Forum: Why it is so hard to push for migrant worker welfare
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The news article “ Migrant worker groups urge Government for timeline to stop transporting workers in lorries
These challenges stem ultimately from a less-than-savoury reality – low-wage migrant workers are a politically unrepresented social underclass whose vulnerability constitutes, perversely, the very premise for their economically viable presence in Singapore.
If they were not excluded from the full support, welfare and protection afforded to citizens, their employment would not be profitable, and thus not tenable. This fundamental idea forms the basis for blithely trading off worker safety against the economic and logistical concerns of citizens, like increased costs and bus-driver shortages.
It explains why the safety of workers is no more than an economic externality. It is the reason for negligible progress on this issue despite intermittent discussion for decades.
Until and unless we address the questionable mindset underpinning migrant labour in Singapore – that the prohibitive cost of worker welfare and protection undermines the value proposition of employing migrant workers – any piecemeal measures will always have limited impact. No doubt the strong pushback from a disgruntled citizenry, themselves struggling with multiple bread-and-butter issues, is a stumbling block as well.
For as long as this persists, the physical well-being of migrant workers will rest precariously on the charity of Singaporeans or tenacity of civil society, instead of being grounded on a broad societal commitment to basic standards.
Singapore’s punching above its weight internationally on a wide range of metrics is built upon praiseworthy as well as less-than-commendable features of our society. It is time to recognise our failings and address them collectively with greater social and political will.
Mohamad Farid Harunal Rashid
