Singapore reaps literary dividend from migrant culture

Of the 30 people who share MD Sharif Uddin's workers' barracks in Singapore, only a handful know that he writes. Uddin, who owned a bookshop in Bangladesh, moved to Singapore in 2008 to join the many thousands of his countrymen who come to the city-state to work in the construction sector -- paying $10,000 to an agent for the privilege.