I demonstrate how participants seem to discursively invoke and place themselves in a hierarchy of English speakers: on the one hand as better English speakers in the household workplace, who command respect and are assigned the decision-making powers in the family's language policy; while on the other hand, as of less English-speaking abilities and rights than native English speakers, they choose to be quiet or aloof, and pass negative judgment on fellow Filipinos who use stylized English in communication situations. This causes the tension between being an English-proficient and an English-deficient other: on the one hand, as better English speakers in the household-workplace, who command respect and to gain decision-making powers in the family's language policy; while on the other hand, as of less English-speaking abilities and rights than native English speakers, they choose to be quiet or aloof, and pass negative judgment on fellow Filipinos who use stylized English in communication situations. A significant part of this overseas workforce in Hong Kong is employed by domestic workers, whose population has steadily grown to about 200,000 or about 54% of all foreign domestic workers in the city, based on the ten-year record (2012–.
Although foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong are valued for their contribution to the economy (Legislative Council Research Office, 2017b), they are nevertheless said to be treated marginally in circulating public discourses (Ho, 2019; Jayawickrama, 2017) and 'included out' ' in the city's citizenship regime (Erni, 2016). For Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong, this may involve sociolinguistic realities that rely on the colonially entrenched and lingering uneven valuation of varieties of English and/or their (imagined) speakers (Tupas, 2020) in the sending and receiving states: that is, odd Englishes in the Philippines (Tupas & Salonga, 2016) typically use American English (and its imagined 'native' speakers) and in Hong Kong, where British English (and its imagined 'native' speakers) is considered aesthetically pleasing among other variants (Lee & Jenks, 2019). In this paper, I specifically describe and analyze what my participants say about English in relation to their experiences as transnational migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong, to which I now return in the next section.
After all, her aunt was already in Hong Kong, and English – the language she learned at school – is the language spoken in the then British colony1 that Hong Kong was. In this excerpt, Lerma, 56, recalls how she would compare the way she speaks English in the household within earshot of a colleague, Mina, 27 (lines 2–11). In our earlier conversation (which is omitted from this excerpt), Lerma introduces Mina to be a nurse from a prestigious university in their province and a good friend of her daughter in the Philippines.
English in line 5 as “English carabao,” a popular pejorative term mainly associated with the uneducated class in the Philippines (Bernardo & Madrunio, 2015, p. 43).
Trying hard’
In this passage, Melba describes instances where she hears fellow Filipinos accompanying their wards and using a stylized British accent in doing their job as a babysitter. These lived experiences of a relative lack of English, which often go unnoticed in everyday encounters, thus influence the communicative behavior of migrants and, in turn, affect their lives and work in the host society. They may be recognized as having a working knowledge of English, but a defeating belief deeply tied to understandings of who can and cannot speak English in a certain way becomes a centrifugal force that makes them an 'outsider' - someone who does not belong, unwanted or whose presence seems unusual - in the receiving speech community.
One example can be seen in the following excerpt from Rizza recalling her first employer's surprise at her English speaking ability. This extract reflects at least two things: (1) her employer's assessment that her English was fluent, although she was articulate in confrontation; and (2) how, with this fluency in English, Filipino migrant workers of certain origins can use English as a communicative lever to resist marginalization and domestic abuse in the workplace. It is safe to assume that Rizza's position in the classroom in the Philippines would have given her access to a more prestigious version of English due to her college education and being a product of an exclusive private school for girls in the Philippines.
Although remembered by Melba as a casual friendly joke between an employer and an employee, this story nevertheless reflects the contradictions associated with the unequal esteem some English people experienced in doing their jobs. But for Melba, she shows that she is drawing on her historical knowledge of the dominance of American English in the Philippines, leading to her better familiarity with it. This allowed her to be able to better explain her side, in the process of negotiating her position in the workplace in the family as one.
This last excerpt illustrates how Helen characterizes migrant domestic workers like herself, who can be relied upon in the household for their command of the English language, without discriminatory comments about intelligence level. This shows that Helen is given decision-making power in the family regarding language policy (Spolsky, 2012), although this depends on a friendly relationship with her employer and the household she works for. Although embedded in the unequal valuation of English abilities, set against a perceived hierarchy of speakers, we see how FDWs can find ways to mobilize such unequal relations as a centripetal force to become an 'insider' – someone who has knowledge and is therefore belongs – in the household and the wider society of Hong Kong.
This is not to say that transnational migrants engaged in professional and skilled work are not vulnerable, but that migrant domestic workers are likely to face its effects more due to the temporary nature of their work and labor arrangements. living in the host society. Through the narratives, we see how participants are discursively invoked and positioned within a hierarchy of English speakers—a hierarchy that is intimately connected to belief systems that historically shape and are shaped by the conditions of unequal Englishness in origin (Tupas & Salonga, 2016) and acceptance (Lee & Jenks, 2019) states. They illustrate how particular people are considered to be regulated to an increasing level of speaking and listening rights to prestigious varieties of English: their Hong Kong Chinese employers at the end, themselves then, their younger Filipino peers , more educated a degree higher than them, and to.
This hierarchy tends to influence language behavior and provide information about the extent of English communication work required in the company of certain people: having the freedom to speak any English with Chinese employers in Hong Kong, the spoken English to keep an eye out when within earshot of Filipino colleagues, while passing judgment on fellow Filipinos who use stylized English, and finally choosing to be quiet or distant in the presence of white Westerners. Because they are recognized as having desirable English language traits in certain households, they very easily manage to work as insiders in the household workplace, creating mutual dependencies (Chatterjee & Schluter, 2020) that affect both the worker and working for the employer – although often at a profit. In this employment situation, on the one hand, employers gain desirable English language capital in the household and are able to pursue their chosen, more lucrative career while being close to their family and children, by hiring an English-speaking employee. migrant domestic workers to perform reproductive labor on their behalf at a relatively lower wage scale.
1 In 1997, the government of Hong Kong was 'handed over' by the British government to the People's Republic of China, ending Britain's 50-year rule in the city.
