Flow of Filipino Women Migrant Domestic Workers within East Asian Region

Abstract

This paper is aimed to review the patterns of Filipino women migrant domestic worker’s movement as first hires to the other countries within East Asia region. The paper is based on the data collected from the annual official records maintained by and taken from online data base of the Philippines Overseas Employment Administration. The major contribution of the paper is that with the help of data analysis it has established a typology of the four categories of the countries in East Asian region according to the number of Filipino women migrant domestic workers each of these countries received. The first category of country included Hong Kong as a country receiving more than tens of thousands of the women domestic workers from Philippines. Second category includes Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Brunei, and Japan as countries receiving few thousand to few hundreds of the women domestic workers from Philippines. Third category including South Korea, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, North Korea, and East Timor as countries receiving less than hundred women domestic workers. Fourth category includes Mayanmar and Laos as countries not receiving any women throughout the period as shown in official record. The overall trend of Filipino women migrant domestic workers migrating within East Asian region is declining.