http://blog.roodo.com/lorna0201/archives/cat_622533.html 擺渡,在希望的河谷,深信有滿溢的幸福,在彩虹的另一端 擺渡以抵達我命運的轉彎處 zh-tw Roodo Blog System All Rights Reserved The ongoing agenda of rights for caregivers

Thursday, Dec 18, 2008, Page 8 , Taipei Times
A few days ago, I received a phone call from a caregiver. She sounded frustrated and angry. She kept on asking me about her rights because her employer was refusing to give her a day off — she hadn’t had a day off in more than two years.

“Why they can treat me like this? I am not a slave!” she said.

Daisy is another caregiver. She enjoys a day off only once a month, but wants to take a regular day off every week. After she requested this of her employer, the lovely woman suddenly became cool and detached. She ignored not only her request but also her very presence.

This kind of conversation is a frequent part of my work, and that makes me sad and angry.

I won’t forget the sadness of Nancy, a caregiver in Taipei County. She showed me a picture of her three kids. Her oldest son died 20 years old while she was here. She was not allowed to attend his funeral. She was forced to abandon her family life, the most precious part of Philippine culture. I looked at her face and felt the pain and sadness — and persistence.

Tens of millions of people around the world are employed as domestic workers. The great majority of them are women. The common feature of their jobs is often harsh working conditions with long working hours. Most caregivers are live-in employees, which makes it more difficult to divide living space and work space: Because work is performed in private residences, the division is rendered invisible.

Caregiving is thought of as assistance that women provide inside someone else’s home rather than as a proper job with all the attendant rights. Caregivers are paid poorly, have low status and work in an environment in which two basic sets of rights clash: the worker’s rights and the employer’s rights in maintaining the family’s privacy.

Domestic work is excluded from some labor laws, and exploitation of workers follows.

In 2003, many incidents of abused migrants were reported, but the most explosive was of the death of writer and national policy adviser Liu Hsia (劉俠), an advocate for the disabled.

On Feb. 8, 2003, she died after being attacked by her Indonesian caregiver, who suffered from convulsion disorder, a psychological affliction caused by emotional stress, which made her unable to distinguish between reality and fantasy.

The incident shocked the public. Some employers worried that they had ticking bombs working in their homes. Others argued that violations of the rights of household workers, especially withdrawing days off and the pressure and isolation of work, had turned both the carers and the cared into victims.

Last year a Vietnamese worker killed her employer and jumped to her death after not receiving her salary for two years.

Responsibility for this situation can be attributed to Taiwan’s labor policy, which is like a front for slavery.

In response to NGO pressure, the government revised regulations on Jan. 13, 2004, to allow NGOs to establish non-profit employment service agencies. But it continues to ignore the need for new laws and to insist that it is “studying” this issue.

Today is International Migrants’ Day, and it’s a shame that household workers here still do not have any real protection. We must bring attention to the rights of household workers.

Without such efforts, most domestic workers will never be able to claim days off, equal pay, labor insurance and so on.

There are more than 370,000 migrant workers in Taiwan, of whom 165,000 are household workers. We know that social change takes time and effort, but we would ask that more people pay attention to the plight of the most marginalized workers.



Lorna Kung is general secretary of the Scalabrini International Migration Network-Taiwan and a consultant to the Taiwan International Workers’ Association.
This story has been viewed 507 times.
]]> http://blog.roodo.com/lorna0201/archives/7956679.html http://blog.roodo.com/lorna0201/archives/7956679.html Articals in English Sun, 28 Dec 2008 13:26:21 +0800 於是，捷運,高鐵,醫院與社區公園….一一看到了這群移工的與我們共生共存的身影。截至2007年2月，台灣有341,623名藍領外籍移工，佔全部人口的1.4%，佔總勞動人口的百分之三。半數藍領移工從事製造業，另一大宗則為外籍監護工佔了百分之四十四，泰國印尼菲律賓以及越南籍人數分別為七萬至九萬不等，馬來西亞以及蒙古則低於百名。

Table : 台灣外籍移工人數 ( 2007年2月)
國籍別
產業別 泰國 印尼 菲律賓 越南 馬來西亞 蒙古
總數 341,623 91,832
(26.9%) 91,294
(26.7%) 88,715
(26%) 69,738 (20.4%) 11
(0.0%) 33
(0%)
製造業 169,167
(50%) 79,871 8,223 58,067 22,976 11 19
營造業 11,728
(3.4%) 9,649 44 1,305 730 - -
漁工 3,417
(1%) 14 1,902 813 688 - -
監護工 157,311
(46%) 2,298 81,125 28,530 45,344 - 14
資料來源: 行政院勞工委員會、行政院內政部

