A Filipino maid has won permission to take her fight for permanent residence in Hong Kong to its top court. A ruling could open the door to thousands of other foreign household workers to be granted permanent residence.
A lower court decided in favor of granting Evangeline Banao Vallejos permanent residence. But a three-member panel of high court judges overturned that decision. The panel has now allowed Vallejos to appeal their ruling to the Court of Final Appeal.
Other foreign workers can apply to settle permanently after seven years under Hong Kong’s immigration law. The question for the top court is whether the immigration law is inconsistent with Hong Kong’s Basic Law, its de-facto constitution. The government argues household workers live under restrictions that make them a separate group. Vallejos’ lawyers say household workers aren’t different from other kinds of workers and should have the same rights.
Vallejos has worked in Hong Kong as a maid since 1986.
Nearly 300,000 foreign household workers, mainly from south-east Asian countries, work for Hong Kong families. By the end of 2010, 117,000 had been resident for seven years or more.
Permanent residency is the closest thing it has to citizenship and allows those who have it to vote and work without a visa. Permanent residents can also help their close relatives immigrate to Hong Kong.
See Businessweek and the Guardian for more.
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