Discussion: society & socialisation of migrant labour
We have kept hundreds of thousands of workers in captivity for nearly six months. This is inhuman. Numbers of Covid-19 cases don't justify this anymore.
We hoped to find out how workers navigated the procedure for going out on rest days. Instead we found that most weren't going anywhere.
Relationships and trust figure strongly in how a Bangladeshi worker like Khairul operates in the world. In bureaucratic Singapore, they don't work so well.
We ask five migrant workers to respond on video to the theme of Singapore's National Day.
The general community is "saved" from Covid-19 only because migrant workers are made to pay the price for us: severe confinement, never mind mental wellbeing and medical complications.
The term "helper" seems to be growing in popularity, but TWC2 disagrees with its use.
Improvement in housing should be only one element in a broader reforms, if we are to arrive at a more ethical relationship with migrant labour. Job restrictions, low salaries, etc, must also be addressed.
An engineer floated the concept of building mega-dormitories over the sea, each with a "small-town centre", to minimise migrant workers' entry into our downtown and Singaporean spaces. What do we say to that?
Why are worker dormitories said to be so dirty? Who is responsible? What connection with Covid-19?
We interview several Bangladeshi workers to find out what they know about the Covid-19 situation and the dilemmas they face.