With their wallets bulging, more and more wealthy Shanghai families are
hiring Philippine maids to speak English with the kids, despite an official ban
on hiring foreign workers.
Some rich Shanghaiese are willing to pay 6,000 yuan (750 U.S. dollars) a
month to hire a Philippine servant with a college education background, much
higher than the average salary of 3,000 to 4,000 yuan (375 to 500 dollars) that
most Philippine servants can get.
In comparison, a Chinese servant generally gets no more than 1,500 yuan
(187.5 dollars) a month.
A major reason for the burgeoning demand for the Filipinos is that they can
speak English with the children at home.
But the market is still outlawed by government regulations. According to the
Shanghai labor and social security bureau, individuals and families are not
allowed to hire foreign laborers.
The bureau has launched a month-long inspection campaign into the employment
of foreigners and people from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan to stamp out
irregularities.
But with more and more foreigners, corporate management personnel and
professionals coming in, the market is too lucrative to be overlooked by
homemaking companies.
Official statistics show that over 50,000 foreigners and nearly 20,000 people
from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan are currently working in Shanghai.
Insiders estimate that there is a demand for around 4,000 to 5,000 Philippine
maids in Shanghai and at least 2,000 such servants are already working.
60 percent of them were brought to the mainland by their employers, while the
other 40 percent have been introduced by Shanghai's homemaking companies, which
import Filipinos ostensibly as foreign teachers for private schools and
kindergartens.
Xia Jun, head of the Shanghai Jialilai Homemaking Co., hoped the government
would relax its market controls which forced his company to abort a plan to
introduce Filipinos three years ago.
"We cannot employ Filipinos, so we can only train Chinese to have the same
qualifications as a Filipino servant, including their ability to speak English
and provide housemaking services."
To meet market demand, the company now hires English teachers from less
developed central and western regions, but Xia hoped the 2008 Beijing Olympic
Games and 2010 Shanghai World Expo would prompt the authorities to loosen policy
controls.