singapore hotel: Importing nannies is not the right solution

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I can’t help but detect the stereotype of Asian women as powerless victims creeping in here. As it turns out, Australia already has a willing and able workforce of $5-an-hour-nannies in the form of au pairs. Yet nobody seems to bat an eyelid about this. A quick Google search shows that for $150-$250 per week, you can have your own live-in nanny who will help with childcare and some house duties.

It is clear that au pairs, like their Asian domestic worker counterparts, also fall into this murky world of migrant exploitation. However, precisely because au pairs are often of European background and on a working holiday visa, the idea that these women could be as equally exploited doesn’t seem as obvious to us. In fact, an article by Janie Chuang highlights that au pair exploitation can easily be swept under the carpet as this form of employment is considered part of a ”cultural exchange” rather than work that should be protected under labour laws.

Another concern for those opposing the idea of ”importing” nannies from southeast Asia is that these women would lack adequate workplace conditions and not have access to full citizenship. These forms of protections of course would be beneficial to migrant workers. However, as Martin Ruhs in his book The Price of Rights points out, migrants (including both skilled and unskilled workers) often make strategic decisions where they trade off certain rights in their host country in exchange for access to a job or better wages.

This is not to condone the often severe restrictions placed upon migrants, nor the commodification of domestic workers, but rather to point out that people don’t always migrate with their eyes shut. For example in Singapore, Indonesian domestic workers I have spoken to typically migrate knowing that for the first eight months or so they will receive only a small allowance of $10-20 per month while the rest of their salary is used to pay an agent’s fees.

If a scheme for foreign nannies was to be implemented in Australia, I think other issues beyond pay and citizenship rights would determine whether the work was exploitative or not. As usual, the devil is in the detail. As people like Harmer point out, the regulation of the live-in nanny industry would be a potential bureaucratic minefield. How, for example, could we ensure that someone’s employee wasn’t also asked to help out at Aunty Flo’s gift shop? However, as we have these debates about how to best fill the childcare gap in Australia, let’s not forget that women in the Asian region who migrate for work are a lot like you and me – making the best choices with what they’ve got. Some like Munia might just make a go of it.

Maria Platt is an anthropologist who lives and works in southeast Asia. Her work focuses on migration in the southeast Asian region, with a particular focus on Indonesian domestic workers. Twitter @MariaWPlatt

109 comments

All things being equal and honest this would not be a bad idea. Things are not equal and honest in Australia any more, the 457 visas are handed out on the basis of undermining the local working population, no other reason. This goes down to the likes of bus drivers imported from Ireland recently by one of the bigger Melbourne bus lines when at the same time workers made redundant from their offshored job are clamouring for these jobs. Also regarding training, this mass importation of workers for low to middle level jobs is absolving all employers of responsibility, a concession they get for lobbying the government on account of the conjured up ‘shortage of skilled workers’ lies,. Its all of their own making.
This new proposition will be exploited in the same way.

Commenter
Steve

Location

Date and time

April 22, 2014, 6:06AM
- This breaks the bonds between the people our country. Effectively, it is about importing a the third world into Australia so that Australian workers can be undercut by third world wages within their own country. It is simply a form of imported colonialism and a disgusting betrayal of one’s fellow citizens.
  
  Commenter
  Jim
  
  Location
  
  Date and time
  
  April 22, 2014, 9:24AM
- Maria Platt (no relation) has made a valid observation when she says that many migrant workers go into these situations with their eyes open, but that doesn’t excuse employers trying to get around Australian labour laws and Australian wage rates. I don’t object to migrant workers, because everybody is entitled to a decent paying job – but I object strenuously when migrant workers aren’t paid at the same rate as local workers.
  
  The proposed scheme to bring in migrant workers as nannies and pay them $5/hour would:
  
  (a) Drive local workers out of the industry, because the minimum wage is $16.37/hour and people can’t survive on less if they’re participating fully in Australian society.
  
  (b) Legalise racial discrimination, because migrant workers would be paid less than the minimum wage.
  
