Foreign Domestic Research Articles

Recognition and Foreign Domestic Helpers in Hong Kong: The Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) as a Support System

Recognition and Foreign Domestic Helpers in Hong Kong: The Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) as a Support System

A Study on Ways to Introduce Foreign Domestic Workers : Focusing on the Case of Sending Overseas Domestic Workers from the Philippines

A Study on Ways to Introduce Foreign Domestic Workers : Focusing on the Case of Sending Overseas Domestic Workers from the Philippines

Taxes and Unemployment in the Asean Countries

This study has inspired us to understand the relationship between taxes and unemployment in ASEAN countries. Taxes are one of the sources of government development funding, including human development. The purpose of this study is to find out how much ASEAN four governments are taxed for inaction. The four ASEAN governments are used as examples. The methods used in this study were information verified using the eViews app, 12.The results showed that simultaneously the variables Foreign Domestic Investment, Exchange Rate have a positive and significant influence on tax revenue. Partially, Foreign Domestic Investment variables and exchange rates have a positive and significant influence, while exchange rate variables have a negative and insignificant influence on tax revenue. Furthermore, the variable of tax revenue has a positive and significant influence on unemployment. For this reason, governments in ASEAN countries need efforts so that tax revenues can increase so as to reduce unemployment in their respective countries.

Motherhood and Women’s Migration: Evidence from Foreign Domestic Workers in Hong Kong

Female domestic workers often take on multiple roles in different settings, such as that of mothers and migrants. This study focuses on women’s diverse trajectories in timing motherhood and migration from a temporal perspective. Despite the continuities between their paid work for their employers and unpaid care for their own families, both of which are highly feminized, migrant women often face tensions and conflicts between the two; it is difficult to be a good worker and a good mother at the same time. Drawing on the Survey of Foreign Domestic Workers in Hong Kong, this study provides a quantitative picture of how some women decide to move before becoming mothers and some afterward, as well as their different long-term mobility tendencies. The findings lend support to a selectivity process that highly educated women are more likely to be non-mother migrants; they are more likely to move at a younger age and when they are unmarried. However, over time, migrants who were mothers at the time of their first migration are more likely to conduct multiple moves. Such mixed findings suggest that women’s migration is interrelated with motherhood in complex ways, which may reflect the need of repeated migration by mothers on the one hand, and the gender beliefs that continue to regard migrant women as neglecting their families and deviating from feminine domesticity on the other.

Research Trends of Studies on Psychosocial and Health-Related Behaviours of Foreign Domestic Workers in Asia Pacific: A Bibliometric Analysis.

Foreign domestic workers (FDWs) face challenges that impact their psychosocial well-being and health behaviours. This study utilized bibliometric analyses to examine research trends on the psychosocial and health-related behaviours of FDWs in the Asia Pacific region. The bibliometric analysis comprised citation analysis and co-occurrence analysis. A systematic literature search in academic databases, including Scopus, identified 73 relevant articles published from 1996 to 2023. The growth trend revealed a steady increase in the number of publications on FDWs' psychosocial and health-related behaviours in Asia over the years, with significant growth from 2018 to 2023, indicating an increasing interest in this research area. The citation analysis identified influential studies, active authors, and sources with high publication numbers in this research area. The analysis also examined the geographical distribution of studies, identifying the countries and organizations in Asia that contributed significantly to FDW research. The co-occurrence analysis of keywords identified key themes and concepts in the literature. The most active keywords identified include "COVID-19", "Depression", "Foreign Domestic Workers", "Mental Health", and "Quality of Life". In conclusion, this study provides a comprehensive understanding of the current trends and state of knowledge on the psychosocial and health-related behaviours of FDWs in the Asia Pacific region.

Assessing Risks on China’s Natural Gas Supply under Carbon Peaking Policies from Foreign–Domestic Perspectives

China’s natural gas supply has been challenged in the past few years by non-traditional risks such as trading conflicts, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the country’s own emission policy. To ensure energy security and supply, conducting an up-to-date risk analysis of China’s natural gas supply status is crucial. This research utilized the Fuzzy-AHP method to compose a risk index and assessed the key links within China’s natural gas supply chain from the import side to the domestic side. The results indicate that (a) for China’s gas import, the most influential risks are the correlated dependence risk, international relation risk, and supplier internal stability risk. (b) While the dependence risk and transport risk have decreased sharply in the past decade, the import risk is still China’s major concern on natural gas supply. (c) Emissions-peaking and carbon neutrality targets are potential challenges, which the country would possibly face in the near future.

