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Hong Kong: Sundays in the Park With Bagoong

Hong Kong: Sundays in the Park With Bagoong

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by IDWFED published Mar 22, 2018 12:00 AM
Once a week, Hong Kong’s domestic workers, many from the Philippines and Indonesia, take to public spaces for adobo-scented picnics and a quiet act of rebellion.

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Read the original article in full: Sundays in the Park With Bagoong |  Taste

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Once a week, Hong Kong’s domestic workers, many from the Philippines and Indonesia, take to public spaces for adobo-scented picnics and a quiet act of rebellion.

Over 300,000 domestic workers live in Hong Kong—4 percent of the 1,000-square-mile city’s 7.3 million population—mainly women from the Philippines and Indonesia. “Helpers,” as they’re called locally, typically clean house, run errands, buy groceries and cook meals, and keep an eye on children. They get one day off a week, and most spend their day of rest attending church and participating in a citywide outdoor feast.


Photo: Max Falkowitz/Taste

By law, they’re required to live with their employers, and the minimum wage for domestic work is just $4,410 Hong Kong dollars a month, about $560 USD, which leaves little to spend on leisure. Hence the streetscape of cardboard outdoors with friends—it’s free.

Like most domestic workers in Hong Kong, they found work through recruitment agencies and are often saddled with massive debt. Elizabeth Tang, the general secretary of the International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF), explains that while the law caps recruitment agencies’ fees at 10 percent of a worker’s first month’s salary, some illegally charge as much as six months’ salary, forcing workers into a pattern of indentured servitude. “The indebtedness presses them to endure all forms of violations of their rights for fear of losing their jobs,” she says.

“Sunday is when migrant workers can meet friends from their countries,” says Phosuk Gasing, an executive committee member of the IDWF who’s worked as a helper in Hong Kong for 26 years. “They can speak the same language, taste food from their homes, and share problems and how to solve them.” The IDWF’s on-the-ground affiliate, the Federation of Asian Domestic Workers Unions, represents migrants to the government, disseminates educational materials, and advocates for survivors of human trafficking and employer abuse.

In a foreign land where migrant workers are made invisible behind their employers’ doors, expressing unfettered public joy is a quiet act of rebellion. To listen to the music you want, to play sports and worship with your peers, to eat food that reminds you of home before you return to someone else’s. “We come here, to this spot, every Sunday,” says one of the ladies from the A-game picnic. “We have nowhere else to go. But here we can catch up with each other and eat and relax.”


Photo: Max Falkowitz/Taste

Source: Max Falkowitz/Taste

Story Type: News

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