The "transit" workers of Singapore

At this moment, more than 900,000 migrant workers from India and Bangladesh are living in custom-built dormitories on the margins of society in Singapore, which has an increasingly ambivalent attitude to their presence. Despite the fact that Singapore needs cheap labour to fuel one of the fastest growing economies in the world, its government has introduced higher levies for low skilled workers in a drive for higher productivity focusing on quality rather than quantity reducing the number of workers. Back in their countries of origin whole villages are made of families that "sacrifice" one of their members for the well being of the others. Families sell land, pawn all their jewelry and borrow money to pay fees to illegal agents against the hope that he will work in Singapore and wire back enough money to bring them out of poverty. Coming back for these workers would mean, on a personal level, a hit hard to take, but also the ruin for their families which depend on only one member.