移工所面臨的處境
1992年頒布的就業服務法中，對藍領移工以及白領移工進行了區隔規範。專業白領外國人 的聘雇，採取的是個別許可制，工作許可的取得沒有配額的管制、契約及工作居留的年限也無上限。而移工的雇用，採取的是所謂「客工」(Guest worker)的模式，雇主的聘僱資格受到配額的管制，移工只允許在契約期間擁有最長六年的工作居留。和自由流動的白領專業移工不同，低階移工被剝奪了在勞動市場流動的權力，他們只能為一個特定的雇主工作，除了少數例外條件，不得轉換雇主。
台灣政府提出其外勞政策四大原則：「外勞必須是補充性勞動力、防範外勞成為變相移民、避免製造社會與健康問題、不得妨礙產業升級」。在這四大原則之下，九○年代以來的台灣移工管理制度有以下的特徵：
1. 政府控制引進移工之產業與人數。
2. 限制移工在台灣的工作期限。為了要避免造成移民現象，移工在台灣依其工作簽證居留，三年期限一到移工必須出國一天，俟後可在台灣繼續另三年之工作。當他們完成了在台灣的工作期限，移工必須離開台灣並且不得再以移工身份回到台灣工作。
3. 移工必須有良民証並通過例行健康檢查。移工入境前後以及每隔一年必須經台灣政府認證的醫療院所進行健康檢查。一旦健康檢查不合格，移工將無法取得聘僱許可，面臨出境的命運。移工於取得簽證前必須備有母國當地之良民証，以作為審核其行為的標準。
4. 限制外籍勞工的移動。移工的居留處為雇主地址，不得任意移動，只有在關廠, 照顧對象往生, 性侵害與騷擾等特別嚴重情況下始得轉換雇主。
5. 配額管制循環使用的設計。一但雇主所雇用的移工行蹤不明將喪失配額，這樣的設計造成雇主嚴格控制移工，於是雇主透過扣押護照,居留證或者是所謂的強迫儲蓄 ,限制移工的假日行動以避免移工的逃跑，這些種種措施往往違反外勞人權。
6. 私人仲介的引進。引進移工的程序複雜繁瑣，加以配額制度以及仲介市場的
競爭壓力，仲介公司搶單所造成的惡性競爭，仲介將相關支出費用轉嫁到移
工身上，高額仲介費造成的問題，是台灣移工面對的最明顯直接的剝削。據
2002年台灣官方統計，移工必須要付出新台幣十一萬元至十五萬元作為仲
介費用才能來到台灣。
7. 不准家庭團聚。來台工作的藍領移工不准在台結婚、攜眷，更沒有家庭團聚的權利；其合法居留期間也被排除在歸化申請資格之外。
8. 外籍家務勞動者填補社會福利漏洞。2007年2月外籍家務勞動者佔了總外籍
藍領工人之百分之四十六，約十五萬人。台灣殘缺的社會福利制度以及老年化的社會現象，造成了近年這些外籍家務勞動者的數量不斷上揚。根據勞委會統計，外籍監護工平均工時高達每日12.5 小時，她們以以長工時、低工資的勞動條件，持續修補著台灣照護制度的缺漏。勞委會曾於1998年4月將家事服務業勞工納入勞基法適用，但於1999年1月又取消適用。由於家庭類勞工被排除在勞動基準法的適用範圍外，使得這塊殘缺的公共社福領域徹底私人市場化，欠缺工時、休假、工作內容與勞動條件的基本保障；台灣國際勞工協會與天主教移工團體並組成「家事服務法聯盟」，倡議制定家事服務法以保障家務勞動者的法定權益。

台灣的外籍藍領移工被政策定位在不能久居的「客工」，低階外勞只是台灣勞動力的補充，社會的過客。在這樣的設計之下，相關藍領移工的控制結構，諸如，在勞動市場上限制六年的工作年限，無法自由轉換雇主，無法自組工會，而私人仲介制度更加深了移工面對的債務的控制，更使得移工面對控制的結構禁聲， 2005年的高雄捷運泰勞抗暴事件，正徹底突顯了台灣的移工政策已成了「新奴工制度」。這樣的制度與長期家務勞動者無法律保障的處境，也使得台灣被列名為美國國務院二○○六年人口販運的觀察名單。(2007.09)



