Domestic Help and Birth Rates

Domestic help may be affordable, but housing and schooling/tutoring are not. That is, the domestic help thing is not the biggest cost component in having kids.


I have personally noticed among well to do expats a tendency for more kids, but my experience doesn't make it fact.

Is it possible that the fact that those "highly educated and affordable domestic help" are required to live-in and then mostly (as mentioned above) in somewhat cramped conditions, which in turn creates a less-than-conducive environment for making babies? Only half tongue-in-cheek!

real estate is certainly one side of the story. the other one seems to me the fact that there is no encouragement of part-time and other forms of flexible work for women...

Hk probably has one of the lowest birth rates in the world, because there is not much space for people to live, there are not many farms left, so farmers don't need too many children to help them run them. People want a better standard of living in a modern already crowded 1st world city.

As HK is China's neighbour, everybody remembers how poor and over-populated China was, that is why China introduced the one child policy, and is overcoming this now and is one of the major business forces in the world, with a much improved economy and standard of living for most of its residents, now the economy there is rising they are relaxing the one child policy in certain places to balance things out, but I don't ever think they will revert back to a 'free breeding' policy.

Since the introduction of the 'pill' women have become more 'liberated', and can now choose when they marry/partner and produce children, they are no longer 'baby making machines', they also tend to have babies later in life, so as there body clock is on countdown anyway, they are less likely to have large families. They(women) are more likely to have a meaningfull career, be it in a shop or the hard nosed high flyer in the office, and some may like the rewards of their earnings more than children, so do not have any children at all, I respect that view too it is their choice.

Having a choice when to bring a child into the world also, changes the aspirations you will have for the child. Before birth control when number 6 accidently came along, it was another mouth to feed, and in poorer families it meant cutting down on the quality of food they could give, causing mal-nourishment and illness's, Todays parents think about what a child will need,before bringing it into the world,

such as a comfortable happy home, good nourishing food, and education which even in a state run school comes at a cost. To give their children the very best one or both parents may have to work. so in HK they are lucky to have affordable domestic help which is a great plus for those who can afford it,some cannot.

I don't think that for those who have a helper, it would encourage them to have more children than they planned for originally, as more children = higher costs generally and would need more living space, add more hkd's, not everybody is a millionaire.

Hong Kong has more FDh's wanting to come here because it ranks one of the highest payers of wages in Asia, with better employment rules and protection than Malaysia, Singapore, and domestic helpers here can earn more than a Doctor at home. However like many countries Hk, wants to protect its own citizens interests, and their jobs to maintain its economy, so is strict on who it will allow to gain permanent residency, when they can produce their own 'home grown' tallents, in their children, the future of HK.