#11 - Foreign domestic workers: Challenging dominant cultural ideas and perceptions in Singapore

Amidst the pandemic and the ongoing circuit breaker in Singapore, the needs and concerns of foreign domestic workers deserve greater attention. Groups such as the Humanitarian Organisation for Migrant Economics and A Good Space have highlighted these issues, yet many of these needs and concerns had surfaced even before this pandemic.

If “business-as-usual” was already problematic, what are the necessary policy and perception changes? How do we better the employment conditions of these workers? And more broadly, what is the complicity of Singaporeans, under these circumstances? Today, we speak to Nessa Swinn, who leads the youth advocacy group, MaidForMore (https://www.instagram.com/maidformoresg/), which aims to challenge dominant - and oftentimes problematic - cultural ideas and perceptions that Singaporeans hold about these workers.