The Portraits of Migrant Workers in Taiwan
Yu-Chien Lorna Kung

In the 1960s and 1970s, labor intensive industries created the economic miracle in Taiwan. Along with the economic developments, the costs of land and labor soared. Taiwanese industries could no longer rely on taking advantage of the cheap labor released from the rural area. Transferring industry abroad became a tendency while the importation of migrant workers became one of the strategies for the government to request the industries to “root stay in Taiwan.” In 1989, the Administrative Yuan began to import Thai workers according to the Measures in Response to the Demand for Manpower in Fourteen Major Construction Projects. The adoption of the Employment Service Act in 1992 affirmed Taiwan’s migrant worker policy.
Therefore, no matter it is Taipei Metro, High Speed Rail, hospitals, or community parks, we see the images of migrant workers living and working with us. As of February, 2007, there are 341,623 blue-collar foreign migrant workers in Taiwan, which amounts to 1.4% of the total population or 3% of the total labor population. About half of the blue-collar migrant workers are in the manufacturing industries, while 44% care takers. The amounts of workers from Thailand, Indonesia, Philippine, and Vietnam range from 70,000 to 90,000 while those from Malaysia and Mongolia are less than a hundred.
Table: The Population of Foreign Migrant Workers in Taiwan (2007 February)
Nationality
Industry Thailand Indonesia Philippine
Vietnam
Malaysia Mongolia
Total 341,623 91,832
(26.9%) 91,294
(26.7%) 88,715
(26%) 69,738 (20.4%) 11
(0.0%) 33
(0%)
Manufacture 169,167
(50%) 79,871 8,223 58,067 22,976 11 19
Construction 11,728
(3.4%) 9,649 44 1,305 730 - -
Fishery 3,417
(1%) 14 1,902 813 688 - -
Care Takers 157,311
(46%) 2,298 81,125 28,530 45,344 - 14
Sources: Council of Labor Affairs, Executive Yuan and Ministry of the Interior

The Plights of Migrant Workers
The Employment Service Act of 1992 differentiates blur-collars migrant workers from white-collars. The employment of professional white-collar foreigners is regulated by the system of individual permissions. It does not set a quota for the number of work permits issued each year, nor limit the years of contracts or the duration of stay. Migrant workers, however, are regulated by the so-called “guest worker” system: the employment is controlled by quota, and migrant workers are allowed to stay during the contractual period and for six years at most. Different from the professional white-collars, who can freely change jobs in the labor market, the low-level migrant workers are deprived of the same rights that white-collars have. Migrant workers can only work for designated employer. They are not allowed to change employers, except in some extraordinary conditions.
Taiwan’s government announced four basic principles for its migrant worker policy: a) To ensure that migrant labor is only a supplementary labor force; b) To prevent migrant workers from becoming de facto immigrants or long-term residents; c) To prevent migrant workers from creating social and public health problems; d) Not to interfere and retard the industrial upgrades. Guided by these four principles, Taiwan’s administration system of migrant workers has the following characteristics:
1. The government controls which industries to import migrant workers and how many workers to be imported.
2. Migrant workers are allowed to work in Taiwan only for a limited period. After a maximum stay of three years, migrant workers must Taiwan for a minimum of one day so that they are not eligible to apply for permanent residency. After finishing their stay, migrant workers must leave Taiwan and cannot return as migrant workers again.
3. Migrant workers must submit police clearances and pass routine health checks. Before and after coming to Taiwan and every two years thereafter, migrant workers have to submit the health clearances issued by the hospitals approved by Taiwan’s Department of Health. If the health checks fail, they cannot renew the work permits and will be deported. Before obtaining the work visas, migrant workers have to prepare the police clearances from their mother countries as the verifications for their behaviors.
4. Migrant workers have only limited mobility. Migrant workers have to reside with the employees. They are not allowed to move freely. Migrant workers are allowed to change employers only when the factories are closed, the patients whom they are hired to take care passed away, serious maltreatment such as sexual abuse or harassments
5. The quota system controlled by cyclic reuse. According to the current legislation an employer will lose his or her quota if the hired migrant worker runs away. This kind of legal system leads the employers to strictly control the migrant workers by confiscating their passport, by “forced saving plan,” or by restricting migrant workers’ social activities during their vacation. These strategies adopted by the employers often violate the human rights of migrant workers.
6. Migrant workers are recruited by private agents. The complicated process to import migrant workers, the quota system, and the pressure of the competition between brokers lead the brokers to transfer their costs to migrant workers. The high broker fee is the most obvious and direct exploitation upon the migrant workers in Taiwan. According to the statistic numbers provided by the Taiwanese government, a migrant worker has to pay between NT$110,000to $150,000 as the broker fee before she or he can come to Taiwan.
7. Migrant workers are not allowed family reunion. Foreign blue-collars are not allowed to marry in Taiwan or bring their families. They do not have the rights of family reunion. The period of their legal stay does not qualify for the application of naturalization.
8. Foreign domestic workers are used to cover up the loophole of safety nets.By February 2007, one hundred and fifty thousand foreign domestic workers constitute forty-six percent of overall foreign blue-collar workers in Taiwan. That Taiwan’s welfare system has not been well designed for this ageing society results in the continuous increase of the number of foreign domestic workers. According to the statistics from the Council of Labor Affairs, the average working hours of foreign caretakers is as high as 12.5 hours. Long working hours and low wages of foreign domestic workers have been compensating the defect of Taiwan’s system of care. Council of Labor Affairs, in April 1998, once sought to broaden the application of the Labor Standards Law to include domestic workers, but withdrew the proposal in January 1999. Without the protection of Labor Standards Law, domestic workers do not have guarantees in working hours, sick leave, vacation, and other working conditions, nor do they have fixed job description to follow. TIWA and Catholic immigrant worker groups have formed PAHSA to propose the enactment of the Household Service Act to protect the legal rights of domestic workers.

