Migration and Immigration - Philippines "Maid Trade"

Philippines "Maid Trade" (Chapter 10) Return to Unit List

There are over 7 million people from the Philippines who work overseas on a temporary basis. That's close to 9 percent of the entire population of the Philippines. On average, migrant workers remit over $7 billion back to the Philippines via bank transfers, and personally bring an estimated $7 billion more during their annual return visits home. In advocating migration abroad to work, the government of the Philippines clearly understands the crucial economic role that these workers play in contributing to the middle- and upper-class households throughout Asia, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates.

To learn more about the Philippines "Maid Trade," visit some of the organizations that assist overseas workers from the Philippines and other Asian countries.

Asian Migrant Center's online news magazine

Scalabrini Migration Center

The Philippine Migration Trail

These sites have many resources and links to explore. One useful and detailed essay worth reading can be accessed from The Philippine Migration Trail's site, by clicking on "Features & Documents" and then clicking on "Feminisation of Migration." This article focuses on the increasing numbers of women from the Philippines who work abroad as temporary laborers, most of them domestic workers. The Philippine Migration Trail's main page also has links to several news stories dealing with the experiences of Philippine migrant workers in host countries like Kuwait, where 65,000 of them are employed (with 30 percent of these doing domestic work). A common theme to many of these stories is that, despite the difficulties migrants encounter as second class citizens abroad, and despite the risks of abuse that overseas work entails, the financial rewards-compared with low wages and unemployment back home-remains a powerful incentive keeping the migrant trail well-traveled. This theme is also obvious in the following article by CNN about Philippine maids living in Hong Kong.

Now, visit one of the companies that provides on-line "shopping" for maids. One of the themes broached in some of the sites above is the "commodification" of women migrants. The most obvious case of this process-in which women migrants become bodies for which one goes shopping-is the notorious "mail-order bride" business. But the domestic work industry also provides services in which anyone with access to a computer can "shop" for a maid. Go to Maidlibrary's "Maid Store. Click on "Maid Search" to see how customers can search for maids by selecting for specific characteristics such as age, marital status, nationality, and experience. The search engine then calls up the number of maids in the database meeting your qualifications, providing photos and a box to check off if you want to add a particular maid to your "shopping basket." Or one can visit one of the agency sites (such as Auk Management) and view the photos and bios of all available maids.

Maidlibrary also provides an open forum in which employers of maids can discuss problems with maids or convey information and advice to each other. A similar forum for employers in Singapore is provided by Asia One.

In both the on-line forums and the on-line "shopping" for maids, it is important to consider a number of issues:

One is the issue of uneven access to the Web. It is rare that a Philippine migrant worker would, herself, ever have access to a computer or the World Wide Web, and so it is generally assumed that those using Web-based services such as Maidlibrary are employers. The open-forums make for interesting reading in that anyone can read and join in, but the discussion is almost entirely among employers.
Another issue is the politics of domestic work. While there are clearly many cases of abuse of domestic workers by employers (cases highlighted and documented in the various advocacy sites listed above), employers themselves believe that they are victims of abuse by maids. But are these situations equal? What are some of the vulnerabilities that maids risk as "second class citizens" in places like Kuwait or Singapore? How do these compare to the risks that employers take in hiring maids?