HONG KONG: Nepali Migrants Come, Despite Many Woes

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Ramyata Limbu

HONG KONG, Jan 2 2004 (IPS) - Twenty-seven year old Regina (not her real name) sits pensively on a sofa in a tiny apartment in Hong Kong’s central neighbourhood as Chinese soap opera stars jabber away on television in a language that sounds both harsh and alien to her.

Beside her, 21-year-old Amisha (name changed), ruefully cuts her long painted nails – on the sharp instructions of Mrs Chan, the women’s domestic employment agent in Hong Kong.

”You can’t afford to have long nails if you’re here to work, it’s not hygienic,” says Chan, a stern, no-nonsense woman picked the women up at the airport. The entire trip from the airport to the agency’s boarding house is interspersed with Chan’s instructions – a long list of household do’s and don’ts, and upon arrival, an impromptu lesson in lighting a gas stove, and cleaning the bathroom.

Both the women, one a married mother of two, the other a college student, have arrived in this bustling Chinese territory to fulfill a two-year contract as domestic workers.

”I know it’s going to be hard working in a foreign country where the language and culture is unfamiliar,” says Regina. ”There’s no one to love you, people only expect you to work.”

She left behind an ailing husband and a five and 10-year-old in the care of her elderly mother so that she can earn enough money to pay debts and her husband’s medical fees.

Armed with a smattering of Cantonese, very little English, and basics of Chinese cooking, Regina is nervous about meeting her employers and fulfilling the long list of household duties she is expected to carry out in Hong Kong.

But she is determined to stick it out. ”I can’t go back without making some money. I’d be letting my family down.”

Despite her parents’ disapproval, Amisha decided to quit college and come to Hong Kong to see life in a big city: ”I know I can make much more money in Hong Kong as a domestic than working in Nepal with a college degree.”

By Nepali standards, the 3,270 Hong Kong dollars (421.3 U.S. dollars) minimum monthly salary for domestic work is a lot of money.

Although both women have agreed to pay their agents six months’ salary in return for getting them a job, Regina says: ”Even then I’ll make more money than I will back home. And if I’m careful I can save. It’s hard to say what kind of employer I’ll get, good or bad. But given time I’m sure I’ll adjust. I’ve heard of some bad experiences but also about some domestics who’ve got great employers.”

Nearly 240,000 live-in domestic workers are in Hong Kong, a territory of 6.8 million people. Most – about 100,000 – are from the Philippines, followed by those from Indonesia, Thailand and Nepal.

An estimated 1,500 Nepali domestics work in Hong Kong, but the number is likely to grow as Hong Kong agencies see Nepal as a viable recruiting centre.

”Nepali domestics are simple. Some of the educated ones speak good English and are less likely to make trouble with unions,” says Mr Chan, an agent who runs a recruiting and training centre in Kathmandu where eager applicants are taught Cantonese, the basics of Chinese cooking and interviewed by potential employers via the Internet.

Such employment outfits are an increasing cause of concern for groups like the Hong Kong-based Far-east Overseas Nepalese Association (FEONA) – a non-profit social organisation that works with Nepali migrants in South-east Asia.

”They’re trying to legalise illegal matters,” says Prem Chandra Rai, coordinator of FEONA who says that some agencies in Nepal charge a little less than 1,000 U.S. dollars as agency fees and take nearly a third of that from the domestic workers.

”They work with agencies here and make applicants sign a paper saying they have taken a six-month loan from the agency. That’s totally false. Once they sign the contract, the worker needs to pay,” Rai adds. ”People don’t have a clue, they’re in a hurry to come to Hong Kong. They take advantage of that weakness.”

There is concern that problems already occurring in places like Indonesia are likely to be duplicated in newer sending countries like Nepal.

”Underpayment and non payment are common especially among Indonesians for even up to a year,” says Kim Warren, manager at the Christian Action’s Domestic Helpers and Migrant Workers Programme in downtown Kowloon.

This is illegal in Hong Kong, where the rule is that workers can be deducted up to 10 percent of the first month’s salary as a commission after a job is found.

But usually a recruiter or agent will have the workers sign contracts that they don’t normally read or are in English and often not translated,” Warren explains. ”So a worker from Nepal, or India, Sri Lanka may work for as little as 500 Hong Kong dollars a month which is a big drop from the 3,270 Hong Kong dollars they are entitled to.”

The agency’s eight staff members are hard pressed providing the endless stream of domestic and migrant workers free paralegal advice on job and immigration problems.

The centre also manages two shelters for domestic workers and has placement, training and language classes to help them integrate into mainstream Chinese society.

It is not always easy, judging from the experiences of other Nepali migrants here, majority of who work in construction, security and sectors like cleaning, restaurants, bars and nursing homes.

Some 30,000 to 40,000 Nepalis live in Hong Kong. Many in the Nepali community were also born to former British Gurkha families and their dependents.

But opportunities also come with costs. So as the numbers of those like Regina and Amisha increase, the need for social support becomes crucial in an alien environment.

Arita (not her real name), a Hong Kong identification card holder who runs a roadside stall selling jewellery in downtown Kowloon, is becoming a champion for domestic workers here.

”At least 20 domestics who come to visit me on their days off, when we chat about home, prepare Nepali meals, go for barbeques and just talk about life and our kids,” Arita, reasonably comfortable with Cantonese, tells IPS during a visit to Kathmandu to visit her children.

”They often don’t have money since they’ve committed their first six months’ salary to the agency. They call when they are in trouble. Outside of the homes they work in, they don’t really know anyone, they’re alienated,” she explains. ”I help as much as I can.”

Helping often means providing petty cash, complaining, in person, to employment agencies about mistreatment and threatening to report them to the labour tribunal or charitable groups.

”Only two of the girls I know say they have employers who treat them well. The rest are not happy and will probably return to Nepal after their two-year contract. One girl I know was made to sleep in the bathroom, another was given only two meals a day, just plain rice and spinach,” she continues. When this worker complained, she got two biscuits in the morning, and no tea.

She talks about another domestic worker who starts working at 4 a.m and is fed at 3 p.m., and others get just one day off in a month. ”It’s hard. But many of them plan to stick it out for the money they hope to save for home,” Arisha says.

Likewise, ”people don’t bat an eyelid here when you hear of couples splitting, relationships breaking up under pressure and influences of life in the fast lane, men taking on second wives or mistresses. And women working in entertainment clubs and even as prostitutes,” says Arita, who used to work in a bar.

Lower levels of education, language problems, and sense of marginalisation can make adjustment harder.

”The language problem is immense,” says Ah Ming, a social worker. ”Many people come from villages, the (local) mothers don’t speak English, they are not educated so difficult to integrate into mainstream Chinese society. Discrimination everywhere. It exists but not visible.”

But following pressure from the non-Chinese community, and with an aim to improve tolerance, the Hong Kong government is pushing a bill that makes discrimination on racial grounds unlawful.