Migrant workers: A better life in Singapore than back home? by Kirsten Han (self.singapore)
submitted 4 hours ago by ccamnvqs
Author: Kirsten Han
In the years that I've spent in the company of migrant labour rights organisations and activists, reporting on issues that migrant workers in Singapore face, this is an argument that has cropped up over and over again.According to this argument, migrant workers' conditions in Singapore are not so bad, because it's better than what they have back home (i.e. Bangladesh, India, China, etc.) and the opportunities they have here, such as the salaries they earn, are better than what they get back home too. In any case, they've come willingly, so what's the problem if they were the ones who chose to be here?In this post, I'd like to address these two claims.
“It’s better here than back home.”
When we say this, I think we need to be very clear about what we mean by “better”. And also, what we know about what “back home” is like. In conversations with people in Singapore, I find that sometimes the impression of where migrant workers have come from is somewhat skewed, informed by ideas and stereotypes of their home countries. Because we are aware that there is poverty in countries like Bangladesh and India, we imagine these workers to be so impoverished and destitute back home that surely anything that Singapore can offer must be an improvement. In this narrative that we tell ourselves, hauling Singaporeans’ trash or working long shifts on construction sites are preferable to whatever their lives were in Bangladesh.Yes, there is a lot of poverty in Bangladesh and India. But the workers who come to Singapore aren’t the slum-dwellers that many Singaporeans imagine them to be. Just think about it: it costs thousands of dollars to pay the agent fees to come to Singapore. On the most basic level this means that the workers who come to Singapore are those who have the ability and access to take out loans from banks or friends, have jewellery or valuables to pawn, or family land to lease, mortgage, or sell. There are also many migrant workers with diplomas and degrees, even advanced degrees. These men come to Singapore because corruption, exploitation, and inequality in their home countries means that it can be difficult to secure jobs that match their level of education (for example, one worker once explained to me how he has a Bachelor’s degree, but found it difficult to get a civil service position that would provide job security because his family didn’t have the right connections), or that salaries are so depressed that working in Singapore appears to promise a higher income that can be used to support elderly parents, schooling siblings, wives and children. But that doesn’t mean Singapore is paradise in comparison, nor does it mean that they’re used to conditions like living 12 to 20 men in a poorly ventilated room. To assume that Singapore is objectively better than home in Bangladesh or India or China is to measure only in terms of money, and to discount what’s sacrificed: social ties, the love and companionship of family and friends, the comforting familiarity of things that look and feel and smell like home. And even then it’s also often an over-estimation of how much money is involved.
“They chose to come here.”
I have a similar question as in the section above. When migrant workers think of coming here, what did they know of “here”?On my first trip to Bangladesh, I started chatting with one of the staff members at the guest house. He was excited about me being from Singapore, and told me that he wanted to come. He said he was saving money from his job in the guest house to pay the recruitment fees. When I told him that what he would find in Singapore wasn’t that great, and that he was probably better off sticking to this job at a guest house in a nice part of Dhaka, he shook his head. He didn’t believe me. “But Singapore is so shiny,” he said. “I saw it on the TV.”Most of the men who come have heard of good things about Singapore before coming. Friends and relatives who have worked here before (and been lucky to have good employers who paid them on time, allowing them to pay off debts and save up money) might have been welcomed home as success stories, motivating others to make the journey. Those who haven’t been so successful, and return to Bangladesh worse off, might not be so willing to speak of what happened, out of embarrassment or shame. Some might not even be returning home; one worker told me, before he was repatriated with only a fraction of the salary owed him, that he was planning to just hide out in Dhaka rather than return home, because he didn’t have the money to pay the creditors who would come knocking if they knew he was back.Yes, men choose to come to Singapore. But what conditions were they expecting? Many might not have been expecting such cramped rooms, such dirty toilets, such dehumanising treatment. And certainly no one chooses to come to Singapore to get their passports confiscated, their overtime hours miscalculated (if calculated at all), their salaries deducted for all sorts of expenses, or for “safe-keeping”. NGOs will also tell you that it’s not uncommon to see cases of straight-up deception, where agreements about salary and jobs made prior to paying the agent fee and/or leaving Bangladesh are suddenly changed, so that the worker finds himself facing different conditions once he sets foot in Singapore. I’ve met workers who, upon arrival in Singapore, were told to sign documents specifying different terms from what they’d been promised. Some might say that they could always say no — but can they, really? Agent fees have already been paid, debts incurred. If they say no, how will they pay this off? How will they pay for the flight home? What will they tell their parents whose land they sold, wives whose jewellery they pawned, uncles whose money they borrowed? In these conditions... I’ve never heard of a man who didn’t sign. Of course, what really needs to be said is that I shouldn’t have to explain any of this to anyone to be able to say that human beings need to be treated like human beings, people with agency and feelings and the right to demand to be treated with dignity. Even if conditions back in Bangladesh or India were so poor that even a dormitory in Singapore is an improvement, that doesn’t mean that Singapore — a city-state that takes pride in punching above our weight and being “world-class” — should be setting the bar so low. If we’re so successful and so outstanding, we should have more capacity to think about quality of life, not just for citizens, but for everyone who lives in Singapore, including migrant workers. After all, migrant workers prop up the country in very real ways, from cleaning HDB estates to building malls like Marina Bay Sands and Jewel, that help us shine on the international stage.And if anyone says that we can’t possibly do better because we can’t afford it, or because it’ll destabilise or ruin the economy, then I think Singapore will need to do more hard thinking about whether we’re really comfortable with our economic system being built on such unjust, and ultimately unsustainable, structures.
