Sweeping Assumptions

It seems as though the residents of a middle class neighbourhood in Singapore have made some very big assumptions about the quality of some potential new neighbours. If an unused school is used as a dormitory for about a thousand foreign workers, as the authorities have suggested, then these new neighbours will overwhelm the once quiet, peaceful neighbourhood, swarming for the public buses to transport them to their work sites, invade their personal space, walking around half naked, befriending their maids, staring at them with undisguised greed, waiting to pounce on their properties, children, elderly parents etc
So what are the assumptions then?
1. These are unwashed, unclothed, unskilled labourers who work in construction sites around the island
2. They or at least a large proportion of them, are part of the criminal element that now haunt Singapore
3. They will be destroying the peace of the neighbourhood by blasting their 'boom boxes', congregating in large threatening groups and getting drunk, spitting, littering and generally being a complete nuisance.

So, where are these assumptions coming from? Have any of the petitioners ever lived in close proximity to these assumed 'menaces of the modern world'? Have they witnessed any of the acts they assume will inevitably happen if these 'foreigners' move in or have they been listening to the urban legends of their friends and reading about similar incidents in the media?

It is commendable that they recognize that these foreigners make a contribution to our economy. They in fact, do the jobs that Singaporeans look down their noses at and shun as beneath their dignity and worth. We seem to be victims of our own class prejudices! If we won't stoop to service level jobs...and these include customer service work, nursing, construction work, garbage disposal, cleaning and other 'unworthy' jobs, then can we blame the government for having to bring in people from less fortunate countries than ours to perform these tasks.
With our population, foreign and domestic, burgeoning, space is shrinking in this country.
You are going to have to get used to sharing your neighbourhood with everyone, and not just the people you designate 'worthy' of your space.

It seems that this incident is merely a symptom of what is potentially going to become described as a plague of overcrowding. If you want continued unlimited growth, then expect continued overcrowding. If you believe that this island can sustain a population of six and a half million, than this is merely a taste of what is to come. If you want the life and the nighbourhoods that you enjoy, with peace and quiet and serenity, then you also have to call on a halt or a slow down to growth....will you accept this?