13th Congress of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research

Presentation Abstracts

LOWE, Cecile Torda

Constructing Social Identity as a Defense Against Social Exclusion: the case of Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong

This research is a part of a doctoral dissertation on notions of social identities of the Filipino domestic workers’ (FDWs) community in Hong Kong. There are over 170 000 FDWs in Hong Kong, socially marginalised and systematically excluded by their race/ethnic identity (non-Chinese; non-Westerners), their low status jobs as domestic workers and their gender as women in a society that is both traditionally patriarchal and hierarchical. These apparent inequalities render them as Hong Kong’s alien underclass, subject to various forms of racism, discrimination and widespread social prejudice.

Within the analytical framework of discourse analysis, this research focuses on the discursive production and construction of their social identities, both by members of the host community and by themselves, mainly on the latter. The FDWs’ narrative constructions of their social identities as migrant workers in Hong Kong, mainly through various forms of oral discourse, largely reflect and highlight their disenfranchised social status in their host community, whose majority members are dismissive of their social and economic contributions to their society, openly critical of their presence and disparaging in their representations of them as inferior moral, mental, cultural and social ‘others’. However, these acts of narrative construction of their social identities as a means of counteracting, if not neutralising, the destructive effects of their social alienation are also acts of identity that collectively restore their dignity and affirm their humanity. Thus these are acts of social and personal survival. The solidarity that is forged in the process becomes a critical resource that enables them to survive, socially and practically, the insults and constant abuse that have become a normal part of their daily lives as migrant workers. As many of the respondents point out, without the Sunday gatherings (their weekly day off) and interactions with their compatriots, in the public spaces of Hong Kong, many will probably ‘go crazy’ or commit suicide.

The interpretative frameworks they employ in the meaning-making of their collective lives and social identities as domestic workers in Hong Kong are drawn primarily from their homeland social identities and shared cultural values.  This study looks at these various discourse and communicative strategies and how these are employed as a defence against their marginalisation in their daily interactions with their employers who virtually control their lives, and by members of the Hong Kong public who are openly condescending of their presence in their midst.