A Mile in Their Shoes: The Employment Experience of Foreign Domestic Helpers in Hong Kong

Since the 1970’s, developing countries in Asia began exporting female domestic helper workforce to resolve unemployment and economic crises. The surge of affordable lived-in caregiver service coincided with drastic increase of dual income household as a result of Hong Kong’s economic boom (Wee & Sim, 2003). The happenstance marked the beginning of female domestic helper employment in Hong Kong, later extended to developed areas of Asia. 

Female foreign domestic helpers continue to play a vital social and economic role by aiding in child and elderly stay-at-home care and  domestic chores. While the employment opportunity has provided many helpers with greater financial stability, it has also contributed to the development of troubling issues involving social justice, mental health, and women’s rights (Amnesty, 2013).

Due to a lack of proper legal protection, domestic helpers have reported a multitude of injustices. Cases include underpayment, deprivation of food, physical, emotional and sexual abuse, and wrongful termination, all of which may occur alongside the more typical concerns of migrant workers, such as homesickness, social isolation, family conflict, cultural shock, and racial discrimination (Laccino, 2014).

            

The purpose of this production is to use photography and interactive exhibition to both present research on the life experience of domestic helpers in Hong Kong, as well as increase awareness of helpers’ alarming circumstances. The images provide a powerful illustration of typical conditions for domestic helpers, a group whose life circumstances has worsened to the point of being compared in international news to “modern day-slavery” (SCMP, 2015).