Do Thi Ngan, like many Vietnamese women working abroad in Macau, left poverty in the rural north of the country to earn money and feed her family. Most women find jobs caring for children, the elderly, and performing housework. The hours are long—often around 12 to 13 hours a day, seven days a week.
Ngan arrived nearly four years ago from Vietnam’s Hai Duong province and was lucky to find a position as a domestic servant for a family who treats her well and pays a decent salary.
But others, including women who have fled domestic abuse at home in Vietnam, aren’t as fortunate. According to Ngan, many women become stuck in Macau because they earn too little to support their families or because the money they send home is squandered by their husbands on gambling and drink.
Here, she relates the details of her life as a maid in the Chinese special autonomous region of Macau:
"Rural areas do not have jobs, but social needs now are different. Children need to go to school, but we don’t have enough [money]. So I had to go to Macau to work.
I didn’t want to go to work far away from my husband and children because we wouldn’t be able to spend much time together. But if I didn’t go to Macau to work, there would be no way to feed the children. My husband couldn’t make enough money for the family.
My husband was very sad when I decided to leave the family, but we had no choice. Generally speaking, he is sad [because I am not around]. But now he is getting older, so he can’t go anywhere [to work]. If he went to Hanoi to carry mortar buckets, he could earn about two million Vietnamese dong (U.S. $100) a month. It is not enough to take care of the children. We live far apart just to make money. Nobody wants to live far away [from their family]."
I am lucky to have a nice boss, so I am paid fairly well—about U.S. $500 a month. However, most other women are only paid about U.S. $300 a month … Although [they make just a little money], these women are frugal in order to have money to send to their family, to help to raise their children, and to build a home for their future.
I send most of my earnings to my family every month, so my family is doing much better than before. My husband and I have built a house, and my children now have a chance to receive a better education.
I usually don’t spend much. The family where I work takes care of my meals; I only spend money for phone calls to my husband and children. Or sometimes if someone is sick, I spend around 50 to 100 Macanese Pataca (U.S. $6-12) [to help out my family]. I send home all the rest of my salary. I built a two-story house, with amenities."
During these nearly four years, I’ve returned home to Vietnam twice, and once I was able to bring my husband and two children to visit Macau. However, there are not many Vietnamese women who work in Macau who can take care of their families like I can. As far as I know, there are not many families [that have a mother working in Macau] who can afford a better lifestyle and higher education for their children.
The majority of Vietnamese women working in Macau do not have a home to return to because their husbands are gamblers and alcoholics. When a father fails, the children fail too. Families scatter. There are women determined to stay here to escape their family for a lifetime.
They cannot divorce for many reasons, including pressure from their parents and relatives, and from society. They also fear that a divorce would negatively affect their children. They decide that they have to endure. The vast majority are doomed."