Taiwan’s policies set the foreign blue-collars migrant workers to the position of “guest workers,” who cannot stay permanently. Low-level foreign workers are merely supplement to Taiwanese labor force and guests of this society. The structural controls of blue-collar migrant workers—the limitation of six-year work permits, not allow to change employers freely, not allow to form labor union—and the system of private brokers, which deepened the control of migrant workers by debts, make migrant workers silent when they confront the manipulating structures. The riot of Thai workers in Kaohsiung City showed that Taiwan’s migrant worker policies had become a “New Slavery System.” This system and the situation that domestic workers lack legal protection also led Taiwan to be included on the Tier-2 watch list in the US State Department's 2005 Trafficking of Human Persons report.
]]> http://blog.roodo.com/lorna0201/archives/7612291.html http://blog.roodo.com/lorna0201/archives/7612291.html Articals in English Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:01:18 +0800
Those conversations are often happened during my work. This makes me sad and angry. I won’t forget the sadness of Nancy, a caregiver working in Taipei County; she showed me her picture: her 3 kids. Her elder son died with 20 years old when she was working in Taiwan. She was not allowed to attend the funeral of her son. She was forced to abandon the family culture, which is the most precious part of Philippines culture. I looked at her face and felt the pain, sadness and her persistence.

Unless something is done about it, these domestic workers will continue to be under the exploitation.

Do you know? Tens of millions of people around the world are employed as domestic workers. The great majority of them are women. Those domestic workers’ jobs have in common: the working condition are often harsh, with long working hours and most of them are live-in which makes them more difficult to divide their living and working place. Because it is performed in private residences, it is invisible. And it is regarded as a kind of help that women provide inside somebody else’s home, rather than as a proper job with all the attendant rights. They are low-paid, low-status and work in a contradiction between two basic rights: the right as a worker and the employers’ right to have their and their families’ privacy respected. Domestic work is often excluded from the coverage of labor legislation. The exploitation of domestic workers is most marked.

In 2003, many incidents of migrants been abused were reported by the media, but the explosive one was the death of the Presidential State Policy Consultant, Liu Shia, a well-known Taiwanese writer and an advocate of the rights of the disable. On February 8, 2003 she died after being attacked by her Indonesian caregiver Vina, who suffered from convulsion disorder, a psychological affliction caused by emotional stress, which made her unable to distinguish between reality and imagination.

This incident shocked the Taiwanese public. On one part, some employers were worried that they had placed an unexploded bomb at home. Others argued that the violation of the rights of household workers, especially the deprivation of rest days among migrant caregivers, the pressure and isolation at work, made both the patients and household workers become victims. The same story happened again last year; a Vietnamese worker killed her employer and jumped from 4 floors after she didn’t receive her salary for 2 years.

