A group of volunteers has launched a campaign to encourage Singaporeans to be more welcoming when migrant workers are relocated to housing estates in a bid to curtail the coronavirus.
The initiative – Welcome In My Backyard (Wimby) – is a direct response to concerns that people will adopt a “not in my backyard” (Nimby) stance at the prospect of workers turning up in their estates.
That prospect is a real one with Singapore embarking on an effort to relocate healthy workers from the industrial peripheries to alternative sites.
Nimbyism had reared its head in 2009, when residents of Serangoon Gardens objected vociferously to plans to build a foreign worker dormitory there. Plans for the dorm went ahead but with a hefty concession – a 400m slip road to bypass the estate which cost $2 million to build.
The 20 or so volunteers behind Wimby want to pre-empt a repeat of that.
The campaign, which kicked off on 17 April, will involve ambassadors from communities that will house workers. They will try to debunk stereotypes about foreign workers and provide feedback on how locals are feeling.
Online engagement sessions where residents and workers can address questions or misconceptions will be held at least once a month from May, said project co-leader Nicholas Oh.
Singaporeans will also be invited to pen notes of welcome to the workers on a website they can access. The messages will be translated where possible, and posters and notes welcoming them may also be put up in the surrounding blocks.
The campaign will be piloted in Redhill Close, where 21 vacant blocks have been prepared for workers.
Community groups will also be tapped to engage residents. In Redhill, Beyond Social Services and civic group My Community are partners of the campaign.
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Source: The Straits Times, 20 April 2020