Child Dependence on Foreign Domestic Helpers in Hong Kong:

A business Approach

Group One

Jacky Kwan

Shirley Li

Sunny Chai

Helena Tang

Eric Chan

Michael Chung


Executive Summary

The quality of the interactions between young children and the adults who care for them has a significant enduring impact on children’s lives. This paper discusses the primary reasons of many foreign domestic helpers (FDH) in traveling and living in other countries to obtain employment and residence, which are related to poverty and unemployment in their home country. It also discusses the data and figures that are needed to analyze the increasing demand for foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong, including the impacts or effects of having domestic helpers taking care of the employers’ children. The intimacy of the relationship and the potential to do harm call for a commitment on the part of Child Care FDH to the highest standards of ethical practice. Child Care FDH support parents as primary caregivers of their children. In addition to training, the introduction of the occupational standards for Child Care FDH are recommended to help Child Care FDH monitor their professional practice and guide their decision-making in their course of work.


Background

Hong Kong serves to be one of the busiest cities around Asia and around the world. The changes happening in its society, brought about by the changes in science, technology and communication, have contributed to the modification in terms of cultural, societal, moral, political and economic practices of many individuals and families in the city. These changes helped change the perceptions and practices of many individuals, of whom which are influenced by the presences of a variety of cultures and nationalities in Hong Kong.

The said changes in science, technology and communication paved way to the modification of many family practices. These changes include the focus on working extended hours, the increasing incidences of working mothers, limiting the number of children to two only, and the hiring or recruiting of domestic helpers or “nannies” to take care of children and do a number of chores in the Hong Kong household. Because of the increasing incidences of both working parents, many Hong Kong families require the services and loyalty of many domestic workers or domestic helpers, who are usually imported from other Third World countries, such as Indonesia, Nepal, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Domestic helpers serve to fill the gap or the position that mothers and fathers fail to provide their children because of their work. With such importance, this paper seeks to discuss and study the background of domestic helpers or domestic workers in Hong Kong, and their impact on the children they are taking care of. The discussion of the paper also includes a research on the number of presently working domestic helpers in Hong Kong, the number of children and households dependent on domestic helpers, and the number of working parents and single parents in Hong Kong. The discussion also includes the number of complaints associated with the working domestic helpers in the city.

Domestic Workers in Hong Kong

The wars that were experienced by many Asian countries before contributed to its present economic, societal and political conditions. Many Asian countries remained to be regarded as Third World nations, which suffer a lot from the blows of economic recessions affecting the entire world trade, specifically Asia. Although not all nations suffer from such fate, many developing cities, including Hong Kong, also experience a myriad of changes, in line with the interacting forces present in the economy and society.

Due to interacting economic, political and other contributing factors, many Asian countries experienced economic recessions that brought about negative effects in their economies and societies. Poverty, injustice, and graft and corruption became contributory to the impediment of growth and development in many Asian countries, which led to the suffrage, scarcity of supplies, unemployment, starvation, chaos, and lack of education in these societies. Thus, these cause many individuals and families to seek opportunities outside their countries for “greener pastures” and more secured futures for their children. One of the seen good opportunities for such a cause is to apply as domestic workers or domestic helpers in cities like Hong Kong, which needs the services of an additional workforce. Aside from escaping the harshness of life in their own countries, domestic helpers or workers seek employment from other cities like Hong Kong to help provide for their families back in their own country. Although their primary goal is to do so, they also help their own countries by providing dollars and other currencies that help sustain the needs of their own government. Thus, foreign domestic helpers not only provide service, loyalty and satisfaction to their employers, but also help sustain and maintain the economy of their home country.

It has been reported that Hong Kong has seen a marked increase in migrant labor since the late 1960s, and in the past two decades, Southeast Asia migrant workers have been important (Hewison 2004). The official migration of domestic workers or domestic helpers to Hong Kong began in 1969, when the colonial administration gave permission for expatriates to bring their domestic workers when coming to Hong Kong, with the demand soon extended to the wealthy and middle class Chinese families. The primary reason for the increase in demand of domestic helpers in Hong Kong is the participation of women on Hong Kong’s labor force, which increased from 37% in 1961 to more than 50% in 1986. This paved way to the increase in the number of two-income families, meaning a family having income sources from both mothers and fathers, and in the encouraging of more women to enter the workforce (cited in Hewison 2004). In addition, domestic workers became indispensable for the middle and upper classes in Hong Kong, for the state made few investments to recompense for the withdrawal of women’s labor from the household, which meant that domestic helpers were hired to care for children, the elderly, and the disabled. As a matter of fact, it is estimated that about 10% of children in Hong Kong live with different types of Specific Learning Disability or SLD (‘Equal Opportunities Commission’ 2003), thus, needing the care and guidance of domestic helpers. This also gave the wealthy and the middle class Chinese families to fill in their gaps in the household and in the family through cheap and affordable ways (Hewison 2004).

Domestic helpers or workers in Hong Kong come from a number of countries in Asia, namely, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and other Southeast Asian countries. Domestic workers make up approximately 3% of the population of Hong Kong, with the majority of females, who live with their employers, and carry out a number of household chores and duties including cooking, cleaning, and child-minding (‘Foreign Domestic Helpers in Hong Kong’ 2007). It has been reported that in 2005, there were about 223,394 foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong, wherein 53.11% of them were from the Philippines, 43.15% were from Indonesia, and 2.05% were from Thailand (‘Foreign Domestic Helpers in Hong Kong’ 2007).

