ON WEEKENDS, the entire void deck at Block 640, Rowell Court, in Little India used to get overrun by foreign workers eating, drinking and chatting on their day off.
Upset that their neighbourhood had become a hangout for construction workers, residents complained to their MP, Ms Denise Phua, who mulled over their woes with her grassroots leaders.
Their solution: a citizens' patrol.
Teams comprising volunteers and paid constituents who had gone to her Meet-the-People sessions asking for work now 'guard' the void deck on weekends to prevent loitering.
Sometimes, they even spray water on the floor to stop people from sitting on it.
A permanent fence with a gate is also in the works and will be up early next year.
While these measures will assuage residents' immediate anxieties, Ms Phua fears the underlying problem is not something that can be solved by simply putting up a fence.
'It can be a divisive problem. How do we manage the need of residents to feel comfortable and at the same time acknowledge that foreign workers also have their own needs?' she asked.
This balancing act has been a long-running motif in a Singapore that is very reliant on foreigners for its supply of everything from construction workers to nurses.
In bad times, the primary discomfort is the notion of cheap foreigners stealing jobs from locals. In good times, a sense of social unease comes to the fore.
Over the years, an equilibrium seems to have been found with Singaporeans willing to tolerate foreign workers within clearly defined contexts - for example, Filipinos in Lucky Plaza, Thais in Golden Mile Complex and Bangladeshis in Little India.
But with the labour crunch ushering in more foreign workers at a frenzied pace, there are signs that the delicate social construct is beginning to crack.
Already, MPs in areas like Jurong, Boon Lay and Pioneer, Paya Lebar and Little India are getting complaints from residents about these foreign workers.
Ms Phua and Jurong GRC MP Halimah Yacob recount stories from residents, of workers hanging laundry in common corridors, loitering, littering or even urinating in void decks.
The Straits Times Forum Page regularly receives similar complaints from readers.
The problem has even reached the attention of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who spoke recently of feedback that some residents felt uneasy at living so close to foreign workers.
'On weekends in the Botanic Gardens or in Lucky Plaza, it's okay, but meet them downstairs in your void deck, I think many Singaporeans have fears,' he said.
'I know some residents go and see their MP and say, you know, please keep them out of sight, (put them in) somebody else's GRC.'
Urging Singaporeans to be accommodating and understanding, he reminded them that without foreign workers, projects like the integrated resorts would not be built.
ONE reason for the tension is simply the explosion in the number of foreign workers.
Official statistics show the number of foreign workers tripled from 248,000 in 1990 to 756,000 last year.
In that 16-year span they have become a larger chunk of the whole workforce - forming 30.3 per cent of the labour force last year, compared to 16.1 per cent in 1990.
The bulk - 645,000 - are low-skilled workers on work permits. Around 110,000 are mid- and highly-skilled and here on employment or S-passes. There are around 2.6 million people in the labour force.
Those on work permits are expected to return home once there is no more use for them, so little effort is made to integrate them. Among the better-educated foreigners, many live and work among Singaporeans, and seem to have an easier time blending in.
Mr Jolovan Wham, executive director of the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics notes that with their numbers, lower-educated foreigners 'are going to make their presence felt'.
'Typically, they have been placed in the corners of the island...but now they are beginning to step into more communal turf, which many Singaporeans are going to find threatening,' he said.
With the economy powering ahead and the construction industry doing well, the number will likely go up.
Labour economist Pang Eng Fong from the Singapore Management University notes: 'So we do have to think hard about how we treat these people in the long-term.'
A welcoming society?
THOSE who work in migrant welfare outfits generally agree that Singaporeans hold deep-rooted prejudices against lower-skilled foreign workers, especially those from poor Asian countries.
Mr Prashant Somosundram from volunteer group Migrant Voices says that locals clearly have no intention of integrating these workers into society.
A street poll of 100 such workers by Insight this week bears this out. Only a handful of the Bangladeshis, Indians, Burmese, Thai, Chinese and Sri Lankans surveyed hang out with Singaporeans. At most, they have one or two local friends.
Mr Wham says this deliberate distancing stems partly from government policy.
'The Government's attitude seems to be 'Do your job, then go. Don't settle down',' he said, pointing to policies that restrict marriage of work permit holders to Singaporeans and rules forbidding these workers from getting pregnant.
That, he said, has set the tone for society. It has shaped how many Singaporeans treat these workers.
For instance: Mr Ali Asraf, 29, a construction worker from Bangladesh, recalls occasions of people refusing to sit next to him on the train and of being yelled at for accidentally bumping into someone.
