Hong Kong court rejects Filipino maids' plea for residency
Domestic workers in Hong Kong have long been treated a notch below other foreign workers, and are told that admission into the country can never be for the purposes of settlement.
Domestic workers in Hong Kong have long been treated a notch below other foreign workers, and are told that admission into the country can never be for the purposes of settlement.
Hong Kong鈥檚 top court announced that foreigners can enter the city as maids and domestic helpers, but cannot expect to settle there as permanent residents.
The verdict deals a blow to a huge contingent of Filipino maids and nannies 鈥� estimated at some 300,000 females, usually unmarried and under 35 鈥� who make up a diaspora in Hong Kong. The domestic workers are increasingly seen as an indispensable part of the fast-paced city's social fabric, helping keep the Chinese family working and orderly in a highly competitive environment.
Yet sadly for the maids, today鈥檚 ruling reverses a lower court verdict that would have allowed the women聽to seek residency.聽Had it been upheld, the ruling would have been a breakthrough for the rights of domestic workers, who often complain of overwork, second-class status, and occasionally, abuse.
The system for foreign workers in Hong Kong is stratified. As CNN notes today:
In recent years the ubiquitous Filipino maid has become a staple part of Hong Kong culture. They are known for hard work, dignity, and efficiency. Collectively, they have built a kind of mini-civic society: They have their own postal system, often police themselves, have a variety of support groups, and even run ballots and campaigns for elections back home.
Most middle- and upper-echelon Hong Kong families hire a maid, and apartments usually include a tiny space as the maid鈥檚 quarters or abode.
For many years on Sundays, usually their only day off, Filipino nannies peacefully and colorfully gathered in central Hong Kong, along the main boulevard, past the city hall and the old Admiralty building, putting down blankets or chairs and pulling out lunch baskets, stretching out two-or three deep on a sidewalk in a line that often is a half-mile long.
Yet the right of maids to assemble has been under attack, and their overall legal status has been shrinking, as the city contemplates the costs (said to be $3 billion or more) of offering them the kinds of equal access that would involve education and other social services.
The South China Morning Post writes: