Fighting for Migrant Workers in Hong Kong

2019 ◽  
pp. 56-63
Author(s):  
Eni Lestari ◽  
Promise Li
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Working Population ◽  
Major Area ◽  
Area Of Concern ◽  
The City

The precarious state of migrant workers has become a major area of concern for the contemporary global economy. In Southeast Asian regions in particular, the number of migrant workers has spiked since the 1990s. In the city of Hong Kong, domestic migrant workers, predominantly Filipino and Indonesian women, now make up around a tenth of the total working population. Since the beginning of Southeast Asia's labor diaspora, activists have been fiercely organizing against the rampant exploitation and abuse of migrant workers.

Human Capital Enhancement through Education and Immigration

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yue Chim Richard Wong
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Population Aging ◽  
Postwar Period ◽  
Working Population ◽  
The Real ◽  
Real Population ◽  
Readiness To Adopt ◽  
The City ◽  
Education And Immigration

The chapter points out that to meet Hong Kong’s population challenge in the next three decades, it urgently needs to implement human capital enhancement policies. Its future as an international metropolis is under severe challenge because of the aging of its population. The failure to replenish itspopulation numbers with university-educated talents, especially in the working population, is very worrying. Hong Kong’s population aging problem is particularly seriousImmigrants who came in the postwar period were the foundation of Hong Kong’s success, and they enriched the life of the city. The city must shed the insular mentality that is emerging today if it is to avoid the fate of becoming a capitalist museum by the end of this century. The real population challenge for Hong Kong lies in our readiness to adopt and implement policies that are necessary to shaping the city’s future.

Retuning a Provincialized Middle Class in Asia’s Urban Postmodern

Tracing China ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen F. Siu
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Cultural Resources ◽  
Migrant Population ◽  
Political Sovereignty ◽  
Global Power ◽  
Institutional Resources ◽  
Cultural Flexibility ◽  
The City

How have city populations in Asia contributed to these transformations in recent decades? As illustrated in chapters in Worlding Cities (Roy and Ong 2011), they have experienced unprecedented volatility in life and work due to intense flows of capital, technology, migrant workers, cultural resources, and fundamental changes in political sovereignty. A rising, predominantly expatriate, middle class in Dubai banks on the city’s future, and that in Mumbai lives for the present, Bollywood style (pp. 160–81). However, a provincialized middle class in Hong Kong seems painfully aware of its having overdrawn past advantages. The emergence of China as a global power provides Hong Kong with opportunities but exacerbates its vulnerabilities. Circulation of its population is key for future survival or aggrandizement. But in the postwar decades, Hong Kong’s diverse migrant population has become grounded, homogenized, and inward looking. With limited political vision, institutional resources, and cultural flexibility, the city and its residents might not have the compass to navigate an intensely competitive China and a connected Asia that are quite beyond their imagination. What are the future “worlding” prospects for a city if its citizens lack the confidence to move forward?

Southeast Asian Workers in a Just-in-Time Pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 445-460
Author(s):  
Helen Lansdowne ◽  
James Lawson
Keyword(s):  
Working Conditions ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Just In Time ◽  
Economic Context ◽  
The World ◽  
At Home

This chapter looks at the modern just-in-time (JIT) economy, a novel economic context for producing goods—and facilitating pandemics. It examines points where the global economy, Covid-19, and Southeast Asian labour interact. These intersections reveal some important truths both about the JIT economy and about more general consequences of the mobility of humans and their “fellow-travellers.” Southeast Asian workers, whether labouring as migrant workers in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand or labouring at home, supply relatively cheap wares for the world. Many experience confined living and working conditions, where disease transmission can accelerate. The chapter then considers some Southeast Asian workers’ experiences in production, care, and transport. It concludes with the often-forgotten material connectedness of humans to other plants and animals. Either inter-species disruption and sudden new interconnections will diminish, or they will pose ongoing challenges to this just-in-time world.

The Central Asian Economies in the Twenty-First Century

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Pomfret
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Kyrgyz Republic ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Asian Economies ◽  
Belt And Road ◽  
External Powers

This book analyzes the Central Asian economies of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, from their buffeting by the commodity boom of the early 2000s to its collapse in 2014. The book examines the countries' relations with external powers and the possibilities for development offered by infrastructure projects as well as rail links between China and Europe. The transition of these nations from centrally planned to market-based economic systems was essentially complete by the early 2000s, when the region experienced a massive increase in world prices for energy and mineral exports. This raised incomes in the main oil and gas exporters, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan; brought more benefits to the most populous country, Uzbekistan; and left the poorest countries, the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan, dependent on remittances from migrant workers in oil-rich Russia and Kazakhstan. The book considers the enhanced role of the Central Asian nations in the global economy and their varied ties to China, the European Union, Russia, and the United States. With improved infrastructure and connectivity between China and Europe (reflected in regular rail freight services since 2011 and China's announcement of its Belt and Road Initiative in 2013), relaxation of UN sanctions against Iran in 2016, and the change in Uzbekistan's presidency in late 2016, a window of opportunity appears to have opened for Central Asian countries to achieve more sustainable economic futures.