Who make them become cold-blooded murders? It is the slavery-labor policy killing the both parties of workers and employers.

In April 2004, the Taiwan NGOs formed a alliance PAHSA (Promoting Alliance for Household Service Act) and advocated to draft a new law called “Household Service Law”, to protect the most vulnerable migrants, the domestic workers. To respond to pressure from NGOs, the government revised the regulation on January 13, 2004 to allow NGOs to establish non-profit employment service agencies. But they ignore the need of legist ration and continue responding NGOS that they are “studying” this issue.

Something need to be done! Otherwise most domestic workers won’t have day-off, equal payment, benefits of labor insurance…ect. There are more than 360,000 migrant workers in Taiwan, of whom 160,000 are household workers. In the summer of 2007, PAHSA changed his name to MENT (Migrants Empowerment Network in Taiwan) and continue lobby and advocacy. MENT is organizing a national migrants’ rally on December 9 and calling on the Taiwan government and encouraging Taiwanese society to be compassionate and to respect the human right of household and other migrant workers. We call on the Taiwan Government to enforce the right of all migrant workers to have at least ONE DAY OFF PER WEEK and:
1. Abolish the broker system and implement country-to-country direct hiring
2. Allow free transfer between employers
3. Eliminate the time limit
4. Include household workers under the Labor Standard Law
5. Allow migrant workers to form their own union

I would like to invite you to join us on December 9 to celebrate migrant workers’ contribution to Taiwan and to express our concern about Government policies that discriminate against migrant workers and make workers even more vulnerable to unscrupulous brokers and employers. You have the choice to keep silent or take action. You have the totally rights to show your support and to show the world that migrant workers’ strength and dignity cannot be ignored or silenced. We know that social changes need time and different efforts involved; I believe if we don’t take action, there won’t have anything happened. This time, there are more than 500 Taiwanese are willing to attend and show their support to migrants. Don’t be hesitating!! Welcome you to join this legal , peaceful and powerful rally.



The writer is the general secretary of the Scalabrini International Migration Network-Taiwan. She also serves as a consultant to the Taiwan International Workers' Association. For comments, just write Lorna at lornakung@hotmail.com Taiwan News

]]> http://blog.roodo.com/lorna0201/archives/7612263.html http://blog.roodo.com/lorna0201/archives/7612263.html Articals in English Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:58:02 +0800 By Lorna Kung 龔尤倩

Sunday, May 04, 2008, Page 8 , Taipei TimesYou see them day and night at the vegetable market in Taipei County’s Sanchong City — foreign female workers who get up at dawn to work in the breakfast shops or clean cars under the scorching sun or late into the night. As the public waits for the economy to take a turn for the better when president-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) takes over on May 20, it is this group of hardworking female immigrants that is the engine driving the local labor market.
A survey of the work situation for immigrant women published on the eve of Labor Day showed that language and race are the cause of much prejudice against these women as they seek employment. Then, if they manage to find a job, they usually have to suffer from inferior work conditions. Being immigrants and having to take care of their husbands’ family mean that these hardworking women often have to take substandard jobs.

The survey, which was conducted by the Taiwan International Family Association, showed that most female immigrants are employed in restaurants, as househould help or contractual workers in small factories, which means they work on the margins of the economy. The survey also revealed that the problems and prejudice immigrant women face on the job market are embarrassingly widespread.

The pressure to support the family has made double-income households universal in Taiwan. This means that aside from dealing with traditional household duties and child care, immigrant wives have to enter the labor market to help support the family. In households where the husband is unemployed, she becomes the bread winner. These women often have to accept lower pay for performing the same kind of work as their Taiwanese counterparts, go without labor insurance and work irregular hours.

Immigrant wives are not the only low-skilled workers that suffer this kind of treatment — foreign workers have long been subjected to the same conditions. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators have proposed amending the Act for the Establishment and Management of Free Ports (自由貿易港區設置管理條例) so that the minimum wage no longer applies to foreign workers in order to make such labor even cheaper.

Many middle-aged or elderly women who have had to join this group of low-skilled workers after suffering from work-related accidents or because of some adverse circumstances face the same kind of treatment. They are confronted with prejudice and hardship at their jobs while they get neither labor nor health insurance and are not afforded even the most basic protection under the Labor Standards Law (勞動基準法).

