Under a chorus of pleas, the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) has formally permitted foreign housekeepers to come to Taiwan for employment in the draft of the "Employment Services Act" which will soon be passed into law. Although the opening up is only partial, only permitting households where both adults are working and there is an elderly person or child who is handicapped or in need of care to apply, it has already sparked intense discussion at all levels of society.

Those who approve say things like: "If there is a maid at home on call 24 hours a day, who can single-handedly look after the children, keep an eye on the elderly, cook, wash the clothes, sweep the floors, and take care of all kinds of household chores, and besides has a very low wage, isn't that like giving professional women a set of wings, so they can devote themselves even more to jobs without leaving worries behind them?"

But many are concerned that the result of "lowpriced competition" will be to affect the employment opportunities of the domestic industry--maids and nannies. Just last year six local domestics wrote to the Awakening Foundation, contending that bringing in foreign servants would make it difficult for them to find employment.

With citizens' opinions on whether or not the importation of foreign maids should be permitted divided from the start, the CLA did a special survey last year. The results showed that of more than 17,500 questionnaires, only 15.5% approved of bringing in foreign housekeepers. The main reasons for approval were that "one can get high-quality housekeeping services for low labor costs" and "it makes it easier for housewives to enter the workforce."

As for the 46% who disapproved, their reasons were not concern about depriving local people in the same profession of employment opportunities. Instead they were "foreign maids aren't appropriate for Chinese families" and "there will be language difficulties."

Although those who disapproved were in the majority, the CLA permitted foreign domestics to come based on practical considerations.

Economic Benefits: Bringing someone in to be a maid has always been one way for the lady of the house to reduce the burden of labor, but in recent years labor costs in Taiwan have risen rapidly, and willingness to serve as a housemaid has declined among Chinese. Thus, although the government has still not legally permitted foreign domestics, with it being so hard to find good help anymore locally, some households have found their own foreign housekeepers on the sly. Given strong market demand, many young Filipino, Indonesian, Thai, and Malaysian women have entered the country on tourist visas or on visas to visit relatives here and then illegally remained in Taiwan to work.

According to statistics of the CLA, nearly 30,000 local households have hired housekeepers, of which foreign nationals constitute two-thirds. That means that 20,000 households more or less now rely on foreign housemaids to look after the children and the home.

"The salary of a locally born maid is about NT$20,000, while the average for a foreign national is only about NT$15,000," points out an executive-level professional woman employed in a foreign corporation, who has hired both local and foreign-born help, "and besides, these days only middle aged grannies are willing to work as domestics in Taiwan, and they are very selective themselves, and have a lot of demands like vacation or raises."

For those households with children or older people who need constant attention, it is not only more economical to hire a foreign caregiver, it can save the lady of the house work and worry.

In terms of child care, things differ by area. A Chinese child care provider has a salary between NT$6,000 and NT$12,000 per month to look after one child, though it gets as high as NT$15,000 in Taipei City. If there are two infants in the family, the cost will double.

For the same price, plus food and a room, you can have a foreign housekeeper residing in the home, thus resolving the problems of child care, security, cooking, and household chores in one fell swoop. And you can save the trouble of rushing to deliver and pick up the child from day care each day.

Professional woman Li Yan-ping began to employ a foreign nanny because she could not bear to send her recently born child to another person's home for care. "The three that I have had have all been Filipinas. Not only do they teach the child to be outgoing and adorable, they cook, clean, wash clothes . . . they can do everything," she concludes.

Lack of Regulation Means Disputes: Because of the economic advantages, some people who want to hire a maid just go right up and inquire if they see a young woman on the street who appears to be Southeast Asian, trying to "headhunt." Or they even go to the major hangout for foreign labor in Taipei--the Ting Hao area on Chung Hsiao East Road Section 4--or to Catholic churches to look for prospectives.

However, besides competition and stealing away, prices have also been talked up. "We went to look for someone at a rate of NT$17,000 per month, and a Filipina housekeeper embarrassed us by calling out, 'My God, so little?!'" states Li Yan-ping. Although that's the way it is, for the services they provide it's worth it.

Naturally, by no means is everyone as fortunate as she. Before legalization, with regulations and controls inadequate, the quality of foreign help varied widely, and there are many rumors of disputes between employer and employee.

A secretary in a foreign bank who would prefer to remain nameless indicates that she has employed three different Filipina housekeepers. "The first one brought her boyfriend back to the house every day, and the other two would misreport expenses and steal," she says. The last one that she fired went so far as to get her friends together to threaten her and extort money. So after these horrible experiences with foreign help, she came back to looking for local Taiwanese help.

From the other side, the treatment of these foreign maids is not in any way guaranteed or regulated. The Taiwan Grassroot Woman Workers' Centre conducted a survey of 720 foreign national women employed in Taiwan, and fully 75% of the housekeepers said they had been threatened by their employers.

"Even in Singapore or Hong Kong, which have established regulatory standards, it is impossible to avoid problems arising," says the Asia Women Workers. Many domestics in Hong Kong have indicated they have been forced to sleep with their male employers on one or more occasions, or even been forced into the sex trade. In Singapore, on the other hand, where the law is strict, it is stipulated that once the foreign laborer commits a violation, the employer must also be punished. As a result, one employer, going out of the country for two weeks, and fearful that the maid would go out and commit some infraction, locked her in the house, providing only food, and cut off the telephone. In the end the woman had a nervous breakdown and jumped to her death.

A Better Support Network: "In fact, bringing in foreign domestics at most can only resolve the problems of a small number of high income households or professional women," argues Tamkang University associate professor Lee Yuan-chen. At present, the salaries of most women in Taiwan are still low, and not enough to afford the costs of hiring a maid.

Statistics issued by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting, and Statistics of the Executive Yuan reveal that the number of employed women in Taiwan in 1990 has reached 3.56 million. On average, the monthly salary is NT$19,000-plus. If they employ a domestic, there wouldn't be much left after paying her salary, so it is not economically viable. Among employed women, the number of women who earn more than NT$30,000 and are more likely to be able to afford to hire domestic help is only about 204,000, less than 10% of the total figure.

The way it looks now, the problem of how to take care of the needs facing the increasing number of married women who must leave the home to work can only be resolved through a more comprehensive women's policy and support network.

[Picture Caption]

Can bringing in foreign housekeepers really resolve the dilemma between home and job for career women? The photo was taken in the Ting Hao area on Chung Hsiao East Rd. Section 4, one of the main areas where foreign domestics spend their time off. (photo by Arthur Cheng)