From Sringatin & MICROLAB
The newest of the MICROLAB Collective book, What we carry, under the same skyfeatures essays, poems, photographs and drawings by Indonesian migrant workers, reflecting on their life journeys from their villages in Indonesia to Hong Kong.
This collaborative effort involved not only migrant workers, but also academics who helped sharpen their writing, as well as artists who guided the process and helped design the layout of the book.
Their stories represent the journeys of hundreds of thousands of domestic workers in Hong Kong and beyond.
The shared collective emotion begins in Chapter One. Despite living in resource-rich Indonesia, the authors describe facing economic hardship due to the country’s broken system. “It is true, our country is rich, but we do not live in prosperity,” they wrote.
Each chapter touches on the invisible burdens migrant workers face, such as long-distance motherhood and structural isolation. It opens with an essay, followed by photographs taken by migrant workers. The photos are their personal reflection of what they have “carried”, metaphorically and literally, from Indonesia to Hong Kong, during their work and days off.
The photos are accompanied by captions describing the burdens of life, their worries and hopes as migrant workers.
A poignant example is in the second chapter. A migrant worker uses a photo of suitcases in front of airport check-in counters to express loneliness, longing and determination. “Leaving family, children, parents behind – we store our feelings of longing, pain, discrimination in a suitcase of sincerity,” she wrote.
The stories shared by the 15 women in the book can easily be experienced by many other migrant workers. This can be seen during the presentation of the book on International Women’s Day on March 8.
The authors drew a lot of laughter when they told the audience about experiencing miscommunications and misunderstandings when they first came to Hong Kong. For example, they mistook the Cantonese word “tang” for “chair”, while the employer meant “wait” or “lamp”. Writers turned to humor to alleviate the daily struggles and sadness they might experience.
reading What we carry, under the same sky it’s like watching a tv drama. It begins with reflections on their country, then continues with the challenges they face abroad, personal moments with friends on days off, and ends with their dreams and aspirations.
The book also captures the harsh reality of a cycle of exploitation. Although the laws of Hong Kong and Indonesia are said to protect migrant workers, they fail to change the basic welfare and status of migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong.
Laws and regulations often contrast with the realities faced by migrant domestic workers. While smartphone technology makes it easier for migrant workers to communicate and send money home, their living conditions remain the same.
The compulsory residence policy forces migrant domestic workers to live with their employers. It is not uncommon for them to sleep in the kitchen, bathroom, or a compartment the size of a coffin. There is no legal limit to their working hours, and many of them work over 12 hours a day and are on call 24/7.
Rules often become a trap. The two-week immigration rule for migrant workers requires them to leave Hong Kong within 14 days of the end of their contract. As a result, many workers are afraid to report abuse for fear of being immediately fired and losing their livelihood.
There is a minimum monthly wage for migrant domestic workers, but in reality, their hourly wage is much lower than that of other Hong Kong workers and has not kept pace with the high cost of living and inflation.
Indonesia also prohibits employment agencies from paying migrant workers recruitment fees, while Hong Kong only allows agencies to deduct a maximum of 10 percent from workers’ first month’s wages. But in practice, some workers have to spend their entire wages for four to five months to pay agencies HK$20,000 to HK$25,000 in placement fees.
The language used by governments often contradicts reality.
The Hong Kong government still calls migrant workers “foreign domestic helpers” – a term that downplays their contribution as “help” rather than work. “Helper” glosses over the importance of migrant domestic workers’ work and their significant contribution to the Hong Kong economy and the families that employ them.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian government hails migrant domestic workers as “remittance heroes”. However, for many workers, it masks the reality of being treated as a commodity.
What we carry, under the same sky reveals that behind those beautiful terms and high-rises in Hong Kong, these immigrant women carry burdens, sweat and tears. Their stories repeat themselves and remain the same from year to year, from decade to decade.
On International Domestic Workers Day, which falls on June 16, we encourage people and governments in Hong Kong and Indonesia to appreciate and celebrate the deep commitment of migrant domestic workers who leave their families to care for other families.
While this is a mutually beneficial relationship, migrant workers deserve deep appreciation, respect and understanding of their rights, sacrifices and struggles.
Without migrant domestic workers, employers will find it impossible to have a career and care for their children and elderly parents.
The responsibility of caring for other people’s children, parents, and home is held by invisible workers, often called “servants,” “servants,” or “helpers.” However they are more. They are workers who deserve respect as well as fair and just treatment.
Sringatin is a domestic worker and migrant labor activist from Indonesia in Hong Kong. She is secretary of the Indonesian Migrant Workers Union (IMWU) and spokesperson of the Asian Migrant Coordinating Body (AMCB). In 2014, she was named by the South China Morning Post as one of the top 10 local heroes.
MICROLAB is a shared space to cultivate collaboration between grassroots migrants, academics, artists and service providers organized in the Department of English and Communication at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. It is co-run by the Indonesian Migrant Workers Network (JBMI) leaders Sringatin and Jepy, Professor Lydia Catedral, Francis Catedral, Yvonne Zhu and Yuyan Liang.
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