Sunday Reflections

During our explorations of the city, we have noticed that Sundays are particularly crowded everywhere. Any visitor to Hong Kong will not fail to observe the hundreds of young women that gather in parks, open spaces, and mall areas to talk, sing and picnic together. These women are mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia and they work as maids for Hong Kong families. They’re paid about U.S. 500 per month (minimum) and Sunday is their only day off. As overseas contract workers, they are required to return home every two years and they can come back if their contract is renewed. This requirement, with some exceptions, denies them the possibility of becoming citizens here. According to 2005 statistics it is estimated that there are over 223,000 overseas contract workers in Hong Kong. They can also be found in Singapore and other Asian capitals.

Without the help of these young women, many mothers would not be able to work outside the home. They clean, cook and take care of the children. You often see them on the MTR escorting the kids to school or picking them up from their after-school activities. Many of these women come from poor backgrounds and can often be exploited by unconscionable employers and agencies that arrange these jobs for them. It may take them a long time to repay agency fees and such before they can actually send money home to their impoverished families.

I was interested to find out that here at Lingnan University, philosophy professor Jim Rice, who’s an American, wrote a much-appreciated and needed manual in 2006 on the legal rights of migrant workers. The title of the work is Take your rights seriously and it includes topics such as: women and migrant rights, dealing with loan companies, rights in the work place, racial discrimination, filing a claim with the Labor Tribunal, migrant workers and criminal law, termination of contract, getting access to a lawyer, the duty lawyer office etc. etc. Jim has degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Cambridge University in England where he studied the law. He’s been living in Hong Kong since 1992.