Migrant Women Domestic Workers in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan: A Comparative Analysis

The concentration of women in certain occupations has been the main feature characterizing the feminization of migration in the Asian region during the last two decades. A gender-sensitive approach is essential in understanding the particular vulnerability facing these migrant women workers. This paper is concerned with the situation of migrant women domestic workers in East and Southeast Asia. It discusses the context of housework that has rendered migrant women domestic workers vulnerable to abuses and violence. It compares and contrasts the legal systems in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan and addresses the inadequacy of the respective legal systems in dealing with the vulnerability of these women workers. Using Hong Kong as a case, it discusses the measures that have been adopted to provide better protection for migrant labor. This paper suggests that, in order to provide effective protection for the rights of these women, it is important for respective governments to take into account the particular vulnerability facing them as a result of the context of their employment.

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Visible Bodies, Invisible Work: State Practices toward Migrant Women Domestic Workers in Malaysia

Asian and Pacific Migration Journal ◽

10.1177/011719680301200103 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 12 (1-2) ◽

pp. 49-73 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Christine B.N. Chin

Keyword(s):

Migrant Workers ◽

Labor Migration ◽

Public Support ◽

Domestic Workers ◽

Migrant Labor ◽

Labor Rights ◽

Migrant Women ◽

Alternative Strategies ◽

Invisible Work ◽

State Involvement

The changing characteristics of labor migration in Asia today elicit an important question regarding the nature and consequences of state involvement in the entry and employment of low wage migrant workers. This paper offers an analysis of the labor-receiving state's practices toward migrant women domestic workers in Malaysia. I ascertain that the exercise of a particular kind of state power as evinced from policies and legislation, consistently make visible migrant womens' presence in society even as their labor in households is rendered invisible. A key consequence of this is the fragmentation of public support for migrant workers, and the contraction of what can be considered legitimate space for Malaysian NGO advocacy on migrant labor rights. To counteract this, some NGOs have adopted alternative strategies and targets that begin to reveal the possibility for constructing alternative forms of governance.

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Book Review: Human Rights and Migrant Domestic Work: A Comparative Analysis of the Sociolegal Status of Filipina Migrant Domestic Workers in Canada and Hong Kong

Asian and Pacific Migration Journal ◽

10.1177/011719680601500109 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 15 (1) ◽

pp. 175-176

Author(s):

Deirdre McKay

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Hong Kong ◽

Comparative Analysis ◽

Domestic Work ◽

Domestic Workers ◽

Migrant Domestic Workers

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Editorial

Focaal ◽

10.3167/fcl.2008.510101 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 2008 (51) ◽

pp. v-vi

Author(s):

Oscar Salemink

Keyword(s):

Hong Kong ◽

Minimum Wage ◽

Domestic Workers ◽

Migrant Labor ◽

Labor Contracts ◽

Foreign Domestic Workers

On Sunday, 23 February 2003, around twelve thousand foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong—largely, but not exclusively, Filipina “maids”—demonstrated in Victoria Park against government plans to levy a new charge on migrant labor contracts while lowering the minimum wage.

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Sexuality at Imagined Home: Same-Sex Desires among Indonesian Migrant Domestic Workers in Hong Kong

Sexualities ◽

10.1177/1363460716677286 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 21 (5-6) ◽

pp. 899-913 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Francisca Yuenki Lai

Keyword(s):

Hong Kong ◽

Domestic Workers ◽

Migrant Women ◽

Same Sex ◽

Family Expectations ◽

The Family ◽

The Future ◽

Meaning Of Home ◽

Migrant Domestic Workers

This article examines the contested meaning of home in shaping the sexual subjectivities of Indonesian migrant domestic workers by investigating their imagined future home. It points to the question of how individuals negotiate their sexualities when subjected to particular gendered positions. The author suggests that a transnational perspective is needed for understanding the sexuality of migrant women, who negotiate between the same-sex pleasure they obtain in Hong Kong and the family expectations they are supposed to fulfill in Indonesia. For these migrant women, sexuality is malleable because it is a continuing process of relating gendered positions to sexualities, and relating the future to the present.

