“Where We Can Find Our Family”
“Huwag Manigarilyo” is not what you would expect to find written on an official banner in Hong Kong, but that’s exactly the message that greets visitors to Victoria Park in Causeway Bay, where Indonesian and Tagalog join Chinese and English on the park’s official signage, such as the banners meant to remind park-goers that smoking is prohibited.
The quadrilingual signs are an indication of the thousands of Filipina and Indonesian domestic workers who descend on the park each Sunday, when they meet with friends and compatriots in what might be best described as a giant communal picnic. Every open space in the park is thronged with women eager to make the most of their only day off. The same is true in nearly every major public space in Hong Kong: in Central, where an especially large number of Filipina women gather in the streets and plazas around Statue Square; in Tsim Sha Tsui, where Malay, Indonesian and South Asian women flock to Kowloon Park; and in many smaller parks throughout the city.
Domestic workers from Southeast Asia first arrived in Hong Kong in the 1970s, at a time when its middle class was growing and countries such as the Philippines faced particularly tough economic times. Since then, the population has swelled from several thousands workers to nearly 250,000, the vast majority of them women. For most of the week, they remain relatively unseen, living and working with their employers, who play them a minimum wage of $3,580 per month. On Sunday, however, the true bulk of Hong Kong’s domestic worker population becomes evident.
Official response to their Sunday activities has been decidedly ambivalent. In 2005, an Eastern District councillor, Frankie Lo, proposed that the domestic workers be moved to a special site in North Point.
“The maids are taking over all the pavements and public places, especially Victoria Park, so other people can’t use the facilities at all. Some are selling food and some are even selling sex,” he told the South China Morning Post. Domestic workers and organizations representing Hong Kong’s ethnic minorities were wary of the plan, accusing the government of trying to shunt them out of public view.
Indeed, some officials take a dim view of the Sunday gatherings. Earlier this year, a proposal to introduce lawns to some Hong Kong parks were met by fears from bureaucrats that the grass would be “swamped”
Tags: Domestic Helpers, Hong Kong, Migration, Streetlife
