Question about maids

[Question about maids]

OK, i've asked about getting a maid from China on the "other" forum only to have it delted. First off, I'm in Singapore at the moment looking at condo's etc. At the moment hubby and i are based in Kunming, China.

We have a wonderful house keeper who we want to bring to Singapore. PROBLEM is that China is not on the list of allowed countries.

This begs the following quetions:

1. Why won't Singapore allow maids from China? It has been said to me that it is because Singapore is chinese-dominated and that they cannot allow fellow Chinese to be employed for such terrible wages etc. This smacks of racism towards the countries / nationalities they DO allow, but never mind... any thoughts on this?

2. Is there an alternative way to bring her to Singapore without breaking the law? i.e employ her as an "administrative assistant" or something under a shell company?

3. Given her complete lack of qualifications, would this be feasible?

Thanks in advance. Happy to discuss not only soloutions but also the underlying issues at hand. Moving in December this year, BTW

[Mr Pod]

Question said:

OK, i've asked about getting a maid from China on the "other" forum only to have it delted.

Now you know where you should NEVER post!

1. I think they are trying to avoid pretty young uneducated Chinese girls to hook up with Singaporean men. They are trying to groom the perfect race ;D

2. I am not an expert, but it sounds feasible. Of course then you would have to declare that you pay her a salary of (say) S$1,500 a month or something. As long as you and the maid agree, there is no way anybody can find out.

3. I don't know. So here is what I would do: I would write to the ministry responsible (with an assumed E-mail number from yahoo or hotmail, and an assumed name) and ask a few questions. Of course don't give your real name. They have a good memory here: they don't use Iomega products!

[Question about maids]

Interesting suggestion - i will ask the right questions as you suggested. As for the reference to Eugenics, also very apt methinks. Could it also be something to do with 'face' - i.e not causing a loss of face to fellow chinese by employing them in 'lowly' positions, or could it also be simply another way of reinforcing the belief in chinese racial superioty over other 'lesser' asians?

You know, it suddenly occured to me - even if it didn't want my housekeeper to come with me, why shouldn't i be able to - for example - get a russian house keeper? or a french? seems ludicrous to bar on the basis of nationality.

My housekeeper is a lovely lady, we've had her for 6 years now and consider her part of the family. As well as paying her salary, we have also sent her children to english classes - something we would continue to do if she came to Singapore with us. Red tape is so frustrating!

[mimi]

I have met people who have brought nannies from the UK, so it can be done. Unfortunately they have all left now so I don't know how they did it. I will ask around anyway.

[Further questions]

Question said:

Could it also be something to do with 'face' - i.e not causing a loss of face to fellow chinese by employing them in 'lowly' positions, or could it also be simply another way of reinforcing the belief in chinese racial superioty over other 'lesser' asians?

I don't think that this is the problem. It's a meritocracy here, and they don't mind paying some (Chinese) people very low salaries for very hard work. Yes, here they call that 'meritocracy' rather than 'exploitation

Question said:

You know, it suddenly occured to me - even if it didn't want my housekeeper to come with me, why shouldn't i be able to - for example - get a russian house keeper? or a french? seems ludicrous to bar on the basis of nationality.

Yes. Good question. Does anybody have the answer?

In Europe we have the 'au pair' system, where a young girl goes to the house of someone for a year or something, spends 4 days a week doing housework and 1 day in school learning the language. Excellent way to learn a language for free. It doesn't seem to exist in Asia. Why not?

[To the OP]

>:(What utter nonsense! The way you expat wives try to find reasons for your ungranted requests is beyond belief!

Singapore has Chinese maids since the day of Sir Stamford Raffles, its founder. In those days, maids wore a white top and black trousers (kind of a uniform) and were called 'amahs'. Families who had the privilege of hiring these amahs - not that they were expensive - regarded them as family members and most amahs work for the same family for no lest than two generations.

Today, when you approach cleaning services companies, you'll get a mixture of local Chinese, Malays and Indians. They do similar chores as maids.

To assume that just because your application for your maid from China to be here working for you has been rejected is due to racism, is such a convenient excuse for you.

Under the Singapore law, the country has agreements with certain countries pertaining to export of its citizens to work in Singapore as maids. China has not made such an agreement with Singapore. So, please check with the China embassy where you are and ask them why.