Research on the role of English in transnational migrant work have largely investigated how the language is instrumentalized by institutions, employers, and migrants alike within the framework of the unequal global flow of economic capital and opportunities. Holborow (2018) regards these efforts as one addressing the 'prism of management speak'. Though such studies are significant in unmasking the vulnerabilities of people engaged in precarious work conditions (such as the domestic labor sector), Holborow reminds us about the importance of subject-level analyses that would 'allow the agency of the worker and language speaker to come to the fore' (p. 65).
In this paper, I investigate the lived experiences with English of Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong. Filipinos comprise more than half of the foreign domestic worker population in Hong Kong. They are said to be often hired by employers who have school-aged children due to their higher level of education and perceived proficiency in English. Drawn from ethnographic interviews and fieldwork for a larger project conducted in Hong Kong between 2016 and 2020, the data set mainly consisted of roughly 30 hours of recorded interviews with 28 key participants talking about language in relation to their living and working experiences.
Employing linguistic ethnographic approaches to analysis, I describe recurring accounts reflecting the tension between doing being an English-proficient and an English-deficient other: a tension that emanates from enabling and constraining sociolinguistic conditions in the workplace and the larger host society, and informed by participants' experiences and education from their home country. I demonstrate how participants seem to locate themselves in the imagined hierarchy of English speakers: on the one hand, as better English speakers in the household-workplace, commanding respect and being accorded family language policy decision-making powers; while on the other, as of lesser English speaking abilities and rights than native English speakers, choosing to be silent or aloof, and passing negative judgement to fellow Filipinos who deploy stylized English in communication situations.
By showing these accounts, I wish to contribute to the bourgeoning research on the effects of unequal Englishes (Tupas, 2015; Tupas & Salonga, 2016) contingent with the living and working experiences of transnational migrant workers, such as the Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong.
References
Holborow, M. (2018). Language, commodification and labour: The relevance of Marx. Language Sciences, 70, 58–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2018.02.002
Tupas, R. F. (2015). Unequal Englishes: The politics of Englishes today. Palgrave Macmillan.
Tupas, R. F., & Salonga, A. A. (2016). Unequal Englishes in the Philippines. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 20(3), 367–381.
