Maids in China
By Tiffany Tan (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-05-17 08:15
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Some 200 housekeepers meet potential employers at a job fair held by Xingtai Workers' Union, in Hebei province, in March. Huang Tao / China Daily |
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Thirty-six so-called "golden housekeepers" receive training in etiquette, computer skills and others in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. Li Zhong / China Daily |
The mainland is closed to foreign domestic help. But that is not stopping many from hoping the days of employing a Filipino housekeeper are close at hand. Tiffany Tan reports
Jane Zhang has seen some 30 Chinese housekeepers come and go in the past nine years - despite a five-day work week, holiday leave, holiday bonuses and a 13th-month wage.
Zhang says, "Finding a good husband is easier than finding a good ayi" is a running joke among her married friends. The Beijing real-estate agent and mother of a 9-year-old believes the search would be easier if they could hire a foreign - ideally, Filipino - housekeeper.
Visits to the home of a friend in Hong Kong have impressed upon Zhang the merits of Filipino helpers. Between sips of double espresso, she rattles off their attributes as if describing the "Employee of the Year": smart, competent, hardworking, tactful, resourceful, cheerful, self-assured, and easy to get along with.
Zhang also believes that communicating in English will be a boon to her son. For all this, she is willing to pay at least 3,500 yuan ($513) a month - three times what a Chinese helper makes on average.
Zhang says she knows at least five other local families who want Filipino housekeepers and nannies, despite the extra cost, but all of them are up against a wall. Domestic-helper jobs on the Chinese mainland are closed to foreign nationals, and the authorities have been implementing this even more rigorously since the Beijing Olympics.
The government's case is that it is trying to deal with the problem of surplus labor - which has been exacerbated by the financial crisis - says Carl Chen, manager of Angel Housekeeping Company, a housekeeping agency in Beijing, established in 2007.
"It wants to reserve more jobs (for locals) since there are many 'foreign talents' whose jobs can easily be filled by locals," he says.
Another reason for the restriction, Chen says, is to help ease the pressure on Beijing's infrastructure and social services due to a burgeoning population. A February report by China National Radio says the capital's population of permanent and non-permanent residents stands at 22 million, and the authorities are hoping to bring the number down to the ideal figure of 18 million by 2020.