Evaluating whether Government Intervention is Needed for Migrant Workers in Singapore | RISE Research

This paper evaluates whether government intervention is needed to improve the living and working conditions of low-wage migrant workers in Singapore, focusing on healthcare access, awareness of labour rights, and the effectiveness of existing government frameworks. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study combines secondary data from Singapore's Ministry of Manpower with primary survey data collected from 44 migrant workers (30 from India, 14 from Bangladesh) through structured interviews conducted at ItsRainingRaincoats, a Singapore-based migrant worker charity. The findings show that while formal protections such as mandatory medical insurance and dormitory housing exist on paper, many workers experience a significant gap between these entitlements and their lived understanding or access to them: 10 of 44 respondents were unsure whether they had medical coverage at all, and workers in employer-provided dormitories rated their living conditions notably worse than those in self-paid housing. The study also documents long working hours, salary delays affecting a meaningful minority of workers, and substantial recruitment-related financial burdens that increase workers' dependence on employers and reduce their bargaining power. The paper argues that this pattern reflects persistent information asymmetry between employers and workers rather than a simple absence of regulation, meaning existing laws are less effective in practice due to gaps in communication, awareness, and enforcement. The paper concludes that improving migrant worker welfare in Singapore requires not just stronger formal regulations but also targeted, multilingual healthcare and rights-education programs, potentially delivered through NGO-government partnerships, alongside stricter enforcement of working-hour and rest-day protections, to close the gap between the protections migrant workers are legally entitled to and what they actually understand and can access.