When workers have nothing but their ability to work hard to exchange for food on the table, the asymmetric relationship between employers and employees forces them to join the ranks of low-skilled workers. As Ma and his team work hard to gain the support of big businesses in preparation for taking over the government, I see no possibility of these imbalances being urgently dealt with.

The state should intervene to bring balance to the distorted relationship between employers and employees and relieve the lot of this marginalized group of immigrant, foreign, middle-aged and elderly worker.

The government should take a hard look at the situation of low-skilled workers and work to preserve their dignity. These workers are not asking for better conditions, they are just asking for the most fundamental job guarantees. If a country can’t even provide that, how can it ask workers to place their hopes in that country?



Lorna Kung is general-secretary of the Scalabrini International Migration Network in Taiwan.

Translated by Perry Svensson
This story has been viewed 427 times.

]]> http://blog.roodo.com/lorna0201/archives/7612253.html http://blog.roodo.com/lorna0201/archives/7612253.html Articals in English Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:56:52 +0800 By Lorna Kung 龔尤倩

Friday, Jun 22, 2007, Page 8 ,Taipei Times
In the US' latest Trafficking in Persons Report released on June 12, Taiwan stands on the list of "Tier 2" countries. Thanks US influenc and the report, which assesses government efforts worldwide to put a stop to human trafficking, trafficking has become a hot issue here. Taiwan was put on the "Tier 2" watch list last year, sparking debate.
But many contributing factors to the situation in Taiwan must be taken into account. Globalization is an uneven process. Although capital and goods can move freely, laborers face many obstacles.
In general, trafficked people are regarded as "victims," while illegal migrants are viewed as "violators." However, because of the obstacles to legal migration, aspiring migrants can fall into the trap of illegal migration, sometimes in the form of human trafficking. Women are often willing to risk illegal migration, often driven by a hope that they will find economic security.
People in relatively poor countries aspire to migrate to more affluent countries for a better life. However, more developed countries often impose strict border controls on potential migrants from specific countries. Taiwan has taken such measures against Chinese and Southeast Asians.
While theoretically have the right to leave the country where they are a citizen, there is no corresponding right guaranteeing their admission to another country. Restrictive admission policies force some migrants to seek illegal channels, making them vulnerable to trafficking elements.
Once they have entered a new country illegally, these migrants are vulnerable to exploitation because they lack legal status. Migrants end up in an underprivileged and vulnerable position, unprotected by most labor laws and thus easily subject to the manipulation and exploitation of traffickers and employers. The more demanding the process is, the higher it is expected to cost the migrants to pay the facilitators.
The mainstream discourse is predominantly centered on how these people are defrauded by traffickers, how they can be rescued and how border control should be strengthened. Unfortunately, the US report encourages the authorities to tighten boarder control to prevent trafficking.
"The authorities prevent the trafficking through brokered international marriages by restricting eligibility and enhancing interview requirements for foreign brides and their Taiwanese spouses; as a result, the number of spousal visas issued to brides in Vietnam dropped for a second straight year to 3,864 down from 7,062 in 2005 and 11,953 in 2004," it says.
These discourses treat illegal migration as a problem, treat trafficking as a moral issue and ignore the factors that lead people to risk their security to gain entry to another country and the factors that restrict their freedom of movement. This discourse not only simplifies the multilayered obstacles confronting "victims," but fails to address their real problems: the poverty and imbalance of development in different countries and lack of genuine freedom of movement between people of different nations.
Needless say, trafficking must be stopped. However, it is also important to recognize the determination of women and men to migrate in the hope of improving their lives. We must also recognize their vulnerability as migrant workers.
The problem is not simply a question of saving victims and prosecuting traffickers. We must stop ignoring the extreme conditions that force many to leave their homes. Tightening border controls is not the solution.

Lorna Kung is the secretary-general of the Scalabrini International Migration Network in Taiwan.

]]> http://blog.roodo.com/lorna0201/archives/7612235.html http://blog.roodo.com/lorna0201/archives/7612235.html Articals in English Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:54:51 +0800 The Origin and Development of Labor Migration Policy in Taiwan
Lorna Kung , Scalabrini Migration Center Taiwan Branch
Taiwan International Workers’ Association

I want to review Taiwan’s migration history and the origin and development of the labor migration policy in Taiwan. It highlights that Taiwan has been a migrant society since the 17th century. In the 1990s Taiwan faces the challenge of the relocation of its industries, and the government starts to import labor migration. Taiwan adopts a temporary guest-workers program to avoid permanent immigration. The development of the labor migration policy, the new phenomenon of foreign brides in the late-1990s and the upcoming of more and more organizations lobbying for migrants’ rights, bring lots of challenge to Taiwan’s society.

