Hong Kong should love its foreign domestic helpers, so they will love Hong Kong

Jason Hung says ethnic minorities’ quest to have their rights recognised in Hong Kong starts with Hongkongers ending their master-servant relationship with domestic helpers, and being more than just good bosses

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If more families treated domestic workers as friends, and not just employees of the family, it could be good for Hong Kong’s image in the long term. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Published: 11:15am, 6 Apr 2018Updated: 5:43pm, 6 Apr 2018

Recently, while in England, my Filipino friends and I were poking fun at each other, being very sarcastic. We have different skin colours, mother tongues and cultures but have earned one another’s respect and are fond of making jokes about each other. We are very close companions at college, at home and elsewhere. Though we look different, we know we are equal as human beings.

Contrast that with this week, when I travelled back to Hong Kong to enjoy a holiday with my family. At one gathering, I met two Filipino domestic helpers, Jenny and Anna, who work for my relatives. I addressed myself as “Jason” and tried to greet Jenny and Anna in as friendly a manner as I could. However, they often would only reply “Yes, sir” in a very humble tone and disciplined manner.

Their attitude was a reminder of the entrenched social hierarchy in the city, between Hong Kong Chinese and foreign domestic helpers. The former are often understood as the masters, while the latter are the servants. This type of social hierarchy bars Filipino domestic helpers, and others, from earning the respect they are entitled to, and that they receive elsewhere.

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There is also evidence of such social barriers in the numerous discrimination and domestic abuse cases reported in Hong Kong. One recent example, last month, took place in a Hong Kong park, where a local woman was filmed yelling at a Filipino domestic helper, saying: “You are just a helper, OK?” This it is not just a problem of a Chinese person verbally abusing a domestic helper, but an example of how empathy for foreign domestic helpers is often lacking in this city.

Joan Cordero, a friend and Filipino news reporter at GMA News and Public Affairs, told me, “Even though there are lots of Filipinos working in Hong Kong, it is not [certain] that Hong Kong nationals would eventually consider, or accept, Filipinos as a minority group.” Apparently, a change in attitudes toward Filipinos’ social status would require a recognition of minority rights.

At our family gathering, I brought up the topic of Hong Kong-Filipino relationships in the city. Both Jenny and Anna showed gratitude towards their employers for respecting their rights. “As long as we have good employers, we love Hong Kong,” they said.

However, both admitted that some of their friends are exploited by their employers. Indeed, a 2017 poll by the Mission for Migrant Workers found that, for example, 60 per cent of domestic helpers do not have adequate living environments and 35 per cent lacked basic privacy.