Book review: Born Out of Place, by Nicole Constable

by Nicole Constable
HKU Press
4 stars
Meredith McBride

Ara (a pseudonym, as with other interviewees in this book for privacy protection), a domestic migrant worker from Indonesia, recalls a night she went out drinking with a fellow domestic worker in Hong Kong. After a few drinks, she was introduced to an African man. The next thing Ara recalls was waking up alone in her friend's home.

Several months later, Ara discovered she was pregnant, and later gave birth to daughter Angela. She believes she was sold to the man, who drugged and raped her. When her work contract ended, she searched for a new employer, but could not find one who would house a mother and baby. She had not told her conservative Muslim family about the pregnancy, so she overstayed her visa and filed a torture claim to legally remain in Hong Kong.

Dr Nicole Constable, director of Asian Studies at the University of Pittsburgh and an expert in Asian migration, conducted an intimate study of Hong Kong domestic workers - such as Ara - who become pregnant.

Ara was expected to send remittances home to Indonesia and also faced the costs of raising her baby. Rather than pay fees to an agency, she found illegal work in a restaurant that earned her HK$8,000 a month - more than twice what she had made as a domestic worker.

Constable's research is both relevant and timely. She found that domestic workers were often excluded from social protections that other migrants, including mainland Chinese, enjoy. Stories such as Ara's, Constable says, illustrate "how policies and employment practices at home and abroad unintentionally promote overstaying and illegal work".