1. A historical view of migration in Taiwan
1.1 The period before 1949
The history of Taiwan is a history of colonial oppression. Since the beginning of the 17th century, Taiwan has been under the domination of different regimes. Beginning in 1624 the Dutch ruled Taiwan for 38 years. During that period north Taiwan also had been dominated by the Spanish for 16 years (1626 to 1642). In 1662 the Zheng Cheng Kong expelled the Dutch to rule Taiwan approximately for 22 years. Afterwards, in 1684 Taiwan returned to Han Chinese. In 1895 Han Chinese was defeated in the Guag-Wu War and ceded Taiwan to Japan. Henceforth, the Japanese ruled Taiwan for half century, during this period Japan implemented the Huangming Policy forcing Taiwanese to adopt the Japanese culture and language. In 1945, the Republic of China took control of Taiwan. In 1949, the government of the Republic of China was relocated from China to Taiwan. For almost 370 years, Taiwan has been through several stages of political ruling and during these 370 years, on this island seven different flags were planted.
During the Dutch colonization, in order to produce rice and sugar, the Dutch recruited manpower from Minnan, south of China. Between 1637 and 1652, approximately thirty thousands people from Minnan immigrated to Taiwan, and were employed in the Dutch “East India Company” and were engaged in the plant of paddy rice and sugar cane. They were like nowadays "migrant workers", and then those "migrant workers" settled down and became Taiwanese. During the Zheng’s time, the large army was mostly engaged in the pursuit of cultivable lands. The army was a high-level agricultural team, helping considerably the development of south Taiwan. After Taiwan returned to the Qing Dynasty of China, immigrants from China arrived in search of a better life. The majority of these migrants were bachelors and they married with the aborigines and settled in Taiwan.
Because of the diversity of origin language and customs, there are many conflicts between the local people and migrants or even among migrants. This diversity and the struggle for survival brought the immigrants and their descendants to many frictions with other ethnic groups. In the 211 years domination of the Qing Dynasty, sixty ethnic fights occurred in Taiwan. In 1949 about one million in 1949 so-called "Waishenyen" (persons from Mainland China) followed the Kumindan Party after the defeat with the Communist Party .
1.2 Post 1949 internal migration in Taiwan
When the Kuomindan government retreated to Taiwan in 1949, it faced two immediate demands: feeding a population swelled by over one million solders, and developing the island economically in order to consolidate the regime. Land reform in the 1950s enabled many peasants to become owner-cultivators, but it could not increase the amount of land suitable for farming. The costs of operating a farm also were often heavier following land reform than prior to the program’s implementation. This difficulty was exacerbated by the expropriation of a large share of farmers’ surplus through mechanisms such as land taxes payable in kind, the compulsory sale of grain, and the rice fertilizer barter system .
Urban-to- rural migration occurred as a result of these problems. Land reform kept landholdings small while extractive farming policies kept farmers poor. Employment in the urban areas became an alternative to the problem of agricultural labor surplus. Meanwhile in 1951 the Korea War broke out, starting the Cold War. Taiwan became a power in the chess game between China and USA. Under the financial support of USA which infected USD.45 billions for military and USD.14.6 billions for economic development from 1951 to 1965, Taiwan’s economy was getting a position in the global market . Massive rural-to-urban migration occurred in the 1960s when Taiwan’s economic growth was at its historical peak, until in the 1980s, the urban population was 35 percent of the whole .
1.3 Emigration waves in the 1970s
The 1970s marked the beginning of a new wave of Taiwanese emigration to settle in foreign lands, the majority in USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Mostly they were students who went to study and then remained, some were from upper-middle class with both professional skills and considerable capital resources . Taiwan derived great benefits from attracting back highly skilled Taiwanese, although the return flow has amounted to only 20 per cent of those who left. They have been encouraged to return by a wide range of incentives and policies, as well as the growth of the Taiwanese economy since the 1960s .
1.4 The politic reforms in the end of the 1980s
After the civil war between KMT (Kuomintang Party) and CCP (Chinese Communist Party) in 1949, KMT defeated and moved their government to Taiwan. KMT saw itself as the only legitimate government of all China, and Taiwan should serve as the base for the recovery of the mainland. Based on this claim, KMT advocated the value of being Chinese as an equivalent of being patriotic (a China-centered ideology) and adopted the marshal law to constrict the politic rights and suppress other ethnic groups such as Taiwan aborigines, Hoklo and Hakka .