Source: facebook(dot)com(slash)notes/kirten-han/migrant-workers-a-better-life-in-singapore-than-back-home/10158091549710561
[–]Boogie_p0pUltimo Tope Patadaaaaa 16 points17 points18 points 4 hours ago* (0 children)
I read the entire thing and tbh, she did not convinced me that they SG is not objectively better nor did they come here against their will.
I mean, she said it herself that one worker couldn't even find a stable job back home because corruption and nepotism - it IS that bad back there. And you know what? Friends and social circles means jackshit if you can't put food on the table. Poor people don't have the luxury to worry about that kind of stuff.
If she wanted to point out that we should treat migrant workers better then just say so. What was even the bunch of stuff about SG not being better and people don't come here willingly - it's irrelevant to the request to treat migrant workers better. They deserved better regardless of their situation back home or how they end up here.
[–]ballsie995 10 points11 points12 points 3 hours ago (0 children)
article is filled with emotional words, and low objective discussion. makes you wonder what kind of discussion can be brought up.
2 points to throw in.
1) the situation “back there” is really really bad. spoken to employers, MW, their foremen a bit... and i seem to gather a better picture than what the article covered. it is a dog eat dog world out there. the agency, the creditor, etc are out to chop these workers. hell even the foremen is profiteering off them.
2) you probably live in a good bubble if you really believe the part where the worlds economy is filled with “just”. riches exist because there are the poor (it is a world of finite resources).
FW conditions needs to be improved here, and we all would have to bare the cost. but there is a bigger picture “back there” especially, or more dynamics of things that the author did not share/understand.
[–]rifinwono12 3 points4 points5 points an hour ago (1 child)
singapore has workers mainly from south india and bangladesh. bangladesh is significantly poorer and much more overpopulated than southern india (even though it's catching up fast in terms of wealth because it's an independent country), so whatever i'm saying applies differently to these 2 regions and i'm talking more about south india.
life in singapore is not even close to being automatically better than in south india. life in south india is kind of like life in a south east asian country. you can live well and most people do. but, there'll be many who are poor and low-skilled and those low-skilled workers can earn much faster from working in singapore. so they don't come to singapore for a better life. they come to singapore because the quick money allows them an accelerated path to have a good life for themselves and their families back home. and many also come because they are temporarily burdened with debt and/or need some quick funds and can't earn at a fast enough rate in india itself.
within india, there are a lot of internal migrants from central india and bangladesh who come to the southern cities and work on a 10SGD per day wage, so the poor south indian laborers (and laborers from far north too) are kind of forced to go outside to ply their trade for a competitive wage.
most are probably aware that conditions for laborers aren't great, but they don't mind and are willing to do what it takes to make their money. singapore isn't the worst country for construction labor either. middle east and malaysia (the other 2 major destinations) are probably worse.
i'd say nothing much needs to change in the current system in singapore except in terms of formalizing the system. it would be good if singapore and indian governments work out an arrangement which cuts out the agents (which the author rightly calls out) and ensures a transparent system to secure employment for these workers based on availability of employment as monitored and determined by the singapore government.
