China eyed as ‘more promising’ labor market for Filipinos

Why not tap China as "more promising" labor market for Filipino household service workers? ACTS-OFW Rep. Aniceto Bertiz III asked yesterday the Philippine government to take advantage of the "explosion of demand" for Filipino household staff, especially nannies, in China’s firsttier cities.

“Demand is being driven by China’s rapid economic growth, which has lured some 600,000 expatriates to live and work there, as well as the growing number of upper middle-class Chinese families who want their children to grow around English-speaking nannies,” Bertiz said in a statement.

He noted that expatriates – mostly from South Korea, the United States, Japan, Canada, Germany and France – bring their own household staff, including nannies in several toptier cities in China.

"Guangdong province has the highest concentration of Filipino nannies, partly because it also has the greatest number of resident foreigners working for international corporations," he said.

Bertiz said that, based on unofficial estimates, there are about 200,000 Filipinos providing domestic work, including child care services, in the world’s second-largest economy.

“In the case of nannies, many of them are between 30 to 35 years old. They also serve as private tutors to their wards,” he said.

“Working and living conditions in China overall are better compared to

the Middle East,” Bertiz pointed out.

“The problem with the Middle East is that they still have the kafala system, which China does not have,” he added.

Kafala system is a sponsorship system in which a worker can be moved from one employer to another.

International human rights groups criticized the kafala system for creating the conditions for the exploitation of migrant workers, Bertiz said.

“Because of kafala, many employers tend to abuse their workers, whose passports are seized,” he said, noting that kafala still operates in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Oman.

Bertiz observed that the $400 minimum monthly pay set by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration for Filipino domestic staff abroad is still being violated by many individual employers in the Middle East.

“In Saudi Arabia, for instance, there are employers who still pay their Filipino household service workers only $200 monthly,” he said.