Interviewed by Ray Yeh and Ruth Smalley, 2018. 'We need to take the first step': Giving migrant workers a taste of home away from home this Ramadan, 10 June, Channel NewsAsia.

Description

Provided journalists extensive comments on migrant worker mental and emotional health. The following was cited from my comments:

Nicholas Harrigan, a university lecturer who volunteers as one of TWC2’s research coordinators, said that “despite adversity, overall these men are resourceful and proud”.

But, “they are away from home, they work long hours for low pay, and they’re often in considerable debt,” he noted. “All of these can contribute to poor mental health. But job insecurity, agent fee debt and verbal harassment by supervisors are the most damaging.”

So “while social integration would be nice,” Mr Harrigan said, “honestly, it is a long way down the list of priority issues migrant workers would like resolved”.