It would appear that the Philippine government is somewhat concerned about the reduction in numbers of Filipina domestic helpers and the simultaneous increase in the number of Indonesians starting contracts in Hong Kong, at least judging by the number of news stories on this subject recently. I commented on a rather muddled report on this subject the week before last, and there was more in the SCMP on Tuesday, and this time it makes a bit more sense:
The Philippines' top labour representative in the city has urged Filipino domestic helpers to learn Cantonese to help reverse the continuing drop in their numbers as locals turn to Indonesian helpers. Labour attaché Bernardino Julve said the fall in the number of Filipino maids coincided with an increase in the number of Indonesian maids learning Cantonese before they come to Hong Kong. But Mr Julve also said Filipino maids' attitude of standing up for their rights could have backfired.[..]
He said Indonesian maids had three to six months of live-in training in household work and were also trained in Cantonese. But Filipino helpers' training ran for between one and 14 days and included no instruction in Cantonese. "That is why Indonesians are preferred over Filipinos," Mr Julve said. "They speak basic Cantonese. Unfortunately our new arrivals do not know how. Cantonese is not part of the training back home and their training period is so short."
What he doesn't mention is that most Filipinas speak very good English, and that is the language in which they will usually communicate with their employers. For many families, the added advantage is that the helper can assist their children to learn English.
As usual, there is a steady stream of letters in the Post about domestic helpers. Last Monday one correspondent seemed unsympathetic towards the Filipina helper who said she would rather take her chances in Iraq that accept another contract in Hong Kong:
I completed three contracts with three different Filipinas before I turned to my current Indonesian helper three years ago. I offered her another contract when she finished the first last year. The number of Filipino domestic helpers is dropping in Hong Kong; they are being replaced by Indonesians. Perhaps for sound reasons.
As you might expect, there was a letter in Saturday's paper in response to this (titled "Compliant Indonesians", a phrase that didn't appear in the first letter, though it's reasonable to deduce that's what the writer meant). This correspondent says that people in Hong Kong should consider themselves very fortunate to be able to employ domestic helpers, and should treat them better. Equally predictable is that the writer of the original letter had a Chinese name and the second letter appears to be from a Westerner. This is one subject where opinions seem to vary somewhat between the two communities.
WARNING: potentially racist comments included
it is widely known that the Philippines has one of the highest rates of incest in the world. Combine that with being forced imprisonment in a broom closet for 156 hours a week, and you get an extremely high rate of mental illness in a population of 200,000 domestic helpers.
toilet cleaning skills being equal, I would prefer to hire a DH from a country with slightly less tendency to "use my footwashing water in the soup" (as one Filipina wrote in her diary recently)
Posted by: roger overnout | October 04, 2004 at 11:25 PM