By Tan Hui Yee

Warning: The contents of this column may offend you.

But the words to come are essential to appreciate the sentiments behind the current furore over proposed temporary foreign worker housing in Serangoon Gardens estate.

Over two hours last Wednesday, the residents of the private estate in the north-east wore down their Members of Parliament with 101 reasons why foreign workers shouldn't be living in their midst.

Why I did not sign the petition

By Lydia Lim

My neighbours are nice people, really.

That is why it has not been easy fending off their requests to join them in signing a petition against the conversion of an unused school in our neighbourhood into a dormitory for foreign workers.

I've lived in Serangoon Gardens for most of my life, in a small terrace house a five-minute walk from the roundabout we residents call 'the circus' and a hawker centre named Chomp Chomp that seems to draw diners from all corners of the island like bees to a honeypot.

Where 5,000 expats call home

Foreigners feel welcome in the estate that is making news for objecting to a foreign workers' dorm

By Shuli Sudderuddin and Gabriel Yue

Housewife Laura Tamburrini, who is from Switzerland, has never felt anything but welcome since she moved into Serangoon Gardens with her family two months ago.

'Though I'm just getting to know the area, people here have been very warm,' said the 34-year-old mother of two.

She and her husband, who works in a Swiss bank, moved to the private estate in the north-east because it is near the Australian International School in Lorong Chuan which her sons attend.

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