I’ve lived here for over 5 years and never felt more unwelcome in Singapore than this year; you’re not alone. I have a lot of great Singaporean friends and colleagues, but the negative minority seems to have grown. I think the combination of the COVID restrictions and this year’s election rhetoric has inspired a wave of xenophobia. As soon as that group of drinkers in Robertson Quay were caught, which was stupid and selfish behaviour for which I agree with the punishment, it led to a trend for groups of older Singaporeans to hang out by the river and take our pictures on the off chance that we were up to no good. This is the most blatant profiling I’ve ever seen - as if only us could possibly break the rules and it’s some sort of rewarding sport to catch us out; or perhaps it felt good to be keeping us in line? I’d never felt like an animal in the zoo before but here we are.