Inspired by the two videos and following discussion about Bangladesh migrant workers, I decided to work out the hidden relation between Singapore government which represents the labour import country and Bangladesh migrant workers as the foreign labour force as well as the relation with Singaporean residents including both citizens and permanent residents. On one hand, large numbers of Bangladesh migrant workers are pouring in to seek for a better paid job to support the family back in home and Singapore and Malaysia are still their land of gold and hope. The story and legend of success and getting rich are circulating in their network of information to attract male Bangladeshis. On the other hand, no lowest wage limit and loose regulation of Singapore government on agency give the tricking and other abusive cases opportunities and room to nurture.
In the first thread, people in Bangladesh which is a undeveloped countries which suffer from flood and poverty needs to look for a job to support the family. As a typical South Asian countries, Bangladesh is still a youth country which has a large proportion of labour force. In contrast, Singapore is suffering from the shortage of labour force to maintain it competitiveness and prosperous economy. The supply from Bangladesh just meets the large demand on the labour market and the better payoff and life quality lures many Bangladeshi to pay thousands of dollars for an entry to share the cake. So far, it sounds very normal. However, when Singapore government seeks for a cheap labour which will reduce the total cost of the products and service in Singapore to provide a very competitive price for theses in order to gain a market share and sustain its small but remarkable economy miracle. No lowest wage limit is then a political and economic method to achieve this target. The merits are for local residents in Singapore as they are benefit from the cheap goods which largely reduce the cost of local life and also give local business competitiveness in a global stage. The misery is left for the Bangladeshi migrant workers which suffers from the poor welfare and low wage to support both their daily need in Singapore and their Bangladeshi family. Form the other side, in order to meet the large demand of its labour market, Singapore government may feel reluctant to have a stringent labour import policy which poses restriction and order on the labour market. This induces a relatively loose regulation on the agency which imports the Bangladeshi workers and also the little attention on the migrants workers who reside here. Furthermore, it also gives Singapore government less intention to coopoerate with Bangladesh government as a labour export country. Both the attitude and policy of Singapore government partially gives rise to the current situation of Bangladeshi workers and discourage the future possible fundamental change.
Since the government is reluctant to take the lead to improve the current situation of Bangladeshi workers and regulation of the import, will Singaporean have the awareness and urge the government to make a change? Firstly, how miserable the migrant workers are does not really affect their life directly and they are even worried about the social security problem brought by the "low educated" migrant workers. They may show some sympathy to their miserable experience whenever there is some exposure from the press. The most common method to show their sympathy is the charity which does not really solve the problem from the root. In contrast, they are actually benefiting from the cheap labour even though most of them are unaware of it. This would defer their motivation to take concrete actions towards the government. Other than this, "pseudo" democracy in Singapore really discourages the Singaporean to pose impact on the government. No one wants to risk so much for the people which is not relevant to their own interest or may harm their interest. All of these create a vicious cycle which refuses the fundamental change and improvement. I really do not know it is a misery for Bangladeshi workers who travel thousands of miles to seek a hope but end up with threaten from load shakers and severer poverty.
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