They come, They go.

Do we really have to accept them?

Episode 4: Who lives around you?
"If we have workers coming in here, is it safe for old people?"

"It would be a disaster here. Thousand-over workers, can you imagine?"

"Even a 1% drop in asset value would mean a $14 million* loss." (*Devaluation of property because of the presence of foreign workers)

These are just some of the quotes by Serangoon Garden residents, an area now made famous by the foreign workers dorm saga.

This is a reflection of a bigger problem. It is not just foreign workers that Singaporeans don't feel comfortable staying next to. If you go down the list, half-way houses for drug offenders and ex-convicts are also frowned upon. But let's not stop there. How about hospitals or even funeral parlors?

Have we merely tolerated the presence of these foreign workers, rather than accept them into our society? And if this is a problem, who's going to solve it? Are the Serangoon Gardens people being elitist?

So do the Blogtv.sg

Blogtv team's thoughts...

So we knew that the discussion was going to be heated, if not outright explosive...but yes, that was kinda what we wanted in the first place. Sparks flew when we put a passionate Serangoon Gardens Resident together with an advocate for foreign workers' rights but hey, at least we tried to be balanced by throwing in a sociologist to provide an observer's point of view (or so we thought...)

Rose Tan, Serangoon Gardens Resident

She signed the petition together with 1,400 other residents to protest against the establishment of a foreign workers' dorm in Serangoon Gardens. Infrastructure is her pet peeve, or rather the lack of it in the estate is and without improvements in that area, she will go all out to prevent 1,500 workers from moving in...

Jolovan Wham, Social Worker

He's been working with foreign workers for 4 years now and yes they can speak English. Actually, make that Singlish since that is our 'national' language of sorts. He's also tried to set up a shelter for them in Little India but was rejected by the RC there because the residents were uncomfortable with the idea. To quote him "What's wrong with that since there are already so many of them in Little India?"

Dr Daniel Goh, Sociologist, NUS

He sends his students out to do projects on foreign workers and he claims that they feel 'enlightened' after that. So what does he think if a foreign workers' dorm was to be built in Serangoon Gardens? Why not? In fact, anywhere else on the island, including his backyard will do! But we're not so sure about that...especially if his neighbors in Punggol were to start complaining.

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"They are transient but the community is not transient."

What do you think?