With regard to the identities of the Filipino, it is discovered that they developed two identities: domestic workers and Filipino, in different situations. The shift of identities is probably resulted from the fact that people change identities in order to suit the needs of the moment.( Tracy, 2013)

 

Filipinos hold a positive view towards the necessity of Cantonese and English and they are less reluctant to learn Cantonese and English, as they understand the occupational need of the two languages. They are dependent on the use of English and Cantonese to work and communicate with local people. At that moment, they perceive themselves as a domestic worker, an interactional identity(Tracy, 2002), whose responsibility is to serve the households and they are thus willing to learn English and Cantonese. The reason, as discussed by Edwards (2012), is that in workplace event people are likely to orient to each other’s professional identity, for example employees and masters, with less relevance to the nationalities. However, this restricts them from getting into the local community as they only take Cantonese and English as instrumental tools in workplace. This can be demonstrated by their intension to use their own language once they can. As answered by interviewees, Dahlia said she spoke Ilokano almost every day with her friends and she showed little, if not no, intension to learn how to write Chinese. Similarly, Mayra replied that she learnt Cantonese “ just for working and understanding” , she chose to speak Tagalog once it was holiday . Their choice of language use in daily life indicates the disaffiliation of them into the local community. (Thornborrow, Singl & Peccei, 2004) They keep distant from the local community and they shift their identity to a domestic helper speaking Cantonese and English to cater for the requirements of their work. 

 

In contrast, as mentioned above, it is manifest that Filipinos value they own language and maintain a strong identity as a Filipino which is their master identity (Tracy, 2002) More supporting clues can be found with reference to the two interviewees who both hold a strong recognition of being a Filipino. As stated by Mayra, she felt comfortable speaking Tagalog in Hong Kong as she thought she “can express everything in our native language even in Hong Kong” Moreover, when asking whether they will pass on to their descendants, their answers resemble each other, replying that it is they are obliged to teach their children with Tagalog. Their positioning of language and identity does not alter even though they work in Hong Kong in which languages spoken differ a lot from the languages they are accustomed to.

 

In aggregate, the varied identities of the Filipino domestic helpers working in Hong Kong is because of the different contexts, resulting in formation of different groups of people and thus different identities for variable situations. According to Edwards (2012),“Individuals belong to varied groups and so bear a variety of identities defined by their memberships in these groups.”These identities are rather ‘multifaceted in complex and contradictory ways; tied to social practice and interaction as flexible and contextually contingent resources; and tied to processes of differentiation from other identified groups’ (Miller, 2000 ; as cited in Edwards, 2012 ).