Filipina domestic helpers, in Hong Kong
© AFP/File Ted Aljibe

HONG KONG (AFP) - On Sundays, however, it becomes noticeable for a different reason -- its canopy-like construction offers ideal shade for hundreds of maids who shelter there on their weekly day off.

Hong Kong's transformation on a Sunday is legendary: the city's armies of 250,000 foreign domestic helpers turn streets that usually bustle with shoppers into noisy picnic sites where they eat pre-cooked meals, swap manicures and massages and catch up on gossip.

But in a reflection of the demographic shifts seen in the region in the 10 years since Hong Kong reverted from British to Chinese rule, the make-up of the Sunday gatherings -- like Hong Kong's 400,000-strong ethnic community -- has changed.

"We don't have our own home. We all live in different parts of Hong Kong so here is the only place and the only day when we can meet every week," Cherrie Manila, a 39-year-old Filipino maid, told AFP.

"I'm quite happy to hang out with my friends on the streets," said Manila, sitting on a piece of newspaper laid out for her and her friends.

Filipina domestic helpers, in Hong Kong
© AFP/File Ted Aljibe

Hong Kong's 115,000 Filipinos make up the city's single largest immigrant community and the majority, like Manila, are working here as maids.

Still, the number of Filipinos has fallen by more than 5,000 since 1996, because of tighter visa regulations and better prospects further afield, said Eni Lestari from Hong Kong-based NGO Asian Migrants Coordinating Body.

"The number of Filipinos is falling because they are moving to Western and European countries for work," she said.

Tighter immigration regulations have driven many to take advantage of lower bars in countries such as Canada and the European Union, Lestari added.

Indonesians, however, are more than filling the gap.

Hit by natural disasters, economic crisis and a shortage of jobs, Jakarta has tried to cut unemployment by encouraging its people to seek work overseas, said Lestari.

As a result, the Indonesian population here has shot up fivefold since 1996 to 110,576.

One of them is Anna Yulianda, a 28-year-old domestic helper, who said she sends 80 percent of her 4,500 Hong Kong dollar (577 US) monthly salary home to support her family and for her two young sisters' university education.

She hopes eventually to get married and have a big family. Just not right now. "I still need to make more money first. Only money can bring happiness, right?"

Filipina domestic helpers, in Hong Kong
© AFP/File Ted Aljibe

But tight visa restrictions, an increasingly competitive labour market and precious little in the way of a social safety net mean immigrants still occupy the lower rungs of society here.

Such hardships are brutally apparent in the Nepalese community, which once enjoyed the patronage of the British army's now defunct Gurkha regiment that provided security during the colonial era.

Ex-Gurkha Tamang Hembahadur is among 16,000 Nepalese who have been left to fend for themselves and their children.

Although many of their children have been trained as engineers, doctors and lawyers, often they are forced by the language barrier to take low-paid and low-skilled jobs in bars and restaurants, he said.

"We are treated like outsiders and a different class," said Hembahadur, who came here 22 years ago aged 23 and is now a security company supervisor.

"We had been devoted to the Hong Kong people, but after the handover, the government never mentions what the Gurkhas did, it never says that the Gurkhas are brave. They forgot us," the father of three said.

Perhaps the biggest demographic change of all since the handover, however, has been in the British community.

Once the largest expatriate legion in Hong Kong, their numbers have dropped to 25,000, just a seventh of the total recorded on the census one year before the handover.

Simon Kay is typical of those who arrived here before the handover, taking advantage of visa regulations that allowed Britons easy entry and work permits -- rights that have since been scrapped.

"I was running away from a family situation -- my best mate from school was here. I just wanted to take a break from home," said Kay, a 39-year-old magazine design manager from Edinburgh.

"It was easy to find jobs here. You could just walk into any pub and get a job.

"But job opportunities got less and less over the years because you are now expected to speak Cantonese for many positions. There are not as many jobs for the expats here now."

©AFP