MIGRANT WORKERS’ COVID-19
Chin Kean Kok & Melissa Lee Juin Tze

Much rhetoric surfaced when the COVID-19 pandemic swept through the migrant construction worker population. It mainly revolved around issues of poor and cramped living conditions, with workers seen as being treated as second-class.

The COVID-Safe Restart Criteria is a regulated, layered bubble used to isolate foreign workers and minimise contact among the workers as well as the general public. This strategy, while effective, may create other concerns such as mental health issues and deepening polarisation between workers and Singaporeans.

Before embarking on the search for solutions, the designers believe we must first understand the underlying socio-economic issues that created the foreign worker phenomenon unique to Singapore. Before all else, the role of the migrant worker needs to be reassessed.