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The Role of Asset Disclosure and Registration Law in Combating Corruption in Ethiopia: A Comparative Analysis with the Hong Kong and Rwanda Legal Systems

10.7176/jlpg/95-02 ◽

2020 ◽

Keyword(s):

Hong Kong ◽

Comparative Analysis ◽

Legal Systems

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At Home in Public: Intimacy and Belonging among Filipina and Indonesian Migrant Domestic Workers in Hong Kong in Ani Ema Susanti’s Effort for Love (2008) and Moira Zoitl’s Exchange Square (2007)

Plaridel ◽

10.52518/2020.16.2-07piocos ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 16 (2) ◽

pp. 161-180

Author(s):

Carlos Piocos

Keyword(s):

Hong Kong ◽

Sense Of Belonging ◽

Documentary Film ◽

Domestic Workers ◽

Public Spaces ◽

Migrant Women ◽

Public Spheres ◽

Documentary Video ◽

Private And Public ◽

Working And Living Conditions

This article discusses how Filipina and Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong claim and transform transnational sites as portrayed in Ani Ema Susanti’s 2008 short documentary film Mengusahakan Cinta [Effort for Love] and Moira Zoitl’s documentary video series Exchange Square (2007). The films depict how Indonesian and Filipina domestic workers negotiate precarious working and living conditions by deploying forms of intimacy, through their social practices and alternative sexualities, that enable them to gain agency in finding their own community and sense of belonging. This article argues that while their relationship to both private and public spaces in Hong Kong is transformed, these migrant women also actively transgress the borders of private and public spheres and personal and political realms.

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the domestic workers’ strike: migrant women, social reproduction and contentious labour organising

Feminist Review ◽

10.1177/01417789211041263 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 129 (1) ◽

pp. 16-31

Author(s):

Sujatha Fernandes

Keyword(s):

Women Workers ◽

Migrant Workers ◽

Social Reproduction ◽

Rural Women ◽

Political Action ◽

Nuclear Family ◽

Domestic Workers ◽

Global South ◽

Migrant Women ◽

The Usa

In recent decades, there have been major changes in the organisation of social reproduction. As middle-class women have entered the workforce in large numbers, and state provision of childcare and other welfare services has been scaled back under neo-liberalism, there has been an unprecedented outsourcing of household labour to the market. The resulting commodification of social reproduction has not liberated women from the demands of housework but has largely shifted this work away from women in the Global North towards migrant women workers from poor and heavily indebted countries of the Global South. At the same time, there has also been a huge increase in internal migration within Global South countries, as newly wealthy middle classes in the cities are being serviced by poor rural women. Commodified domestic labour relies on the existence of gendered and racialised migrant workers. This article examines the domestic workers’ strike as an effective and urgent mode of political action given the massive and growing concentration of migrant women in domestic work. This requires a reassessment of earlier feminist strategies based on a nuclear family model and current advocacy strategies that, influenced by foundations, have rejected the strike tactic in favour of limited legal strategies. This article draws on my empirical research on domestic workers’ movements in the USA and India in order to highlight emerging strategies of labour movements.

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Interpersonal Ties and Health Care: Examining the Social Networks of Filipino Migrant Domestic Workers in Hong Kong

Journal of Population and Social Studies ◽

10.25133/jpssv302022.006 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 30 ◽

pp. 86-102

Author(s):

Carlos M. Piocos III ◽

◽

Ron Bridget T. Vilog ◽

Jan Michael Alexandre C. Bernadas ◽

◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Networks ◽

Hong Kong ◽

Social Network ◽

Health Resources ◽

Well Being ◽

Domestic Workers ◽

Social Determinant ◽

Migrant Women ◽

The Social ◽

Migrant Domestic Workers

This paper explores the relationship between the social networks of Filipino migrant domestic workers (FMDWs) in Hong Kong and the accessibility of health resources, especially for migrant women. This study primarily draws evidence from ethnographic interviews with 20 FMDWs in Hong Kong. Likewise, this analysis also relied on field notes from participant observations during formal meetings and informal activities. This paper reveals that FMDWs strategically use their strong and weak ties in managing risks and accessing resources for their health and well-being by deciding among their social network who and what to share regarding health concerns. They conscientiously negotiate their rights and opportunities with their employers, who can also provide access to social and institutional resources. Finally, FMDWs participate in conversations and discourses on health-related policies of their home and host countries with their social network. By focusing on the social networks of FMDWs in Hong Kong, this paper conceptually and empirically broadens conversations about how migration becomes a social determinant of health. Moreover, it illustrates how migrant social networks are organized, activated, and mobilized around discourses on state-crafted health policies towards migrant women.

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