[–]ChinaWine_official [score hidden] 33 minutes ago (0 children)
Totally agree with having a system that bypasses the middleman. There’s just so much information asymmetry between potential employees and employers right now that any economist can see that the transactions are not at an equilibrium price.
[–]oofmewhojustice for /u/ilovezam & /u/bobcake 10 points11 points12 points 4 hours ago (2 children)
Midnight oppie come out liao with all the TI articles
[–]123dream321 2 points3 points4 points 3 hours ago (0 children)
Timezone difference?
[–]UnfairHelicopter comment score below threshold-18 points-17 points-16 points 4 hours ago (0 children)
Poor PAP IB like you need to work doubly hard until midnight.
Got OT pay for you?
[–]ChinaWine_official 1 point2 points3 points an hour ago (0 children)
If Singaporeans are really convinced that they are here on their own free will, then why don’t we remove all the bullshit that keeps them bonded to their employers? Let’s make exorbitant agent fees illegal, let MOM manage a one-stop website for employers here to advertise positions with salaries and let potential workers from Bangladesh/India/China apply for them. Make sure that employers must fulfil their contracts if they accept the workers, and allow workers to change employers when they are here, and for goodness sake give them back their passport.
Employers say that they are here on their own free will, but at the same time pull all these stunts to prevent them from going back.
Free movement of labour is the basis of a free market. We all know this from econs 101. If you want to have your “free market” so much then do it and make the movement of labour free. Same goes with information asymmetry. The opacity of terms and conditions makes it that the market is not at an equilibrium price. If we really favour the “free market”, then let’s make sure that contracts are clear and transparent.
[–]isaactanyien1234 3 points4 points5 points 2 hours ago (0 children)
take this with a grain of salt. it is written by local sjw kirsten han
[–]JokerMother 1 point2 points3 points 2 hours ago (0 children)
Comets written here is quite discouraging..
[–]ccamnvqs[S] comment score below threshold-7 points-6 points-5 points 4 hours ago (0 children)
[–]I_comment_hard_truth [score hidden] 52 minutes ago (0 children)
feels good to talk about how badly singaporean govt has done, doesnt it. bash bash bash. fuck it's just economics. willing buyer willing seller. it's not that hard to understand. the only vote here that matters is the dollar vote.
submitted 4 hours ago by ccamnvqs
Author: Kirsten Han
In the years that I've spent in the company of migrant labour rights organisations and activists, reporting on issues that migrant workers in Singapore face, this is an argument that has cropped up over and over again.According to this argument, migrant workers' conditions in Singapore are not so bad, because it's better than what they have back home (i.e. Bangladesh, India, China, etc.) and the opportunities they have here, such as the salaries they earn, are better than what they get back home too. In any case, they've come willingly, so what's the problem if they were the ones who chose to be here?In this post, I'd like to address these two claims.
“It’s better here than back home.”
When we say this, I think we need to be very clear about what we mean by “better”. And also, what we know about what “back home” is like. In conversations with people in Singapore, I find that sometimes the impression of where migrant workers have come from is somewhat skewed, informed by ideas and stereotypes of their home countries. Because we are aware that there is poverty in countries like Bangladesh and India, we imagine these workers to be so impoverished and destitute back home that surely anything that Singapore can offer must be an improvement. In this narrative that we tell ourselves, hauling Singaporeans’ trash or working long shifts on construction sites are preferable to whatever their lives were in Bangladesh.Yes, there is a lot of poverty in Bangladesh and India. But the workers who come to Singapore aren’t the slum-dwellers that many Singaporeans imagine them to be. Just think about it: it costs thousands of dollars to pay the agent fees to come to Singapore. On the most basic level this means that the workers who come to Singapore are those who have the ability and access to take out loans from banks or friends, have jewellery or valuables to pawn, or family land to lease, mortgage, or sell. There are also many migrant workers with diplomas and degrees, even advanced degrees. These men come to Singapore because corruption, exploitation, and inequality in their home countries means that it can be difficult to secure jobs that match their level of education (for example, one worker once explained to me how he has a Bachelor’s degree, but found it difficult to get a civil service position that would provide job security because his family didn’t have the right connections), or that salaries are so depressed that working in Singapore appears to promise a higher income that can be used to support elderly parents, schooling siblings, wives and children. But that doesn’t mean Singapore is paradise in comparison, nor does it mean that they’re used to conditions like living 12 to 20 men in a poorly ventilated room. To assume that Singapore is objectively better than home in Bangladesh or India or China is to measure only in terms of money, and to discount what’s sacrificed: social ties, the love and companionship of family and friends, the comforting familiarity of things that look and feel and smell like home. And even then it’s also often an over-estimation of how much money is involved.