With this increasing trend, the Hong Kong government has implemented rules and regulations concerning the employment, labor and condition of stay of foreign domestic workers, which are associated with a contract that covers the income of their employers, their duties, medical treatment, salary, accommodations, and a day-off (‘Foreign Domestic Helpers in Hong Kong’ 2007). This allowed many domestic workers from different countries to obtain stable employment and residence in Hong Kong.

Current Society of Hong Kong

It has been reported that in the 1980s, Hong Kong has witnessed a trend of mass emigration of its financially well-off, highly educated and skilled citizens, which led for the city to suffer grave problems in relation to “brain drain” (‘Hong Kong Population Trends and Overseas Perspectives’ 2006). Today, their return contributed to the dynamism and vibrancy of the current labor force, which paved way to a fast-paced economy that is becoming more demanding, in terms of long working hours. This results to significant negative mental, physical, and social pressures on the working population. More working individuals find it hard to allocate time in accommodating other commitments in their lives, such as social and family demands, thus, increasing the demands for substitute care for children and the elderly (‘Hong Kong Population Trends and Overseas Perspectives’ 2006).

In Hong Kong, the total number of resident population is continually increasing, which reached 6.9 million in the year 2006 and the number of domestic populations is 2,233,800 (‘Family & Community Service in Hong Kong’ 2007). With this, it can be understood that there is an increasing rate of marriages in Hong Kong, which would compel many couples to work for their families. This leads to the increase in the number of households by 30% in the last decade (‘Family & Community Service in Hong Kong’ 2007), thus, contributing to the increase in the population of the city. With the increase in the population and practically, the increase in the number of dependent children, many parents are forced to work and obtain a source of living for their children. However, with the decrease of marriage and the increasing rates of divorce, many parents are compelled to work individually than as a couple. The increase in the rate of divorce gave a total of 15,604 cases in 2004 but drops slightly to about 5% to 14,873 in 2005, which paved way to an increase of female single parents to 45,072 in 2001 and 13,388 in terms of male single parents (‘Family & Community Service in Hong Kong’ 2007). Statistically, 53% of female single parents and 63% male single parents were working for their families, along with the increase in working hours, wherein either one parents and both parents with weekly working hour more than 60 hours increases by 30% (either one) and 42% (both parents) accordingly, making up a total of 0.2 million families in the city (‘Family & Community Service in Hong Kong’ 2007).

With an increase in the number of working parents in Hong Kong, it can be understood that more and more families and households will need the services and guidance of many domestic helpers to fill their responsibilities over their children. The increase in the households, as given by the statistics, leads to the increase in the number of dependent children. This need, thus, gives way to the employment of many domestic helpers from the other countries. According to statistics, in 2005, there were a total of 1,005,400 children in the total population of the city of Hong Kong (‘Hong Kong Population Trends and Overseas Perspectives’ 2006). The drastic increase in the population of Hong Kong gives a total of 14% of child dependency in 2005, wherein child depends are comprised by the portion of the population that is aged under 15 years old (Li 2006). The figures given are presumed to be indicative that most households are dependent on domestic helpers, given the influx of a number of foreign domestic helpers in demand in Hong Kong. It has already been mentioned that in 2005, there were about 223,394 foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong, wherein 53.11% of them were from the Philippines, 43.15% were from Indonesia, and 2.05% were from Thailand (‘Foreign Domestic Helpers in Hong Kong’ 2007), and these figures determine that many households in Hong Kong need the services of such domestic helpers. This also gives us the idea that many children are dependent on these domestic helpers, who help their parents rear their childhood, especially their values and attitudes. With this, it can be also understood that many Chinese citizens are impressed with the performance of foreign domestic helpers.

To work or not to work, it seems to be a difficult choice for most of the working mothers.

From the viewpoint of child development, it would be good if one of the parents could stay at home to take care of the child because they should be much more committed than anyone else. They could afford more time to spend on their child in developing their character, stimulating their minds and discipline their behavior.

However, what we found in Hong Kong nowadays is, more and more mothers prefer to work outside than work at home. What they do instead is hiring a maid to take up their child caregiver role. There is a growing trend that parents spend more and more time on workplace and less and less time on family and children.

The reasons contributing to this phenomenon may be due to the general rising educational level and working ability of women. Also, financial commitments, wants for better living standard and economically independent from spouse are another driving force for women working outside.

As a matter of fact, this growing trend is particularly prominent in well developed countries, like Singapore, U.S. Some researchers have been starting to analyze the impact of this social phenomenon on child personality and mental development in the long run.

Dilemma of Hong Kong Working Mothers

Normally, we all will assume that no one will love and care a child more than his parents do. Raising and developing a child require lots of energy, patience, accompany time, effort and of course love. Though most of the maid have experience in handling children, all they could provide are generally physical care, all of the above elements are absent or at least cut by half as both parents need to work outside. So, what would be the potential risk factors and adverse impact on a child? Let’s examine this according to the following perspective.