Hmm, to get into the issue of country of origin is to start some real stereotyping...so I am going to do my best to be very PC without being totally useless.
Our maid is Filipina and we have had no other so cannot give a comparison, which wouldn't be worth anything as you are comparing two individual people. She is great, I have a friend who had a wondeful maid from Indonesia, ditto from Sri Lanka...and ditto Thailand for that matter.
The basics you would check out at the interview stage - English ability, experience with "Western ways" and appliances, cooking ability, education etc
Filipina maids tend to be more expensive - and they certainly are to send back for their biannual home leave due to some paperwork required by their embassy. It does seem that they are the more demanding re pay, days off etc...how dare they band together against "us"!
Foodwise, a Thai cook would be on the top of my list, followed by Sri Lankan!
The religion of the maid may also be an issue as far as food preparation goes and if you plan to keep a dog (I understand that the Muslim Indonesian maids do not like dogs!)
One further thought is that if you are from Australia or plan on sending your child to Tanglin you may want to consider a maid who speaks Bahasa (taught in many Australian schools and Tanglin infant school)
You can choose to hire a transfer maid...a maid already in Singapore or have an agency recruit one from overseas for you. I don't think I could go the latter - you do not get to interview, check references and it seems that these maids are very inexperienced - if you get one from a rural area they may not even know what a fridge is as an example. But they are much cheaper as a result.
Re the transfer maid I guess the main question is from an expat family or local family. If you go from an expat family it is easier to check references generally (none of the maids I interveiwed from local families could give referees which meant they didn't get past stage one with me) and they will hopefully have a better understanding of Western cooking and cleaning expectations. Re the cooking this is not always the case though as in a lot of expat families the mum will do the cooking...so if this is important to you check thoroughly. If you are working it will be a godsend to come home to a nicely cooked meal each night....and there are some maids who are wonderful cooks.
I hate to put this in print but I will...maids from expat families can be spoilt. Eg I am happy for my maid to finish at 6pm but if you are not you may not want her to come to you as it would be a major readjustment for both of you. I also gave her a later curfew to start with, which as I didn't know her, I was uncomfortable with (but thankfully she has proved her self trustworthy) but at the time that was what she was used to and really wanted and she was the only maid we interviewed that we liked. They may also expect more monetary wise which may be an issue to you exhausted mum...the drip drip affect can add up (mobile phones, one month bonus, trips back home when the employer goes on home leave etc) So check it all out. Even if you don't plan to hand it out, you may get sick of hearing about what the friends are getting
Good luck....it gets a bit boring talking maids all the time but many people are happy to so lap it all up. I was here a while before I got one so I had time to form my opninions and develop a much better idea of what I might need to look for when interviewing. Sure there are days when I just want the house to myself......but generally I feel very lucky not to be bogged down with the regular household chores, be living in a clean house despite having 3 kids, be able to go off and do stuff without having to get back by 4 to cook dinner (especially here as the best time to go out with the kids is later due to the heat) etc etc
Better go, dad and the kids are gone and I am meant to be doing dishes (it's Sunday!)
I should add the very important disclaimer that all the above is one persons opinion - mine! And I have only had one maid and not been here that long...but it is a starting point for you I hope.
more advice needed...
