In Singapore, we have a total of approximately 3.50 million citizens in which 1.4275 million consist of foreigners. Many of us may identify foreigners as the construction workers that build the homes, we currently live in. Well, not all foreigners are in the construction field industry. They are scattered in many fields such as the marine and even the domestic fields. Many of these people tend to come to Singapore to either of the two reasons. Either, they came to settle down in Singapore or they came to earn money to support their families back in their home countries. At least 3 out of 4 of the foreigners coming to Singapore is based on the second reason stated due to the fact that most of them tend to live in third world countries. Some examples of third world countries would be India, Bangladesh and China. Since their presence in Singapore, many Singaporeans tend to disregard and humiliate these people for many reasons this is also known as xenophobia. In this article, I am going to further talk about foreigners to help raise awareness towards this group of people.
Many of these foreigners tend to either be uneducated or they hold a certain level of education but it is unrecognized world-wide. Therefore, the next best alternative is to come to places such as Singapore and Malaysia to do manual labor such as construction work. However, with the amount of effort put by them to create houses for us to stay in, a little generosity and gratitude should be given to them. However, the xenophobia in Singapore has gotten worst as a matter of fact in which generosity and gratitude is something, they are most unfamiliar of. When people in the buses or trains happen to notice construction workers it has become an immediate reaction to move away and gossip about them. Another example would be the helpers, they are often entitled to a day of “freedom” every week. When they are seen hanging out together on either one of the days during the Weekend, we are quick and never failing to critic about them. Well, this is extremely wrong and it needs to be addressed. After all, they are also humans like us and they have every right to do the same things that we are entitled to do like have a picnic with our friends.
Many may think after all they are just workers and they will leave after a while. Yes, I would agree that their stay is a temporary status and not a permanent one. However, put yourself in their shoes, you are only entitled one day in the week to hang out with their friends in a foreign country and when you do you get judged and stared from every corner possible and that’s all because you are a “foreigner”. The hurt they would feel weekly would be tremendously terrible after all they are also humans and they are capable of possessing feelings. There are only a few people that I would not deny have done terrible deeds indeed but that does not mean that all of them are like that.
Thus, in conclusion it is important to be kind to each and every one especially the foreigners. Many of them have actually put their life at stake and many have been lost or hurt brutally just by doing their job. One example would be a Sri Lankan maid who came to work but ended up being abused by her employers such that they actually removed her some of her teethes using the pliers they had in their house. We critic a lot about these people but we yet to see that we can also a problem. Therefore, the least we could do is to show some gratitude to these foreigners. One way to show our appreciation would be during National Kindness Day which is observed on 13 November annually we can provide them with something meaningful. However small the act can be, a small act of kindness can still go a long away. So, let’s take the effort and start NOW!
Nisha‘s blog 