HOST COUNTRIES ARE NOT TO BLAME FOR THEIR DOMESTIC HELPERS' PROBLEMS

Cynthia Tellez's letter headlined 'Self-righteous politicians should learn some economic home truths' (South China Morning Post, December 3) reads like an extension of the comic that appears on top of your letters' page.

The picture painted by Ms Tellez's figures indicates that Filipino migrant workers are big spenders with a monthly personal expenditure of about $2,500 and that the Philippines is a relatively expensive country with a monthly requirement of about $2,500 per family.

If this is the case - and the fact that Filipinas are still keen to find jobs not only in Hong Kong, but also in places like Singapore and the Middle East where the monthly pay for a migrant worker is well below $2,500 - the growing number of Filipino workers seeking jobs abroad clearly shows that the problems these migrant workers face are not with their host countries, but their own consumption habits and their home countries' lack of opportunities.

Let's compare the lot of a Filipina maid in Hong Kong with that of a migrant Chinese worker in a shoe factory in Shenzhen. The Philippines used to be Asia's largest exporter of shoes, until it was overtaken first by Taiwan and then by mainland China.

These days, migrant workers from inland China working very long hours in sweatshops and living in squalid quarters in Shenzhen are paid less than $1,000 a month to produce shoes sold in US department stores.

Since the late 1990s, export prices have continued to fall while the US economy boomed. Did Chinese shoemakers beg their US customers to pay late 1990s prices for shoes made in 2000? They were only too happy that the US continued the so-called Most Favoured Nation treatment for Chinese exports.