A coalition of foreign domestic helper unions is launching a survey to find out how many maids plan to stay in Hong Kong permanently.
Amid a series of court cases over domestic helpers' applications for permanent residency, the Asian Migrants' Co-ordinating Body said the poll, the first of its kind, would ask helpers whether they wanted to take the city as their home and if they would bring along their families.
'We want to see how many helpers are really planning to stay in Hong Kong,' Eni Lestari, a spokeswoman for the group, said. 'There has been no formal study on that so far.'
Cynthia Tellez, Mission for Migrant Workers Society general manager, said the poll aimed at getting scientific statistics on helpers' intention to stay. 'Instead of making wild guesses, we want to know what is in the minds of the helpers.'
The government and opponents of permanent abode for maids have said hundreds of thousands of people are likely to come if a ruling is upheld that helpers who have lived in the city for seven years or more are entitled to permanent residence.
Protests have been held since September when a court ruled in favour of helper Evangeline Banao Vallejos and ruled unconstitutional an immigration provision that excludes helpers from being 'ordinarily resident' - a key requirement for a permanent identity card.
The government said earlier that about 125,000 domestic helpers had lived in Hong Kong for at least seven years and that 500,000 people could immigrate if each brought in a spouse and two children.
