Re-examining the middle-class thesis: Class profiles of families employing migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong

2021 ◽  
pp. 011719682110696
Author(s):  
Adam Ka-Lok Cheung
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Household Survey ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Population Census ◽  
Economic Background ◽  
Working And Living Conditions ◽  
Migrant Domestic Workers

To what extent is employing migrant domestic workers (MDWs) a middle-class practice in Hong Kong? I drew quantitative data from the Population Census and a representative household survey to test the middle-class thesis. The results show that a significant proportion of the families that currently employ or had ever employed MDWs were not from middle-class backgrounds. As the practice of hiring MDWs spread to families from lower socio-economic background, it may be expected that the working and living conditions of MDWs may deteriorate due to the fewer resources of these families.

Better a Friend Nearby Than a Brother Far Away? The Health Implications of Foreign Domestic Workers’ Family and Friendship Networks

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (6) ◽  
pp. 765-783
Author(s):  
Jing Ye ◽  
Feinian Chen
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Protective Effects ◽  
Personal Network ◽  
Potential Health ◽  
Daily Contact ◽  
Foreign Domestic Workers ◽  
Reported Health ◽  
Migrant Domestic Workers

Migrant domestic workers provide essential services to the families they live with, but they are not considered a part of the family. As a group, they are not well-integrated into the society and often suffer from social isolation. In this article, we explore the potential health buffering effects of their personal network, in terms of family and friendship ties in both the local community and their home country. Existing literature provides inconsistent evidence on who and what matters more, with regard to the nature, strength, and geographic locations of individual personal networks. Using data from the Survey of Migrant domestic Workers in Hong Kong (2017), we find that family ties are extremely important. The presence of family members in Hong Kong as well as daily contact with family, regardless of location, are associated with better self-reported health. Only daily contact with friends in Hong Kong, not with friends in other countries, promotes better health. We also find evidence that the protective effects of family and friends networks depend on each other. Those foreign domestic workers with families in Hong Kong but also maintain daily contact with friends have the best self-reported health among all.

scholarly journals Beyond the ‘All Seeing Eye’: Filipino Migrant Domestic Workers’ Contestation of Care and Control in Hong Kong

Ethnos ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 85 (2) ◽  
pp. 276-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Johnson ◽  
Maggy Lee ◽  
Michael McCahill ◽  
Ma Rosalyn Mesina
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
And Control ◽  
Migrant Domestic Workers

Physical and Mental Health of Live-In Female Migrant Domestic Workers: A Randomly Sampled Survey in Hong Kong

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (6) ◽  
pp. 802-822
Author(s):  
Roger Yat-Nork Chung ◽  
Jonathan Ka-Long Mak
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Health Status ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Religious Activities ◽  
Time Frequency ◽  
Employment Conditions ◽  
Migrant Domestic Workers

There has been a rising trend of labor migration globally. Given their alien status within the legal framework of the host countries, migrant domestic workers (MDWs) are especially vulnerable to poor employment conditions that may affect their health status, yet there is still a lack of quantitative evidence in this population hitherto. Using randomly sampled data from a cross-sectional survey of 2,017 live-in female MDWs in Hong Kong, a setting with a high concentration of MDWs, this study examined the association of employment conditions with physical and mental health among the MDWs. We observed poorer physical and mental health status among the MDWs when compared with the general population in Hong Kong. Our findings suggest that employment conditions, including household size, working on the rest day, and housing type, and age were associated with physical health, while employment conditions, including not ever receiving wages on time, frequency of financial remittances, paying the employment agency, having a private room, fulfillment of work-related needs, physical abuse, and discrimination, and sociodemographic characteristics, including age and duration of migration, were associated with mental health. Social support in general did not confound these associations, but religious activities and daily contact with friends were also associated with mental health. Our findings have important implications in designing interventions and policies to improve the physical and mental well-being of this vulnerable migrant population.

State-Sanctioned Structural Violence: Women Migrant Domestic Workers in the Philippines and Sri Lanka

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (12-13) ◽  
pp. 1598-1615
Author(s):  
Sophie Henderson
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Sri Lanka ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Structural Violence ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Advocacy Groups ◽  
Migrant Domestic Workers

Adopting a structural violence approach, this article examines how the failure to implement protective rights-based migration policies by the governments in the Philippines and Sri Lanka creates the conditions for the systematic exploitation of women migrant domestic workers by recruitment agencies and employers. Fieldwork conducted in 2018 with advocacy groups, government agencies, and international organizations in the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Hong Kong illustrates how both countries are prioritizing the promotion of overseas employment and commodification of labor above the protection of the rights of their women domestic workers under domestic and international law.

scholarly journals Abuse and Violence Against Foreign Domestic Workers. A Case from Hong Kong

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akm Ahsan Ullah
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Coping Strategies ◽  
Psychological Abuse ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Foreign Domestic Workers ◽  
Decision To Stay ◽  
Migrant Domestic Workers

Abstract This paper explores various abuses Foreign Domestic Helpers (FDHs) or migrant domestic workers (MDW) in Hong Kong suffer and the strategies they take up to cope with this abuse. Data were collected from 215 domestic helpers (135 from the Philippines, 30 from Thailand, 41 from Indonesia, and 9 from Sri Lanka) all of whom had been in residence for at least six months. Selected by snow-balling technique, respondents were interviewed with structured and non-structured questionnaires. Research shows that sexual abuse is the most common form of abuse against MDWs followed by psychological and physical abuses. Female employers are the main perpetuators of psychological abuse while the male employers are culpable for sexual abuses. Coping strategies varied widely among the MDWs. Many of them endure the violence to keep the job; some quit the job and others struggle with the decision to stay or quit.

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