Help
Two big issues are bubbling up over Hong Kong’s army of foreign domestic helpers and the whole community is going to have to sit down and decide how to address them. First is the issue of places for the helpers to congregate in large numbers safely and freely on their days off without overloading public facilities in general use by the whole resident community and visiting tourists; and secondly, more sensitively, how to provide an acceptable working environment inside the home during hot summer months.
Two underlying trends are adding to the complexity and severity of the problems. One is sheer numbers, the other is the increasing impact of climate change.
Given the robust improvement in the local economy since Covid, the number of foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong is moving steadily back towards the all time peak of 399,000 reached in 2019. Numbers fell in 2022-23 then recovered to 368,000 in 2024. Today we are probably looking at around 400,000, close to one tenth of the local workforce. They are overwhelmingly female, about 55 per cent from the Philippines, 42 per cent from Indonesia and the balance from other Asian countries.
Local families particularly rely on the helpers as carers for young children and, increasingly, the elderly, in addition to general housework. Given the aging of the population, this trend is likely to continue. At the same time, since prospective employers are only required to show a monthly income equivalent to about $30,000, and engagement of the helpers frees up increasing numbers of housewives to take up more lucrative employment themselves, the situation is self-reinforcing. Helpers’ minimum monthly pay is just over $5,000.
Increasing those two minimums might provide a superficial Band-Aid solution, but would be socially disruptive and wildly unpopular. Politically a non-starter, so the problem remains and is going to get bigger. Most employers give the day off on the weekend, usually Sundays because that best suits their own programmes and also permits the helpers to worship according to their own religious beliefs and many do. The Filipina choir in St John’s Cathedral for example, is rightly famous and many non-Tagalog speakers are known to attend services just to hear them sing. But attendance for worship only takes up a small part of the day, many hours remain.
Some helpers take the opportunity to hone their skills or pursue other educational options, but again we are only talking of a portion of the day. Naturally they don’t want to stay in the employer’s home where they are obliged to live: they want and deserve a break. There is also a human desire to congregate with relatives and friends to exchange gossip and engage in other social activities, sharing self-prepared dishes, lending money to and borrowing from each other, singing and dancing, maybe some card-playing.
Hence the practice has developed for large gatherings to take place in particular locations. We have all seen them, mini encampments with cardboard laid down on the ground, tents erected to provide shelter from the sun and rain, on walkways, under flyovers, in public transport interchanges and so on. Mostly colourful and harmless, though to a degree unsightly. As one friend who frequently visits our city put it to me “Sunday is the one day a week when Hong Kong looks like a third world country”. A bit harsh perhaps but hard to dismiss.
As we look to the future, the situation is likely to get worse rather than improve. For example, one of the most popular spots in Central near Statue Square will soon be unavailable because of major construction work which will last several years. More generally, there are the consequences of climate change. There are likely to be more typhoons in and the storms more intense. It is one thing to put up with a brief mild shower, several hours of the heavens opening is a different kettle of fish. And it will definitely be getting hotter. Taken together these factors will argue for proper shelter and the need for fans if not full scale air conditioning. That means permanent buildings with power supply, and proper toilets.
Some efforts in this area have been made in the past, involving NGOs and a degree of liaison with the government. But given the scale involved I think there is no alternative but for the government to get more directly and extensively involved, albeit with a continuing role for the NGOs. The Home Affairs Department is an obvious candidate. And school buildings, mostly left vacant at weekends, must be an obvious option as part of the solution.
This will bring its own problems. On the one hand the schools will want guarantees with respect to security and cleanliness (the premises must be clean and vacant first thing Monday morning ready for classes to begin) which will require on-site staffing which costs money. These resources will be beyond the means of the NGOs. At the same time operation of the premises must be sufficiently casual so as to make them attractive. There will be singing, dancing, gambling and expressions of affection.
While we are bracing ourselves for this debate, we must also prepare for another on how to make homes suitable for manual labour in hot weather. Some employers are reported to ban their helpers from turning on the air conditioning when they are not at home themselves. Of course there are some employers who do not even have air conditioning because of the expense and prefer to rely on fans. Which does raise the question of how they can afford a helper at all. I am not sure there is a role for government in this discussion other than to draw attention to the dangers of heat stroke. At the end of the day, we all need to find ways to live together in harmony and mutual respect. One for civic education classes perhaps.