シンガポール暴動事件の背景

赤旗

シンガポール暴動事件の背景については、
シンガポール暴動事件

背景に外国人低賃金

外国人労働者の平均給与は、シンガポール国民の４分の１から５分の１といわれます。

といわれるほどの外国人労働者の搾取問題があると同時に、

Riot Reveals Cracks in Singapore Society
Singapore’s normally ordered society has been shaken by the rioting last weekend.

By Kirsten Han
December 14, 2013

Ｉn many ways, this prosperity has not trickled down to the island’s residents: Singapore has one of the highest inequality levels in the developed world. The country’s eager dependence on importing cheap foreign labor has kept wages low especially for blue-collar workers, and there is no minimum wage. Although there is no official poverty line, the country also has a significant number of people considered as the “working poor,” struggling to make ends meet despite holding down jobs. Segments of society – both citizen and non-citizen – are beginning to feel disenfranchised, underserved and neglected, while the ultra-rich party on.

Migrant workers, who provide the manual labor which props up this shaky system, face huge struggles. Housed apart from the main population, these imported workers are expected to clean the streets and work on Singapore’s many construction sites, while remaining largely separate from mainstream society.

Charan Bal, a university lecturer who has researched migrant labor issues in Singapore, has noticed this segregation. Speaking with The Diplomat, he notes, “There is very limited everyday interaction between contract migrant workers and Singaporeans. Most of these workers are silently or overtly excluded from many of our urban spaces during their leisure time. They often live in dorms in industrial areas which are far removed from where Singaporeans live. When a dorm springs up near places where Singaporeans live, existing residents complain.”

Even those who do interact with the workers – ferrying them to and from work or patrolling the areas where they congregate – face plenty of frustration. In the course of his research Bal has observed that the bus drivers and auxiliary police officers themselves receive low pay and work long hours. It is little surprise that there is often friction between them and the migrant workers.

　格差社会で、外国人移民と接するバスドライバーや警官の側は、低賃金長時間労働で、不満たまり、外国人移民との間で摩擦が絶えなかったそうであります。