Taking Care of Elderly Parents or Children: How Are They Related to the Decision to Hire Foreign Domestic Helpers?

Abstract

Hiring foreign domestic helpers has been seen as a policy to release females from household responsibilities so they can join the labor market. Surprisingly, few studies explore the relative importance of needs to taking care children and elderly. Employing the 2016 Hong Kong census, we found that the number of elderly persons and the number of young children in the household are positively associated with the decision to hire foreign domestic helpers. Our analysis also demonstrates that members are more likely to choose to work and outsource the care of young children to foreign domestic helpers. However, the findings show that households are more likely to take care of elderly without helpers even when household members are employed. Household members may co-ordinate and allocate time to take care of their elderly instead of outsourcing the care to a foreign domestic helper.