the more vulnerable. John Gee
President, Transient Workers Count Too
http://maruahsg.wordpress.com/about/the-committee/
John Gee worked chiefly on Middle East issues before coming to Singapore from Britain in 1999. He has worked as a freelance John Gee writer since then. He was an early member of The Working Committee 2 and has continued to volunteer with Transient Workers Count Too, of which he is currently president.