STRATEGI PEMBERDAYAAN BURUH MIGRAN PEREMPUAN INDONESIA DI HONGKONG

2009 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-72
Author(s):  
Tyas Retno Wulan ◽  
Lala M. Kolopaking ◽  
Ekawati Sri Wahyuni ◽  
Irwan Abdullah
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Financial Management ◽  
Practical Knowledge ◽  
Social Remittances ◽  
Central Java ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ethical Work ◽  
The Government ◽  
Female Migrant

Social remittances (ideas, system practice, and social capital flow from the receiving country to the home country) of Indonesian female migrant workers (BMP) in Hong Kong appeared better and more complete than other BMP in other countries like Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, or Singapore.  Based on that research, we are encouraged to do extensive research in order to identify factors  that push  BMP’s social remittances development  in Hong Kong, to identify kinds of social remmitances they receive  and to understand on how far their social remittances become a medium to empower them and their society.  This study is done in qualitative method that uses an in-depth interview technique and FGD.  Subjects of study are BMP, the government (Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration and BNP2TKI), NGOs, migrant workers’ organization and researchers of BMP. The study done in Cianjur (West Java), Wonosobo and Banyumas (Central Java) and Hong Kong indicates that during their migration process, female migrant workers not only have economical remittance that can be used for productive activities, but also social remittances.  The social remittances are in the form practical knowledge such as language skill and nursery; knowledge on health, financial management; ethical work; the mindset changing and networking. The study  indicate that female migrant workers are extraordinary women more than just an ex-helper.  Their migration has put them into a position as an agent of development in society.Key words: Indonesians  female migrant workers, social remmitances, empowerment

Globalization and Benedict XVI’s Caritas in Veritate

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew A. Shadle
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Vulnerable Populations ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Catholic Social Teaching ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
Catholic Social Thought ◽  
Caritas In Veritate ◽  
The World ◽  
The Trinity

In recent years the economy has become globalized. Globalization is the increased flow of goods, services, capital, people, and culture facilitated by innovations in transportation and communication technologies. This chapter examines the phenomenon of globalization and its impact on Catholic social teaching. It looks, in particular, at Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Caritas in Veritate. Pope Benedict criticizes how the current global economy exploits and excludes vulnerable populations around the world. Caritas in Veritate further develops the communio framework initiated by John Paul II and proposes that the communion of the three Persons of the Trinity provides a model for the shape globalization should take, recognizing unity in the midst of diversity. The chapter also looks at how Catholic social thought itself is globalizing, examining in particular the work of Mary Mee-Yin Yuen from Hong Kong and Stan Chu Ilo from Nigeria.

Productive engagement and ageing in productivist welfare regimes: questing for an age-friendly city in Hong Kong

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Zhuoyi Wen ◽  
Ka Ho Mok ◽  
Padmore Adusei Amoah
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Active Ageing ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Voluntary Engagement ◽  
Social Provisions ◽  
The City ◽  
Cross National ◽  
Productive Engagement

Abstract The population aged 65 years and above in Hong Kong is projected to rise from 15 per cent in 2014 to 38.4 per cent in 2069. Therefore, the quest for creating age-friendly conditions and the promotion of active ageing has become a priority for the Hong Kong Government and stakeholders in the city. Using a cross-national comparative framework for productive engagement in later life, this article examines the predictors of productive engagement (perceived voluntary engagement) in two districts (the Islands and Tsuen Wan) of Hong Kong – a typical productivist welfare regime in Asia. Data were collected through a social survey to ascertain the perception of an age-friendly city and active ageing in 2016 and 2018 from 1,638 persons aged 60 years and older. The results indicate some differences in the perception of the key determinants in both districts, but the factors associated with productive engagement were consistent, namely social atmosphere, social provisions and the built environment. The findings are discussed within the broader discourse on social gerontology, age-friendly cities and productivist welfare regimes.

Language competence, identity construction and discursive boundary-making: Distancing and alignment in domestic migrant worker narratives

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (262) ◽  
pp. 97-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans J. Ladegaard
Keyword(s):  
Identity Construction ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
English Language ◽  
Migrant Worker ◽  
Theoretical Concept ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Language Competence ◽  
Boundary Making

AbstractMany people in developing countries are faced with a dilemma. If they stay at home, their children are kept in poverty with no prospects of a better future; if they become migrant workers, they will suffer long-term separation from their families. This article focuses on one of the weakest groups in the global economy: domestic migrant workers. It draws on a corpus of more than 400 narratives recorded at a church shelter in Hong Kong and among migrant worker returnees in rural Indonesia and the Philippines. In sharing sessions, migrant women share their experiences of working for abusive employers, and the article analyses how language is used to include and exclude. The women tell how their employers construct them as “incompetent” and “stupid” because they do not speak Chinese. However, faced by repression and marginalisation, the women use their superior English language skills to get back at their employers and momentarily gain the upper hand. Drawing on ideologies of language as the theoretical concept, the article provides a discourse analysis of selected excerpts focusing on language competence and identity construction.

scholarly journals Desire and the Abject in the City Becoming-Other

1970 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
John Fitzgerald ◽  
Terry Threadgold
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
News Media ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
The City

When The Age renamed the corner of Russell and Bourke streets the ‘Golden Elbow’ it brought the city into close proximity with an altogether different city. Neither Chang Mai, Hong Kong nor Melbourne, the Golden Elbow was defined by what it could be. Neither one thing (Melbourne) nor another (somewhere else), the Golden Elbow is a space of the city-becoming-other. Through narrative work and news media maps of no-go zones, machines mobilise fear and thus value, from the desire flowing through this abject zone. Capitalism sucks value from these encounters through the production of fear as affect. The city-becoming-other is both enormously productive, and destructive of bodies caught up in the mix. This article explores the flow of desire and the abject of a city becoming other through a street drug marketplace.  The encounter with the abject brings use closer to the beauty and fear of ontological mixity.

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