Ms Sukuna Srikham, 35, a Thai who works in a mobile phone shop, is weary of the stereotype Singaporeans harbour when they see a Thai woman: prostitute.
'Many times, a taxi driver will ask me how much I charge?' she said.
Indian construction worker Jeganath Thangamani, 26, still cannot forget his first time trying to catch a Tamil movie here two years ago.
'In India, movie theatres have free seating, unlike here. I didn't know where my seat was so I asked the people around me in Tamil. They just turned away as if they did not hear me,' he said.
Despite these encounters, though, all have generally positive experiences with locals.
Mr Ali, for instance, says four in five locals he meets are friendly.
In fact, 96 of the 100 polled say they do not feel discriminated against and are generally happy.
Filipino Ann Ferrer, 44, a domestic maid working here for the past eight years, says she feels equally at home here as she does in the Philippines.
These sentiments seem counter-intuitive.
How can these migrants feel welcomed by the very people who are complaining to MPs about them?
Mr Wham and Mr Prashant say the disparity is due to a mix of factors, from foreign workers having minimal social contact with locals to Singaporeans being too polite to show their bias publicly.
But they point to the fact that the community has formed little ghettos, like in Little India, as a sign that foreign workers know they are not welcome. It is a natural enough instinct, but accentuated by Singaporeans' silent acts of rejection, they say.
Mr Prashant explains it this way: 'They are hampered by self-consciousness that stems from early experiences with Singaporeans: not wanting to share tables at a hawker centre, security guards chasing them away from hanging out at Esplanade.'
'So this feeling of happiness with their own enclaves, it might not necessarily be their initial perspective. It developed after they realised how Singaporeans deal with foreign workers.'
What can be done?
WHETHER the migrant workforce feels or admits to the tension, the fact is that it simmers below the surface and ought to be dealt with.
There seem to be two schools of thought on how to do it. Try and integrate foreign workers into society, says one camp. Provide better separation, as good neighbours require good fences, says the second camp.
Plans from a multi-agency taskforce set up a few years ago to negate the impact of foreign workers congregating seem to be learning towards the latter.
Measures taken or planned include holding joint patrols among Police, the National Environment Agency and grassroots leaders; setting up little stalls and concerts in empty plots of land away from residential areas; and to create more congregation places away from housing blocks.
Migrant welfare groups' plans focus on integration.
For example, in conjunction with International Migrants Day on December 16, a number of such groups are organising a futsal tournament featuring teams made up of foreign workers and locals and a film festival with a migration issues theme.
Professor Pang offers a different take: let a small number of these unskilled workers scale up, and stay on permanently.
'These people are energetic, enthusiastic, hardworking. They are the sorts who inject dynamism into society,' he said, pointing out that such workers have contributed to cosmopolitan cities like New York, London and Paris.
But while they are transient workers here, their social and recreational needs should be better provided for in their living spaces, say those interviewed.
The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) has already pledged to raise standards of new dorms.
Welfare group Transient Workers' Count Too (TWC2) president John Gee says the lifestyles of workers should be taken into account. For instance: give Indian workers a field to play cricket, instead of a basketball court.
He adds that a makeover of Little India, a favourite hangout spot, should also include more common spaces for the workers who gravitate there on weekends.
For now, Ms Phua says that neither Singaporeans nor the foreigners are to blame for tensions that exist.
While locals need to understand that foreign workers are human and need space for leisure, it is fair of residents to expect their living environment to be clean and safe.
'Many do not object to their presence but draw the line when crowds of foreign workers are loitering, littering, urinating or picnicking in their void decks or playgrounds downstairs.'
Madam Halimah agrees. She says the situation is currently manageable. But there could be a political cost, as the flow of workers intensifies and if current problems are left unchecked.
For one thing, Singaporeans will be unhappy that the system allows for what they see as continued misuse of their common space - space which they pay for in taxes. This feeling of discontent could fester, if left unattended.
More education is needed on both sides, to learn to live and let live, say observers and civic groups and the Government should partner more of such efforts.
If the efforts are ambivalent, some fear the effects might well be felt during a sudden economic downturn.
Said Madam Halimah: 'It could be a problem, especially if we hit a rough patch in the economy. For instance, you might not mind a foreign worker staying next to you, but if he has a job and you are staying at home with no work, then it's a different thing altogether.'
That would indeed be the true test. But between now and if and when that time does come, much more can be done to make the foreign worker-Singaporean relationship more equable.