“They chose to come here.”
I have a similar question as in the section above. When migrant workers think of coming here, what did they know of “here”?On my first trip to Bangladesh, I started chatting with one of the staff members at the guest house. He was excited about me being from Singapore, and told me that he wanted to come. He said he was saving money from his job in the guest house to pay the recruitment fees. When I told him that what he would find in Singapore wasn’t that great, and that he was probably better off sticking to this job at a guest house in a nice part of Dhaka, he shook his head. He didn’t believe me. “But Singapore is so shiny,” he said. “I saw it on the TV.”Most of the men who come have heard of good things about Singapore before coming. Friends and relatives who have worked here before (and been lucky to have good employers who paid them on time, allowing them to pay off debts and save up money) might have been welcomed home as success stories, motivating others to make the journey. Those who haven’t been so successful, and return to Bangladesh worse off, might not be so willing to speak of what happened, out of embarrassment or shame. Some might not even be returning home; one worker told me, before he was repatriated with only a fraction of the salary owed him, that he was planning to just hide out in Dhaka rather than return home, because he didn’t have the money to pay the creditors who would come knocking if they knew he was back.Yes, men choose to come to Singapore. But what conditions were they expecting? Many might not have been expecting such cramped rooms, such dirty toilets, such dehumanising treatment. And certainly no one chooses to come to Singapore to get their passports confiscated, their overtime hours miscalculated (if calculated at all), their salaries deducted for all sorts of expenses, or for “safe-keeping”. NGOs will also tell you that it’s not uncommon to see cases of straight-up deception, where agreements about salary and jobs made prior to paying the agent fee and/or leaving Bangladesh are suddenly changed, so that the worker finds himself facing different conditions once he sets foot in Singapore. I’ve met workers who, upon arrival in Singapore, were told to sign documents specifying different terms from what they’d been promised. Some might say that they could always say no — but can they, really? Agent fees have already been paid, debts incurred. If they say no, how will they pay this off? How will they pay for the flight home? What will they tell their parents whose land they sold, wives whose jewellery they pawned, uncles whose money they borrowed? In these conditions... I’ve never heard of a man who didn’t sign. Of course, what really needs to be said is that I shouldn’t have to explain any of this to anyone to be able to say that human beings need to be treated like human beings, people with agency and feelings and the right to demand to be treated with dignity. Even if conditions back in Bangladesh or India were so poor that even a dormitory in Singapore is an improvement, that doesn’t mean that Singapore — a city-state that takes pride in punching above our weight and being “world-class” — should be setting the bar so low. If we’re so successful and so outstanding, we should have more capacity to think about quality of life, not just for citizens, but for everyone who lives in Singapore, including migrant workers. After all, migrant workers prop up the country in very real ways, from cleaning HDB estates to building malls like Marina Bay Sands and Jewel, that help us shine on the international stage.And if anyone says that we can’t possibly do better because we can’t afford it, or because it’ll destabilise or ruin the economy, then I think Singapore will need to do more hard thinking about whether we’re really comfortable with our economic system being built on such unjust, and ultimately unsustainable, structures.
Source: facebook(dot)com(slash)notes/kirten-han/migrant-workers-a-better-life-in-singapore-than-back-home/10158091549710561
[–]Boogie_p0pUltimo Tope Patadaaaaa 16 points17 points18 points 4 hours ago* (0 children)
I read the entire thing and tbh, she did not convinced me that they SG is not objectively better nor did they come here against their will.
I mean, she said it herself that one worker couldn't even find a stable job back home because corruption and nepotism - it IS that bad back there. And you know what? Friends and social circles means jackshit if you can't put food on the table. Poor people don't have the luxury to worry about that kind of stuff.
If she wanted to point out that we should treat migrant workers better then just say so. What was even the bunch of stuff about SG not being better and people don't come here willingly - it's irrelevant to the request to treat migrant workers better. They deserved better regardless of their situation back home or how they end up here.
[–]ballsie995 10 points11 points12 points 3 hours ago (0 children)
article is filled with emotional words, and low objective discussion. makes you wonder what kind of discussion can be brought up.