Nawalang Ilaw ng Tahanan:

The Philippines belongs to Southeast Asia and is rich in natural resources. However, it remains a developing country, with globalization and neoliberal policies paralyzing its industries and damaging its environmental resources to prioritize foreign interests (Velasco 2002). With a lack of national industries, the Philippine government implemented a labor export policy favorable to developed countries such as Canada, whose demand for domestic work, childcare, and eldercare expanded. In the 1980s, Canada’s Foreign Domestic Movement (FDM) Program allowed migrant workers to gain permanent residency status (Velasco 2002; Cohen 2000). FDM was replaced by the Live-in Care Giver (LCP) Program by 1992, and during this period the Philippines became among the top sources of laborers to Canada (Bonifacio 2008). The seemingly mutually beneficial setup between the two countries inevitably treated these human beings as commodities, with the laborers also racialized, thereby devoid of rights typically afforded to other migrant workers of European descent. The migration process was also gendered since most caregivers were women, depicting care work as feminized. This paper entitled: Ang Nawalang Ilaw ng Tahanan: Examining the Lived Experiences of Filipino Women in the Live-In Caregiver Program (Trans: The Missing Light of the Home) attempts to shed light on the experiences of Filipino caregivers who worked under the Live-In Caregiver Program. Most importantly, it investigates the interlocking issues of race, ethnicity, and gender and how these became tools of oppression for these Filipino women.

Report on the Status of Foreign Domestic Workers in Cyprus

Report on the Status of Foreign Domestic Workers in Cyprus

Intermediation Of Foreign Domestic Workers From The Employers’ Perspective Pre-Hiring And In-Service Experiences

Intermediation Of Foreign Domestic Workers From The Employers’ Perspective Pre-Hiring And In-Service Experiences

Exploring Foreign Domestic Workers’ Perceived Contextual Factors That Influence Their Participation in Medical Consultations: An Ecological Lens

ABSTRACT Foreign domestic workers have reported various health problems after moving to Hong Kong, which suggests the need for them to seek medical attention. Yet, much uncertainty exists about their perception of healthcare experiences as patients, particularly how they perceive their communication with ethnic-discordant healthcare providers. Drawing on foreign domestic workers’ perspectives, we extracted non-interpersonal factors from Street’s ecological model and its extension proposed by Head and Bute (2018) and examined how foreign domestic workers perceived these contextual factors affected their communication with healthcare providers. Thematic analysis was conducted on thirty Filipina and Indonesian domestic workers’ narratives. Our findings confirmed that the context of digital media (characterized by Internet use and the adoption of a telemedicine approach) and the context of social ties (characterized by employers’ involvement and everyday communication with friends and peers) were both potential contextual factors that domestic workers reported accounted for their participation in medical encounters. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Future research building on these findings is proposed.

How the Party Commands the Gun: The Foreign–Domestic Threat Dilemma in China

AbstractThe leaders of authoritarian states face a dilemma between building a loyal military to guard against domestic threats and a professional military that can guard against foreign threats. In this article, I argue that leaders respond to domestic threats by promoting loyal officers and to foreign threats by promoting experienced officers. I draw on a new dataset, the first of its kind, of over 12,000 appointments to the People's Liberation Army of China. The data show that career ties and combat experience are critical for officer promotion to key military and party offices. However, in periods of high domestic threat, party leaders promote unusually large numbers of officers with personal ties to the top leader. In periods of foreign threat, on the other hand, leaders are more likely to promote officers with prior combat experience. The article challenges the conventional wisdom, showing how autocrats face a trade‐off between guarding against internal and external threats.

Taking Care of Elderly Parents or Children: How Are They Related to the Decision to Hire Foreign Domestic Helpers?

Hiring foreign domestic helpers has been seen as a policy to release females from household responsibilities so they can join the labor market. Surprisingly, few studies explore the relative importance of needs to taking care children and elderly. Employing the 2016 Hong Kong census, we found that the number of elderly persons and the number of young children in the household are positively associated with the decision to hire foreign domestic helpers. Our analysis also demonstrates that members are more likely to choose to work and outsource the care of young children to foreign domestic helpers. However, the findings show that households are more likely to take care of elderly without helpers even when household members are employed. Household members may co-ordinate and allocate time to take care of their elderly instead of outsourcing the care to a foreign domestic helper.

