We Are Like Air: life as a Filipino domestic worker in Hong Kong

Georgia and Xyza Cruz Bacani managed to break the cycle that faces so many migrants in the city

Xyza, now an award-winning photographer, has published a book based on her mother’s life and the invisible, but essential role domestic workers play

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Photographer Xyza Cruz Bacani and her mother Georgia. Photo: Handout

Published: 12:03pm, 2 Dec 2018Updated: 4:58pm, 31 Oct 2019

When Georgia Bacani, now 49, decided to become a foreign domestic worker in Singapore in the late 1990s, she had to leave her three children aged between 2 and 8 behind.

Bacani once did laundry by hand for her village in Nueva Vizcaya, the Philippines. But it was not enough to put food on the table and pay for her children’s education. “We were very, very poor and I wanted to give my children a better life,” she said. “Life was really hard and migration was the only option.”

After a few years in Singapore, Georgia took a job in Hong Kong in 1999. She was eventually joined by her eldest daughter, Xyza Cruz Bacani, and has remained in the city ever since.

What makes their story different from thousands of other families who go through the same ordeal is that Xyza was able to break the cycle and, against all odds, become a photographer.

Xyza launched a photography book on Friday about her mother’s life. It is titled We Are Like Air because, in her words, migrant domestic workers are often treated like air – invisible but essential – in cities such as Hong Kong, Singapore or Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

The book portrays the experience of millions of mothers and daughters whose lives have been disrupted by migration. As the book reads,“Not as victims but as champions who have overcome the many hardships life has tossed at them as they leave their families behind in their home country.”