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

Sexualities ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 899-913 ◽  
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.

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

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.

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.

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