Maids or Mentors? The Effects of Live-in Foreign Domestic Workers on School Children's Educational Achievement in Hong Kong

This paper studies the effects of live-in foreign domestic workers (FDWs) on children’s educational achievement using samples from two population censuses and a survey dataset. The census data shows that the incidence of express schooling is significantly higher for children who are under the care of an FDW when their mothers are at work. In the survey data, children scored higher for English if they had a Filipino FDW. The age of FDWs had a positive and significant relationship with children’s average scores for Chinese, English and Mathematics. These findings suggest that FDWs provide an important childrearing service, which is often unrecognised and undervalued.