It
was a Sunday; the island
of Hong Kong was
void of
the hustle and bustle of weekday traffic but jam-packed with the lively
conversations and singing of the city’s migrant workers. The
Filipino community is Hong Kong’s
largest migrant
worker community. The majority of these migrants are women.
The affluent families of Hong Kong
employ these
women as maids and nannies for cheaper salaries. Every Sunday
these Filipina workers gather in
the city parks and have a day long picnic on their only day off.
The
day that I was on Hong
Kong Island
it had been
raining. That did not disrupt the
festivities. Instead, it made the party seem
larger. The many Filipina picnickers
were huddled under any cover they could find.
There were hundreds in the subway, under building awnings, anywhere
that
was dry. All the groups of women had
their blankets spread out and were eating, playing cards, reading or
conversing. They sat and eat while
listening to music over loudspeakers that were setup throughout the
downtown
area. Along with the picnicking, there
was dancing and singing going on. The
atmosphere was fun and light.
As
I walked through groups of hundreds of
women it
became very clear to me what an amazing sense of community this weekly
celebration gives to the workers. As
Constable found, most of the Filipina workers are severely
discriminated
against by their employers. They are
thought of as less than and stupid. Working
in such a hostile environment must be hard for
these women
mentally. Also, many of these women have
families back in the Philippines
who they don’t see for months at a time. These
picnics seem to help support the women and recharge
them for the
next week of work. To have a community
of other women in a similar situation must make their situation easier
to deal
with. Being around that community opened
my eyes to the amount of support people can get if they just look
around. You always have a community no
matter where
you
are.