Monday, March 28, 2011

On Filipino Maids in Pakistan

I was chatting with one of my colleagues today when the conversation turned to Filipino maids... My colleague NK has twins, a boy and a girl and she works full-time, hence she needs child care at home and someone to pick and drop the kids from school.

So, I ask her, why not just hire a Pakistani maid? Because, NK replies, Filipino maids speak fluent English, are highly educated (her's worked in a bank in the Philippines) and brush their teeth three times a day... Plus, they won't run away or abandon you, they have fixed vacation and wages and they're clean. Also, they have no distractions since they're away from their own family and friends.

NK, being a warm-hearted lady allows her maid to go to Sunday Bazaar on Sundays. She makes it a point to hug her and treat her like one of the family and her kids look up to the maid as an older sister. She gets paid $300/month, to look after NK's kids while her own children are looked after by their grandmother in the Philippines... And she gets to visit once every 2 years.

Pakistani society is full of contradictions :|)

4 comments:

  1. hmm...lets accept the arguments made by NK in favor of Filipino maids for awhile. But take a look at the flip side of these arguments too.

    Do you know Filipinos make the highest numbers of foreign maids, caregivers and domestic servants in Japan, Korea, Canada, UAE, Oman, KSA? so much so, in 2008, around 3000 Filipino maids migrated to Pakistan, who later decided to get Pakistani citizenship and settle in Pakistan, as they sensed Pakistan was a new emerging market of tycoons and industrialists who wished to have Filipino domestic workers to maintain an elite edge over other classes of the society. I had a friend in Japan who strongly argued that Filipinos are only good for domestic work. He was running an employment agency in Manila which supplied over 5000 maids annually to Japanese businessmen in Japan. His business suffered financial disasters every time he placed a filipno professional into Japanese firms as Accountant, Managers etc.

    In comparison, I have never heard or seen any Pakistani woman going abroad for a low-paid work such as home-maids, but as Doctors, IT Engineers, Trainers, Writers, Entrepreneurs or simply to be with their families.

    Comparing a Pakistan maid with a Filipino maid is like comparing Afridi with Herbhajan Singh :), both play cricket but stand at entirely different level of excellence of the game. Pakistani work force makes best Doctors, Engineers, Professionals, Investors, Businessman and Educators around the world while Filipino work force excels in domestic workers, nurses, caregivers, receptionists and personal secretaries.

    And honestly speaking, as a Pakistani, I wish Filipino and maids from other countries always replace Pakistani maids so our women can perform more challenging and critical jobs which 'others' simply are not capable to do :).

    Kashif

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  2. to kashif
    you are so narrow minded for explaining these facts and you dont have a reliable source for this report. Take a look in the US where most Filipinos excel in professional field where as in Pakistan every report in CNN and BBC, theres always a blast everywhere meaning Pakistan produce the most professional terrorists in the world. In the US these Pakistanis produce home made bomb. Remember that guy who plan to blew up Times Square?

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  3. that was hitting below the belt .good and bad characters roam the world around and mind pakistanis dont represent the terrorist image.infact u r poorly informed .
    It hurts me to think history is going to be all warped and i admit we are not efficient enough to set the facts right before posterity brands us as u have .
    the Fillipino issue is a sad observation no doubt but no one is actually forcing them to do what they are .they are all victims of circumstances as are people all over the world

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  4. Phillipinas are good worker. I have lived in phillipine for around two years for study.

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