FILIPINO MAIDS : ADVENT AND THE MONOPOLY IN ASIAN COUNTRIES

The demand for a housemaid and the populaces who fill that demand has changed drastically over time. The need for domestic workers or housemaids is being largely satisfied by migrant domestic workers from other countries especially neighbouring smaller countries who congregate towards the so called more affluent lands in order to fulfil their financial side demands at the household in their motherland. The so-called housemaid problems in Asia pacific countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, was the difficulty that the families had with cleaning, cooking, and taking care of the kids and elderly. It was rather too much work for one single person to do herself. However, middle-class families, contrasting with the wealthy ones, could not afford to pay the salaries to draw and maintain skilled household employees or housemaids. It was in this juncture, the changeover in the concept took place.

People ventured to hire poorer labourers who were ready to work in a foreign land for lesser payments and minimum facilities. This gave rise to the migration of domestic workers mainly the housemaids to the nearby foreign nations to earn their livelihood and support the families. Governments do make their best efforts to attract foreign domestic workers by proposing certain government led initiatives. Like for example, Filipino maids had a facility by which they could frequently migrate to Canada through the Live-In Caregiver program. After immigration processes and approval, it required that the Filipino maids work as a live-in caregiver for two full years before consideration for an open visa. Many Filipino maids found this program quite lucrative since the need to maintain their families; especially children would be an easy going process. Because they thought their children could be having a better edge only when they had proper education. According to a survey domestic work is supposed to be one of the major classes of waged work that the Filipino women do, one out of five employed women in Philippines was surely into domestic work. And on the global housemaid market migrant Filipino maids are employed in more than 130 countries.

Commonly domestic workers have mostly been womenfolk and are more likely to be immigrants from other distant places who would have migrated in order to earn their livelihood and support their families. According to known sources, it is estimated that more than about 2.0 million domestic workers are believed to be working around the world and most of whom are away from their homeland. The domestic workers, most of them being women are from the minority groups who earn low wages and have no retirement or health benefits as such.

Although the domestic workers sector is dominated throughout the world by women it is sometimes advantageous and disadvantageous at times for women. The advantage is that it offers them a sector where they can have substantial access, contrarily also proves to be disadvantageous by underlining the concept of gender inequality going by the indication that domestic work is such an area that should mandatorily be carried out by women only. It was once assumed that the domestic helpers sector totally had its place only in the past, where very big houses and palaces of the rich and the royal families hired domestic helpers or maids, and they do not fit to the modern society. However, though certain rationales, the domestic helper or housemaid sector have been changing and have undoubtedly picked up showing clear signs of makeover. In the contemporary world where the concept of both the couple working in a family has been a common factor, taking care of the children, maintaining the household chores and looking after the elderly, hiring a housemaid has been quite inevitable. Apart from this, there may be other reasons as well that contribute to the continuing need for a domestic helper which has gradually been undergoing a transformation in terms of hiring, package, facilities, framing and amendments of the law that protects and safeguards both the employee and the housemaid.

The situations confronted by a domestic worker or a housemaid have been quite diverse in the past and in the contemporary world. While the lobbies for labour rights, women's rights and immigrant rights, try to analyse and understand the conditions faced by domestic workers and the problems specific to their class of employment and do their best to help the housemaids who are in such trouble. According to an official estimate approximately a total of 103,243 Filipino maids live or reside in a foreign country. With Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan being their attractive destinations for seeking employment as housemaids, a majority of Filipino maids reside in Singapore as domestic workers. Filipino maids and domestic helpers have been working in Singapore since long, which has increased between 2010 and 2012.

Even in spite of the existing Filipino experienced maid, Filipino transfer maids, more Filipino fresh maids were newly hired into Singapore in recent years. Singapore and Hong Kong have one of the highest densities of Filipino housemaids since their pay scale is a yardstick for other authorities. In the 1990s, house maids then came from the Philippines whose proportion is now gradually fluctuating from Filipino experienced maid, Filipino transfer maid to Indonesian maids, Myanmar maid, Indonesian maid, Indian maid, Sri Lankan maid, Bangladeshi maid  and other nationalities. Indonesia and Thailand trailed the Filipino method of workforce carry across to cope up with its domestic economic crises. Later on families in Hong Kong too brought into being hiring housemaids from other countries as well which constituted maids from the neighbouring countries as well.

Already in the race, the Indonesian maids competed, preparing themselves to accept half the minimum wage thereby increasing the populace of the Indonesian maids by almost 25-30% in comparison to the Filipino maids. Many websites display experienced house maids such as Myanmar maid, Indonesian maid, Indian maid, Sri Lankan maid, Bangladeshi maid. By using search options and features on the website or by consulting the relevant employment agency specialists, one can find a proficient and hardworking Filipino maid, Myanmar maid, Indonesian maid, Indian maid, Sri Lankan maid, Bangladeshi maid to work within your household as partime, fulltime, live in housemaid. Verified details of housemaid and nannies from the Philippines, Myanmar, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh shall be available at a click of a button.

Sites with advanced methods of searching the ideal maids help to find an efficient housemaid by matching the requirements of one’s household. Along with fresh housemaids, a huge database of maids, like Filipino experienced maid, Filipino transfer maid meeting upto the needs of employers are also available with all relevant details pertaining to their service capabilities. So the process of selecting and hiring a suitable housemaid is no longer considered as a cumbersome process, thanks to the advanced technology and the internet.