For foreign workers, dorm life better than Singapore heartlands
Dormitory or the heartlands?
Given the choice, some foreign workers in Singapore prefer to live in dormitories instead of the heartlands, where Singaporeans reside.
Yahoo Singapore recently spoke to some of the residents from Tuas View Dormitory and found that they are comfortable due to reasons beyond the state-of-the-art facilities available there.
Tuas View Dormitory is Singapore’s largest purpose-built foreign worker dormitory to date. It has 16,800 beds across 12 blocks of rooms, and occupies a land area of 84,000 square metres.
Kampong spirit in the dorms
Yahoo Singapore spoke to a few workers and all of them said they love the communal spirit in the dormitory, where friends and colleagues live just walking distance from each other – in some cases even on the beds next to them.
They said they cook together, play cricket or watch movies for free at the outdoor cinema in their free time.
Yes, you read that right. The workers living in the dormitory enjoy facilities like cinemas, a gym, a cricket lawn, beer garden and a self-service kitchen, just to name a few. It is almost nothing like workers’ accommodations in the Singapore heartlands.
According to electrical engineer Rajaguru Karuppasamy (known as Samy), who is in charge of maintenance of the dormitory, Singaporean families living in HDB apartments tend to “stick to each other”, which is unlike life in the dormitory.
The 26-year-old, spending his second year in Singapore, added that he has no problems with being located far away from the city. He says it’s not unusual for someone who comes from a remote village back in India.
“My village is a few hours drive away from Chennai, so it’s okay,” he said, adding he prefers the peace of the dormitory compared to the “stress” of the city.
Bangladeshi worker, Muhammad Farid Uddin, who has been working for AzTech Pte Ltd in Singapore for eight years, said he likes how other foreign workers at Tuas View would plan outings to places like Marina Bay Sands and Sentosa together during their free time.
The 30-year-old loves the “nice” beaches in Sentosa Island. He says they’re very different from the ones in Bangladesh.
No place like home
Despite earning salaries they say are five times bigger than those back home, many still yearn for their homelands.
The foreign workers were cheerful when talking about the benefits they enjoy in Singapore, but the mood turned somber when we asked them about home.
“Yes, I have a mother and two sisters back home. They stay together… I call them everyday,” said Motabbar Shoag, 26, from Bangladesh. Motabbar has not been home in two years, but is excited to go back in two months’ after a project he is working for ends.
Before arriving in Singapore, the ST Marine employee worked as a car painter in Bangladesh. He likes working in Singapore because of the bigger pay, but says he still pines for life back home, with his family and friends.
Samy, meanwhile, misses riding his bike back home - he has a sports bike and a car. He has a drivers’ license in Singapore, but can’t afford a vehicle here.
Satisfied with working in Singapore
These men are just some who have benefited from efforts to improve living conditions of foreign workers in Singapore since the 2013 Little India riot.
According to a 2014 Foreign Worker Survey, about 90 per cent of the 4,000 foreign workers surveyed reported they were satisfied working in Singapore. Many attributed this to “good pay, relatively good working conditions and a sense of security”.
However, overcrowded foreign worker dwellings at Lorongs 1 to 42 of Geylang remain a cause for concern. Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say, in May 2015, said errant owners and operators of overcrowded properties in Geylang “are being taken to task” after an inspection of more than 600 units were conducted.
The Ministry of Manpower is also seeking to raise public awareness in order to change behaviour towards foreign worker dwellings.
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