AN INSIGHT INTO FOREIGN WORKERS � RECREATIONAL SPACES

Abstract

Foreign workers are an important part of our workforce because they help to plug manpower shortage in sectors shunned by Singaporeans where their presence has been increasing steadily throughout the years. In their pursuits for their recreational needs, they have appropriated various public spaces as their socializing and congregating venue, leading to tensions and contestation of space to arise between locals and foreign workers. Thus, this study seeks to examine the current recreational avenues that have been made available to foreign workers, their utilization rates as well as the significance of the role of public spaces as a recreational venue for foreign workers. In order to aid future spatial planning, the significance of various attributes in affecting foreign workers’ recreational satisfaction level and location preferences will be identified as well. A two-pronged approach was utilized to collect data where surveys were administered to gather the opinions of foreign workers and interviews were conducted with dormitory operators and NGOs. Through frequency tables constructed from survey data, we have identified 3 robust attributes that are statistically significant to the satisfaction levels, namely number of years in Singapore, number of rest days and location spend on rest days. Also, factors such as central location and proximity to transport are the key preferences of foreign workers for their ideal recreational space. From these findings, it will help to fill the existing literature gaps and assist in future spatial planning of foreign workers’ recreational spaces.