  (c) Lead to many children being removed from childcare, where they receive educational benefits not available to most in the home environment.
  
  (d) Put many migrant workers in a very vulnerable situation, even worse than present 457 visa workers, where they would be in danger of being deprived even of their meagre legal entitlements because of the power which their employers would have over them.
  
  If people are working in Australia, let them have the same wages and conditions that people born here would get.
  
  Finally, we can solve the problem of low wages for migrant workers by helping the workers of Asia to build independent, democratic trade unions. When wages in Asia are closer to wage rates in Australia, the Indonesia Institute wouldn’t find any takers for $5/hour over here.
  
  Commenter
  Greg Platt
  
  Location
  
  Brunswick
  
  Date and time
  
  April 22, 2014, 10:29AM
- @ Greg Platt, you are right, as usual. As a mother of three who has recently moved and has no ‘support network’, I have been effectively forced out of the work force for now, and I fear that the time out will have a negative impact on my ability to find work again in my field. You would think I have a vested interest in seeing something like this plan come into being, but I still can’t support this idea, largely because it takes jobs from Australians (in the childcare industry) at a time when we can ill afford it. I too fear the creation of an underclass in our society and I think the benefits of early childhood education (‘childcare’ in the Aussie vernacular) are totally underestimated in this country. This is the very LAST thing we need, all of us!
  
  Commenter
  SAHM
  
  Location
  
  Date and time
  
  April 22, 2014, 11:20AM
- And yet I’m sure you’re fine with buying a t-shirt made in China and thereby undercutting the wages of Australian workers in the textile industry… I don’t see the difference.
  
  Commenter
  Jay
  
  Location
  
  Date and time
  
  April 22, 2014, 1:25PM
- It seems almost on a daily basis we are being challenged by this Govt on what are essentially ethical issues attached with a monetary value.
  Are we to absolve ourselves of all that is about being an Australian, a land of a fair go.
  We are on a big slippery slope, don’t hop on- the ride isn’t worth it.
  Let’s maintain our values and restore those we’ve lost thanks to propaganda on all manner of things, from refugees, workers rights, the environment etc.
  
  Commenter
  A country gal
  
  Location
  
  Date and time
  
  April 22, 2014, 2:47PM
- ..and yet I bet you haven’t raised an eyebrow with the thousands of IT and call centre jobs that have been shipped off to the third world.
  Strange not a peep from anyone
  
  Commenter
  Pete
  
  Location
  
  Prahran
  
  Date and time
  
  April 22, 2014, 3:28PM
- How about we bring in real estate agents who will work on a .2% commission, fantastic. While we’re at it bring in car salesmen who will work on a zero retainer and a 2% commission on each sale, brilliant. Let’s not stop there, how about we shut down all the TAFE Colleges, save a fortune and just import Asian, Indian, Middle Eastern tradies who will work for $3.60 an hour with no leave credits, if they get injured we can pack them back home, we can then scrap Workcover or Workcare or whatever they call it, genius. Nurses, let’s just sack them all, let the burdensome sick people die off and then we can convert the hospitals to apartments, then we won’t need doctors or even the Universities to teach them in. Then those high maintenance buildings can be sold off to Asian investors too. Holy Mackeral, who said being a politician in Australia was difficult.
  
  Commenter
  Neil (not on radio) Mitchell
  
  Location
  
  Melboure
  
  Date and time
  
  April 22, 2014, 5:13PM
- How much of her children’s life did she see as they grew up? Yes they are better off but what a price for her family to pay. Explotation is exploitation. What government agency is going to be tasked with the responsibility of making sure these woman aren’t treated as they are in many countries that have this system.
  
  Commenter
  ICSBSS
  
  Location
  
  Date and time
  
  April 22, 2014, 6:28PM
- What many who are making comments (and the author) have failed to understand is that this “Nanny” employment usually has accommodation, food and duty related travel included as well as the nominal wages. $200 per week clear spending money is better than most get.
  
  Commenter
  MFL
  
  Location
  
  Date and time
  
  April 22, 2014, 8:19PM