Better a Friend Nearby Than a Brother Far Away? The Health Implications of Foreign Domestic Workers’ Family and Friendship Networks

Abstract

Migrant domestic workers provide essential services to the families they live with, but they are not considered a part of the family. As a group, they are not well-integrated into the society and often suffer from social isolation. In this article, we explore the potential health buffering effects of their personal network, in terms of family and friendship ties in both the local community and their home country. Existing literature provides inconsistent evidence on who and what matters more, with regard to the nature, strength, and geographic locations of individual personal networks. Using data from the Survey of Migrant domestic Workers in Hong Kong (2017), we find that family ties are extremely important. The presence of family members in Hong Kong as well as daily contact with family, regardless of location, are associated with better self-reported health. Only daily contact with friends in Hong Kong, not with friends in other countries, promotes better health. We also find evidence that the protective effects of family and friends networks depend on each other. Those foreign domestic workers with families in Hong Kong but also maintain daily contact with friends have the best self-reported health among all.

Physical and Mental Health of Live-In Female Migrant Domestic Workers: A Randomly Sampled Survey in Hong Kong

“…However, religious activity was associated with worse mental health, whereas having daily contact with friends was associated with better mental health. The result is consistent with Ye and Chen’s (2020) findings, which suggested that daily contact with friends in Hong Kong promotes better health. While the positive effect of social support on mental health is well established (Fasihi Harandi et al, 2017), the negative effect of religion on mental health may be more counterintuitive.…”

Peer Support and Mental Health of Migrant Domestic Workers: A Scoping Review

“…Two of the 12 included articles had a quantitative study design [44,45], four had a qualitative study design [46][47][48][49], and five had a mixed-methods study design [24,[50][51][52][53]. One article was a news report [54].…”

“…One article was a news report [54]. Four of the articles were conducted in Hong Kong SAR, China [45,[48][49][50]; three in Singapore [51,53,54]; two in Macao SAR, China [44,47]; another three from each of the three countries, including South Korea [52], Philippines [24], and Canada [46]. The number of participants of the included articles varied significantly from 5 [52] to 2017 [50], and the mean or median age ranged from 35.1 [24] to 42.9 years [47].…”

Social Protection for Migrant Domestic Workers in Singapore: International Conventions, the Law, and Civil Society Action

“…Their work expands the conceptualization of social protection beyond social assistance for the vulnerable poor to include social justice efforts that transform structural inequalities. In a similar spirit, Locke et al (2013) go beyond formal social protection according to citizenship status to include informal social protection, such as practices found within kin and friendship networks, community relations, and the capability and agency of individual actors (see also Ye & Chen, 2020).…”