Visual research, the contribution of the foreign workers in Singapore.

In Singapore, there exists a social stigma that isolates foreign workers from the rest of Singapore. We see them as outsiders, who have willingly come to Singapore to make their living, and therefore it makes sense that they should willingly endure all the difficulties that they face in their jobs.

And they do. But does that really make sense?

Our group aims to address this issue, to bring awareness to just what sacrifices foreign workers have made, what sacrifices are making our lives in Singapore as comfortable as they are now.

My first image for this curation is a still from a Singaporean short film, Durai and Saro, by director Prema Menon.

I chose this image because of what it means. The film aims to humanize the two foreign workers depicted in the film, and from a cultural perspective, this is significant to us Singaporeans who are used to seeing them around Singapore and somehow have managed to stop seeing them as people, and instead, perhaps as a part of the infrastructure of Singapore that keeps it running.

Also, the composition of the shot is important as it reflects a sharing between the two depicted in the shot, a sharing that we are trying to bring with our work. Their physical proximity and similarity in eye line show that the moment is intimate. The brightly lit background and visibility of all the details in the shot despite it being night is indicative of their openness with each other, and of the honest sharing that may be going on in the shot. That is what we are trying to show, an honest sharing of the lives of foreign workers with Singaporeans.

This next image is also important to us, as it reflects another sacrifice that foreign workers have to make to live and work in Singapore.

Despite being grouped together in close proximity, the lady is still clearly separated from the children by the colour of her skin and hair. These differences are iconic as they show that the three in the photo are clearly not related, despite the proximity between them in the photo.

From a cultural perspective, the symbolic signs of how they are related are important to us. Many women from neighboring countries, like Philippines, Indonesia and more, have come to Singapore to work as maids, so as to be able to afford a better life for their families back in their native countries.

This is important for us as we are trying to highlight these sacrifices that they have made in our work, sacrifices they have made for themselves, but also sacrifices that made our lives in Singapore more comfortable.

Image 1 — Still from Durai and Saro, for the 2nd Singapore Short Film Awards site. http://www.substation.org/2SSFA/programme7b.html

Image 2 — Image from a guide to hiring maids, from Honeycombers Singapore. http://thehoneycombers.com/singapore/arrivals/domestic-helper-maid-singapore/