Letters | Children of domestic helpers also deserve the best start in life
- Readers discuss the hardships of migrant domestic worker mums, the call for the government to avert the property downturn, and the policy allowing more non-local students to enrol in Hong Kong universities
Today is World Children’s Day – a day for children like myself to speak out and reimagine a better world. In a developed society like Hong Kong, can you imagine that there are still children who don’t have a legal identity and struggle to have their basic needs for food, shelter, education and healthcare met?
One was about a mother who could not breastfeed her baby and did not have money to buy formula milk. Her baby had to go hungry and was very underweight. This inspired me to find out more about their lives here.
Pregnant migrant domestic workers face many hardships, such as being illegally fired from their jobs or treated badly by employers. Some end up unemployed, homeless, staying illegally in Hong Kong and unable to access important public healthcare and welfare services for themselves and their children. I can imagine how hard it is to be in such a situation.
My own Aunty has been a part of our family for nearly 10 years, and all my memories of my time in Hong Kong have her in them. While my parents are at work, she takes care of my brother and me. I have learnt about her life and the sacrifices she has made to give her child a better future. She can’t see him often and care for him the way she cares for us. This makes me determined to do what I can within my life and community to help.
I have organised bake sales to raise money. I always nominate PathFinders as the NGO to work with for projects at my school, Discovery College. I raise awareness for the work PathFinders does whenever I can. With the money I have raised, I researched and bought baby carriers for migrant domestic workers who are new mothers. On Mother’s Day, my family handed out sunflowers to show appreciation for them.
I want to see a better world where the children of migrant domestic workers get the fairest and best start in life. Surely this is what all children deserve.
Abby King, a young supporter of PathFinders
In a free market, property prices can go up – or down
I was amazed by the proposal. One wonders why the government is duty-bound to reverse the property downturn. Must property prices always be on the rise? If so, should stock prices also be included? Is Hong Kong still a free market, or a place where the wealth of the haves must be protected against the have-nots?
Confucius was wise to have said, more than 2,500 years ago, that “it is not a problem when people are poor, but it is a problem when wealth is unevenly distributed”.
Ringo Yee, Tuen Mun
How to maximise gains from influx of non-local students
Having more non-local students will bring about a more diverse learning environment. Since intercultural communication techniques are essential soft skills in the workplace, having a mix of local and foreign students in the classroom will facilitate such learning.
It will also allow students fuller immersion in an English-language environment. After all, English is a lingua franca both academically and socially in the global context.
Teachers will benefit by having better career development in a more international environment, which would benefit teaching in the end. Meanwhile, professors can recruit student research assistants from a greater array of cultural backgrounds to widen their research scope. This would allow the findings to be transferred into a wider context.
On their part, universities grappling with declining local student populations will benefit from admitting more foreign students. Overall, a more international environment will attract more scholars from around the world, benefiting both teaching and research.
However, with the policy change, a few areas may require more attention. First, more hostels would be needed for the additional non-local students.
Second, a more culturally friendly environment should be cultivated: for example, racial discrimination must be prevented at orientation camps and on campus, while prayer rooms should be set up and special meals prepared to meet religious needs.
Third, more language support and resources could be allocated. Since non-local students, including those from the mainland, have raised concerns about their English proficiency, universities and governments could reserve more manpower and financial resources for English-language centres.
The government’s call to admit more non-local students is a welcome move, but relevant supportive measures should be introduced to maximise benefits.
Alison Ng, assistant lecturer, Centre for Applied English Studies, University of Hong Kong