Geographies of Transnational Domesticity: Migration Risks, Intersectional Disadvantage, and Mitigation Strategies by Foreign Domestic Workers from Myanmar

Low-paid domestic work abroad is particularly devalued in Myanmar’s traditional culture but an increasing number of women from Myanmar are taking up such work. Negative perceptions of domestic worker migration in Myanmar—rationalizing as well as reinforced by a government ban on women’s migration as domestic labor (from 2014–2019)—entrenches gender inequalities in the country and individualizes the risks that women encounter during migration. The stigma attached to paid domestic work is extended to a transnational context during migration to Singapore. This article contributes geographical perspectives to the literature on migration risk by highlighting the scalar and transnational dimensions of risk, as well as the entanglement of the public and private spheres. The article also proposes the concept of “multiple intersectional domains” to capture how intersectional identities crosscut with particular social locations to produce cumulative disadvantage during migration. The Myanmar government’s lack of recognition and protection for migrant domestic workers, alongside the “hidden” geographies of domestic work in Singapore, result in structural conditions that entrench risks across multiple intersectional domains thereby enacting slow violence on such migrants. The article draws on qualitative multisited field work conducted in Myanmar and Singapore between 2018 and 2019.

Determinants of COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake among Female Foreign Domestic Workers in Hong Kong: A Cross-Sectional Quantitative Survey.

Globally, minority groups and non-citizens may not be sufficiently included in the COVID-19 vaccine coverage. This study seeks to understand determinants of vaccine uptake among female foreign domestic workers (FDWs) in Hong Kong. We conducted a cross-sectional study of female FDWs (n = 581) from June to August 2021. Respondents completed an online survey obtaining sociodemographic, employment, and health status information. Based upon the socio-ecological model, we obtained individual, interpersonal, and socio-structural factors that may be associated with COVID-19 vaccine uptake. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to examine factors associated with having received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. At the individual level, agreeing that taking COVID-19 vaccines can contribute to COVID-19 control in Hong Kong (OR 6.11, 95% CI 2.27–16.43) was associated with increased vaccine uptake, while being worried of severe side-effects from vaccination (OR 0.29, 95% CI 0.16–0.55) was associated with decreased uptake. At the interpersonal level, those being encouraged by their employer (OR 2.05, 95% CI 1.06–3.95) and family members (OR 2.27, 95% CI 1.17–4.38) were more likely to be vaccinated, while at the socio-structural level, believing vaccination would violate religious beliefs (OR 0.19, 95% CI 0.06–0.65) was associated with decreased uptake. The government can formulate a multi-level approach according to our findings to target the remaining unvaccinated FDW population.

“Contramodernist Buddhism” in a Global City-State: Shinnyo-en in Singapore

This article outlines the arrival and adaptation of Shinnyo-en as an example of contramodernist Buddhism in Singapore. Shinnyo-en’s contramodernist spirituality focuses on its founding Itō family. The arrival of Shinnyo-en is situated within the larger contexts of the Singapore–Japan relationship. Social memories of the Japanese occupation lingered within the population amidst increasing Japanese Foreign Domestic Investments in Singapore. These transnational migration trends brought Shinnyo-en practitioners and Shinnyo-en itself to Singapore. Simultaneously, Singapore’s government had been actively monitoring and regulating religious groups in order to maintain religious harmony, societal wellbeing, and ensure the separation of religion and politics in Singapore. This study explores the adaptations of Shinnyo-en’s organisational structure, religious practices, and activities in Singapore from 1983 to 2021. It argues that Shinnyo-en has actively adapted to the Singapore context and has actively courted the state for its political survival, adjusting its activities to gain social recognition from Singapore society as a Buddhist organisation. Despite these adaptations, Shinnyo-en Singapore retains its contramodernist Buddhist spirituality, focusing on its founding Itō family. This article highlights the integration of Shinnyo-en’s contramodernist beliefs within Shinnyo-en’s activities and how this contramodernist spirituality mobilises support for selected social causes through its practitioners.

