During the recent General Election speeches, the topic of migrants in Singapore was a prevalent one, as Singaporeans feared that the influx of this group of people from other nations would pose a threat to their lives and social cohesion in this country.

In a bid to further educate the public on this topic of migration, Books Kinokuniya organized an enriching panel discussion with poets Eric Tinsay Valles, David Fedo and Alvin Pang for the book A World In Transit, which contains Eric Tinsay Valles’s poetic reflections on migrants.

Diving into the details about his thoughts as a migrant hailing from The Philippines, Eric Valles shared the difficulties that migrants would encounter in a foreign land, and that creative writing was one of the main ways this group of people could turn to as form of consolation and an outlet to express their feelings. A fellow American poet David Fedo, who is also the executive director of and visiting scholar at the Singapore branch of the Wheelock College (Boston, Massachusetts) Center for International Education, Leadership, and Innovation, also shared his views on migration from a western perspective – as a result, this panel discussion provided the audience with a balance perspective of both asian and western views on the topic.

This insightful event’s success was further seen when the eager audience spoke and interacted with the speakers during the Question-and-Answer session, as well as a response from a Caucasian lady in the audience who volunteered to share about her experiences and thoughts of migrating to Australia from Britain.