2 points to throw in.
1) the situation “back there” is really really bad. spoken to employers, MW, their foremen a bit... and i seem to gather a better picture than what the article covered. it is a dog eat dog world out there. the agency, the creditor, etc are out to chop these workers. hell even the foremen is profiteering off them.
2) you probably live in a good bubble if you really believe the part where the worlds economy is filled with “just”. riches exist because there are the poor (it is a world of finite resources).
FW conditions needs to be improved here, and we all would have to bare the cost. but there is a bigger picture “back there” especially, or more dynamics of things that the author did not share/understand.
[–]rifinwono12 3 points4 points5 points an hour ago (1 child)
singapore has workers mainly from south india and bangladesh. bangladesh is significantly poorer and much more overpopulated than southern india (even though it's catching up fast in terms of wealth because it's an independent country), so whatever i'm saying applies differently to these 2 regions and i'm talking more about south india.
life in singapore is not even close to being automatically better than in south india. life in south india is kind of like life in a south east asian country. you can live well and most people do. but, there'll be many who are poor and low-skilled and those low-skilled workers can earn much faster from working in singapore. so they don't come to singapore for a better life. they come to singapore because the quick money allows them an accelerated path to have a good life for themselves and their families back home. and many also come because they are temporarily burdened with debt and/or need some quick funds and can't earn at a fast enough rate in india itself.
within india, there are a lot of internal migrants from central india and bangladesh who come to the southern cities and work on a 10SGD per day wage, so the poor south indian laborers (and laborers from far north too) are kind of forced to go outside to ply their trade for a competitive wage.
most are probably aware that conditions for laborers aren't great, but they don't mind and are willing to do what it takes to make their money. singapore isn't the worst country for construction labor either. middle east and malaysia (the other 2 major destinations) are probably worse.
i'd say nothing much needs to change in the current system in singapore except in terms of formalizing the system. it would be good if singapore and indian governments work out an arrangement which cuts out the agents (which the author rightly calls out) and ensures a transparent system to secure employment for these workers based on availability of employment as monitored and determined by the singapore government.
[–]ChinaWine_official [score hidden] 33 minutes ago (0 children)
Totally agree with having a system that bypasses the middleman. There’s just so much information asymmetry between potential employees and employers right now that any economist can see that the transactions are not at an equilibrium price.
[–]oofmewhojustice for /u/ilovezam & /u/bobcake 10 points11 points12 points 4 hours ago (2 children)
Midnight oppie come out liao with all the TI articles
[–]123dream321 2 points3 points4 points 3 hours ago (0 children)
Timezone difference?
[–]UnfairHelicopter comment score below threshold-18 points-17 points-16 points 4 hours ago (0 children)
Poor PAP IB like you need to work doubly hard until midnight.
Got OT pay for you?
[–]ChinaWine_official 1 point2 points3 points an hour ago (0 children)
If Singaporeans are really convinced that they are here on their own free will, then why don’t we remove all the bullshit that keeps them bonded to their employers? Let’s make exorbitant agent fees illegal, let MOM manage a one-stop website for employers here to advertise positions with salaries and let potential workers from Bangladesh/India/China apply for them. Make sure that employers must fulfil their contracts if they accept the workers, and allow workers to change employers when they are here, and for goodness sake give them back their passport.
Employers say that they are here on their own free will, but at the same time pull all these stunts to prevent them from going back.
Free movement of labour is the basis of a free market. We all know this from econs 101. If you want to have your “free market” so much then do it and make the movement of labour free. Same goes with information asymmetry. The opacity of terms and conditions makes it that the market is not at an equilibrium price. If we really favour the “free market”, then let’s make sure that contracts are clear and transparent.
[–]isaactanyien1234 3 points4 points5 points 2 hours ago (0 children)
take this with a grain of salt. it is written by local sjw kirsten han
[–]JokerMother 1 point2 points3 points 2 hours ago (0 children)
Comets written here is quite discouraging..
[–]ccamnvqs[S] comment score below threshold-7 points-6 points-5 points 4 hours ago (0 children)
[–]I_comment_hard_truth [score hidden] 52 minutes ago (0 children)
feels good to talk about how badly singaporean govt has done, doesnt it. bash bash bash. fuck it's just economics. willing buyer willing seller. it's not that hard to understand. the only vote here that matters is the dollar vote.
