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The greater demand for foreign domestic helpers reflects the more serious structural problems in Hong Kong

2021-11-16T09:52:02.935Z


The Courtyard by Marriott Sha Tin will be used as a designated quarantine facility from the 8th of next month. It will provide 500 rooms for foreign domestic helpers who come to Hong Kong to work for quarantine purposes. Reservations will be accepted on Monday (15th). The website will open less than half an hour after opening.


The Courtyard by Marriott Sha Tin will be used as a designated quarantine facility from the 8th of next month. It will provide 500 rooms for foreign domestic helpers who come to Hong Kong to work for quarantine purposes. Reservations will be accepted on Monday (15th). Less than half an hour after the website opened, it has been shown to arrive There will be no room supply in February next year, which shows that Hong Kong people still have an urgent need for foreign domestic helpers.


Coincidentally, the Department of Sociology of Hong Kong Baptist University released a research report on the same day entitled "Strangers/Helpers at Home: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Relationship between Hiring Domestic Helpers in Hong Kong and the Family", which further explored the relationship between Hong Kong families and foreign domestic helpers.

Compared with the past, domestic helpers are generally used to study their difficulties in Hong Kong. From the perspective of local employers, this study explores the practice of Hong Kong families in hiring overseas helpers and points out the impact of overseas helpers on Hong Kong families.

Demand for foreign domestic helpers continues unabated and continues

The results of the study indicate that among 2,003 married couples with wives ranging from 18 to 55 years old, 25.7% of the households surveyed have employed or are currently employing foreign domestic helpers. At the same time, even non-middle-class families have a large demand for foreign domestic helpers. The study calculates The interviewees’ income, living area, family financial status, and education level were used to obtain a median. It was found that 25% of households below the median hired foreign domestic helpers.

In addition, the demand for foreign domestic helpers by Hong Kong couples has also risen sharply in the past 40 years. From married couples in the 1980s, the proportion of foreign domestic helpers employed within 10 years after marriage was 8%, and by the 2010s it rose sharply to 30%; and The number of continued employment of foreign domestic helpers has also been calculated. The rate of cessation of employment within one year, five years and ten years has dropped from 9% to 4%, 38% to 18% and 68% to 32% respectively.

New-generation married couples have a significantly higher demand for foreign domestic helpers. For every 10 couples, 3 families have hired foreign domestic helpers within 10 years to share the burden of housework and childcare.

(Photo/Photo by Li Zetong)

The difficult situation of foreign domestic helpers

Although the practice of hiring foreign domestic helpers has become more permanent, it has not become more stable. Among all the respondents who have hired foreign domestic helpers, one-third have changed foreign domestic helpers; a quarter are beginning to hire foreign domestic helpers. Change foreign domestic helpers within the first four years.

The average satisfaction rate of employers’ foreign domestic helpers is only 6.16 points out of 10.

While Hong Kong households’ demand for foreign domestic helpers has increased, employers have also fallen into a dilemma where even if they are dissatisfied with foreign domestic helpers, they are still limited by the need to hire foreign domestic helpers.

One of the reasons for the above phenomenon is that the existence of foreign domestic helpers has created a space for personal parenting and even provided flexibility for considering having a second child.

The analysis shows that families that employ foreign domestic helpers can reduce the time spent on housework by up to 6.5 hours per week, while the time spent on childcare can be increased by up to 3.4 hours. When the housework is shared outside, parents have more space to focus. Do a good job in parenting.

In addition, the study found that the employment of foreign domestic helpers has a positive relationship with the fertility rate of couples. For families that employ foreign domestic helpers, the probability of having a second child is about 13% higher than that of couples who do not employ foreign domestic helpers.

The Baptist University research report pointed out that one of the reasons behind the increase in the demand for foreign domestic helpers may be related to the rising cost of living. Some families use foreign domestic helpers to take care of children or the elderly in exchange for their own employment space in order to earn more money.

For example, the study found that blue-collar dual-career families with lower incomes have joined the ranks of hiring foreign domestic helpers, and some cases rely on foreign domestic helpers to take care of their children and elderly parents.

The problem of aging population in Hong Kong is getting worse.

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The root cause of the problem needs to be solved

Rather than having a positive impact on Hong Kong families, it is more suitable to describe the benefits of hiring a foreign domestic helper. It seems to be a short-term solution to the structural problems of Hong Kong's society.

The increase in dual-time families, the decline in the birth rate and the rise in the elderly population are all permanent social structural problems in Hong Kong. More and more Hong Kong families choose to continue to hire foreign domestic helpers, which exactly reflects the failure of the Hong Kong government to effectively solve the above problems. The citizens need to deal with it in their own way.

In recent years, the government has promoted the general direction of home care for the elderly, which will undoubtedly help relieve the pressure on the society as a whole, but it seems that more attention is needed to deal with the problems related to dual-time families.

For example, we can refer to the addition of caregiver allowances in foreign countries. For example, the United Kingdom provides allowance support for caregivers over the age of 16 who provide at least 35 hours of service to their families every week, attracting family members to stay at home to provide care, and at the same time reduce the financial pressure of the family , Which reduces the pressure of care and at the same time provides greater incentives for fertility.

Local families are eager for the structure of foreign domestic helpers to face the problem of solving the disparity between the rich and the poor is the best way to encourage childbirth.

Source: hk1

All news articles on 2021-11-16

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