Letters | Coronavirus lessons: Singapore loses if it separates ‘community’ from migrant workers

Last month, Singapore’s sudden surge in Covid-19 cases made headlines around the world. Such an uptick in a country so well known for its social order has been met with some surprise internationally.

The government has been forced to use circuit breaker measures to contain the coronavirus. For an economy so open to the world, the costs of a partial lockdown are proving hard to sustain. Many are experiencing this extent of disruption to simple activities for the first time. A post-pandemic Singapore needs not just economic restructuring but readjustments at the community level, which means social changes starting from our hearts and minds.

Migrant workers are part of the Singapore community. Separating the two means dividing our interests, which is proving to be impossible physically, economically and socially.

The overcrowded and unsanitary conditions of some of the dormitories they live in have surfaced as the weakest link in Singapore’s otherwise gold-standard Covid-19 response. Alongside infrastructural improvements for their accommodation, societal mindsets must also change with the times.