Analisis Pengaruh PMA, PMDN dan Ekspor Migas-Nonmigas Terhadap Pertumbuhan Ekonomi Indonesia

This study aims to analyze the effect of Foreign Investment, Domestic Investment, and Oil gas-Non oil gas Exports on Indonesia's economic growth. The data used is time series data from 2010 to 2019 on a quarterly basis. Data were analyzed using the ECM (Error Correction Model) method with the help of Eviews 10. The results showed that foreign investment and domestic investment had a significant effect in the short and long term on economic growth, while oil gas-non oil gas exports had no significant effect in the short and long term on economic growth.

The Invisible Impact of Frozen Conflicts: A Case Study of Foreign Domestic Workers in Cyprus

ABSTRACT Foreign domestic workers are vulnerable everywhere in the world but are particularly so in frozen conflict societies. The article describes their poor living and working conditions in the Republic of Cyprus and argues that these have been exacerbated by the social consequences of the frozen conflict on the island. It focuses on three social consequences of the frozen conflict, namely that it has deprioritised the feminist agenda, normalised nationalist narratives and created a skewed understanding of human rights. Combined, these explain why protecting the rights of foreign domestic workers in Cyprus is even less of a priority than elsewhere.

The urgency to reform the kafāla system in the sake of human rights of Indonesia domestic workers

The Maṣlaḥa of Indonesian Foreign Domestic Workers in Saudi Arabia still become the biggest concern. Even though Saudi Arabia has reformed the Labor Law on the kafāla system, unfortunately, it is excluded from Foreign Domestic Workers. Therefore, it urges legal research to examine the kafāla system in Saudi Arabia from an Islamic and human rights perspective. Then, to provide the strategic plans for the Indonesian government to do. This research uses doctrinal research methods through the literature study and analyzed with the qualitative descriptive method. From the Islamic law perspective, although the kafāla system in Saudi Arabia is derived from the Qur'an and the Sunnah. Kafāla system in Saudi Arabia is regulated on Resolution no. 310. However, in practice, Kafil abuses their strong position (83. QS. Al-Mutaffifin) in treating workers arbitrarily. In other words, there is a deviation from the philosophical values of maqāṣid ash-syarīʿah. From the international law perspective, this practice is against the mandate of the UDHR and ICCPR. Therefore, it is highly recommended that Indonesia push Saudi Arabia to replace individual sponsorship as Kafil for Indonesian Domestic Workers. It is better to establish a special guarantee institution for Domestic Workers from Indonesia in Saudi Arabia integrated with the SPSK System.

No Functional Immunity for Crimes under International Law before Foreign Domestic Courts

Abstract For some time now, there seemed to be consensus that functional immunity does not protect (former) state officials from criminal prosecution by foreign domestic courts in cases where they are suspected of having committed or participated in crimes under international law. Recently, however, this has been called into question not only by scholars but also by members of the International Law Commission as well as a considerable number of state representatives. It is against this backdrop that the German Federal Court of Justice has issued a landmark judgment confirming the exclusion of functional immunity in cases of crimes under international law. This article provides a summary as well as a legal analysis of the Court’s main arguments. It focuses on the main question of immunity while also touching upon the Court’s application of the substantive law concerning war crimes under the German Code of Crimes Against International Law.

Psycho-Social Constraints on Naturalistic Adult Second Language Acquisition

The following study investigated a rare case of adult immersion in a second language context without prior exposure to the language. It aimed to investigate whether Length of Residence (LoR) acts as a strong index of L2 speech performance when coupled with daily exposure and interaction with first language speakers. Twenty-two females from Africa and Asia who worked as Foreign Domestic Helpers (FDH) in Omani homes and with varying LoRs performed an AX discrimination and a production task which tapped into Omani consonants and clusters that are absent from their L1s; their accent was also rated by L1 Omani listeners. Results showed a surprising lack of significance of LoR on all the production and perception measures examined. Discrimination results showed a low sensitivity to Arabic consonantal contrasts that are lacking in the L1 across all participants, and a small positive effect of L1 literacy. Production results exhibited low accuracy on all Arabic consonants and a marked foreign accent as judged by L1 listeners, with a small positive effect of L2 literacy. We argue that the nature of the interactions between FDH and employers, along with uneven power relations and social distance, counteract any advantage of LoR and the immersion setting examined here.