From our results, we can infer that although domestic helpers want to be accepted into Singapore’s society, a portion of Singaporeans do not think that they should be integrated into society, with a significant percentage of 41% of the respondents either disagreeing or strongly disagreeing. This shows that Singaporeans may still constitute a negative mindset towards domestic helpers in Singapore and may segregate them and treat them not as equals in society. This viewpoint is further supported and reinforced by the interview results as there is a common belief that domestic helpers do not have the education and skills to contribute to our society meaningfully due to them being low-skilled workers. Thus, Singaporeans may not feel the need for domestic helpers to be accepted into Singapore’s society. This also plays a role in the different factors that may lead to the unequal treatment of domestic helpers in Singapore. Additionally, through our interview, Singaporeans do not feel the need to integrate domestic helpers into our society fully for the benefit of the development of Singapore’s economy due to Singapore’s need for white-collar and highly skilled workers to tap into and maximise our resource pool to increase our economic competitiveness on a global scale. Thus, this may again link with the unequal treatment of domestic helpers in Singapore.
Also, through our results, it is possible to infer that the attitudes of the public towards domestic helpers in Singapore can be improved. This is supported by our survey and interview results. In the survey, about 30% of Singaporeans disagree that domestic helpers are treated well and 40% of domestic helpers themselves think that their treatment in Singapore could be better. A main reason for this opinion is that Singaporeans are not understanding enough to domestic helpers. Because of the fast pace of life in Singapore, Singaporeans tend to neglect the people around them, especially domestic helpers. This leads to Singaporeans not treating domestic helpers humanely enough. Additionally, Singaporeans may have a high expectation of domestic helpers. This conflicts with the culture of the domestic helpers where promiscuity is tolerated more liberally back in their homeland. Thus, they may not be able to cope well with the drastic change in culture and may experience a cultural shock which may cause Singaporean employers to mistreat their domestic helpers. However, we can see that as Singapore slowly becomes a more charitable and caring nation, domestic helpers are given more attention and are more welcome into Singapore. Their standard of living also increases as a result. Therefore, as evidenced from our results of our survey and interview, even though domestic helpers are not treated extremely well in Singapore at the current moment, the situation is improving gradually.
Additionally, it can be seen that much can still be done for the cause of the domestic helpers in Singapore. As seen in our interview results, the solutions and measures to improve working conditions and integration into our society for domestic helpers only comes in drastic and serious situations, such as the few issues of domestic helpers falling from heights due to a lack of understanding between their employers. Thus, a few possible solutions are to install safeguard measures to prevent these incidents from occurring again and also have employers understand and take care of the needs of their domestic helpers better. Additionally, we can also have more integration opportunities within our community in order to weed out misunderstandings and break the mindsets of Singaporeans against domestic helpers to help attain a better standard of living and care and tolerance for domestic helpers in Singapore.
Some possible solutions that our group has come up with is the solution of having extra work measures for the safety of domestic helpers. As gained from our interview, we have known that the government may not be doing much to help the domestic helpers, only coming in when serious incidents occur. Also, we can have more integration within the community by getting Singaporeans to show more care and respect for domestic helpers by several workshops and also feedback sessions which can enable Singaporeans to stand in their shoes and see their hardships. These solutions are relatively realistic and can be achieved easily, thus making these solutions rather feasible.