Wednesday, January 01, 2014

Hong Kong: the Amah, Yaya, Pembantu Situation

Many domestic workers from other parts of SE Asia, most from the Filipins (Amahs in HK, Yaya's in Phil, Pembantu's in Indo) have come to HK to take advantage of money they can save by working for a few years. During time off, they congregate, according to where they hail from, in different sections of the city. The guide book mentioned this situation and it was very evident as we walked about as it was the holiday season and many of the workers had time off. As we were walking down from King's Park in Kowloon, we passed by a group congregating outside this school. They create little make shift sitting areas out of cardboard to keep themselves and their food and such clean and to give them a bit of privacy from passerby's. I knew this crew was Filipino because as we were walking down the stairs, two young ladies gave Emmerson and Ada a double take and started talking excitedly amongst themselves. The girls were wearing their ISM sweatshirts and I put two and two together and asked if they were from Manila. They were and we had a bit of a chat before getting on with our respective afternoon plans. Not sure how HK will deal with this situation or just accept it as a part of having lots of foreign workers who do not easily fit into the rest of HK society.


Love seeing the big puff down coats come out in SE Asia when the temp drops below hot.


A larger congregation in another part of Kowloon. I figured this was mostly Indo by the food they were eating and more headscarves being worn.




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