In the 1970s, KMT regime had difficulties in convincing its people to continuously support the goal of recovering the mainland after almost twenty years of no militant action. There were also more challenges to KMT’s China-centered ideology. Furthermore, political development at the international level also put Taiwan in an unfavorable spot. In 1971, Taiwan was forced to give up its seat in the United Nations to the PRC (People’s Republic of China) . In 1979, the U.S. established diplomatic ties with PRC.
Democratization, Taiwanization, self-determination and even Taiwan nationalism were strongly demanded by opposite forces. Following the politic reforms in the end of the 1980s, it took an ethnic equality turn against institution discrimination based on ethnicity in this island . The opposite party DDP (Democratic Development Party) was established in 1986 and then won the presidential election in 2000.
1.5 The liberation and interaction between Taiwan and China after 1987
Since November of 1987 when the PRC government lifted the ban on Taiwan people's visiting relatives in China, there has been a historical breakthrough in the relationships across Taiwan Strait. The situation of mutual isolation and opposing position between Taiwan and China over the four decades changed. Contact and interaction between people of Taiwan and China have begun. From 1993 to September 2000, there were 1.985 million Taiwan people applying to enter China. The following three reasons were the most common (55 percent): "general businesses", " visiting relatives" and" touring and visitation". The three categories account for 55%. The interaction of Taiwan and China was become so frequent that there are at least 300,000 Taiwanese now working in Shangai.
1.6 Relocate or import migrant workers? The debate in the late 1980s
During the 1960s and 1970s, through the absorption of internal migration, the economical miracle of Taiwan was created by labor intensive industries such as manufacturing of shoes and umbrellas, textile and garment. However, along with the economic development, some other changes occurred in the Taiwan labor market and society: the increase in proportion of the population in school, the increase of income, the decline of the labor participation rate and the rapid liberalization of many aspects of society. Other factors contributed to the rise of production costs in Taiwan which include: raw-material costs and land prices, demands from labor unions, environmental protection regulations and the sharp rise of the Taiwanese currency .
Consequently, given the pressures of increased global economic competition the Taiwanese industries could no longer rely on their comparative advantage of cheap labor and low operation costs like twenty years before. When the attraction of low wage and low-costs development from China began to emerge, Taiwanese capitalists began to relocate their investments in China. The end of the 1980s saw the Taiwanese currency appreciate and with it an expansion of the underground economy. Many public construction projects mushroomed and the employers took the opportunity to presse the government to increase the import of migrant labor, on the pretext that there was a serious labor shortage.
1.7 Irregular migrant workers in the late 1980s
In fact during the 1980s, many migrant workers from South East Asia were already working in Taiwan. Majority of them were Malaysians, Filipinos and Thais, there were also a few workers from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. However, most of them were working illegally, having entered Taiwan on tourist visas. According to Tasy, there were 50,000 to 100,000 illegal migrant workers at that time .
However, the State did not simply legalized the existing irregular migrant workers in Taiwan. For three years beginning in 1991, the Labor Bureau in cooperation with the Police relentlessly cracked down on existing irregular migrants. By 1992, an amnesty for irregular immigrants was announced. The aim was to root out completely, all the irregular foreign workers who were already staying in Taiwan. As on August 1994, 75,000 irregular foreign workers had been deported .

2. The origin of Taiwan’s temporary labor migration program
2.1 The importation of migrant workers in 1992
In October 1989 the Administrative Yuan came up with “Measures in Response to the Demand for Manpower in Fourteen Major Construction Projects”. Special permits to import contract workers were granted to the construction companies. In 1991 with the passing of the “Employment Service Act”, the country officially opened the door to migrant labor. In 1992 Taiwanese State policies on foreign workers were finally liberalized.
The “Employment Service Act” permitted foreign workers to be imported for: 1) big firms engaged in major public construction project; 2) households with at least one disabled or retarded member; 3) the fishing industries; 4) families with working parents and children under 12 years of age; 5) nursing institutions; 6) high linkage industries or important export industries.
Except for construction, the importation of migrant workers focused on industries which are important in the export trade, not on industries with shortage of labor . The government’s migrant worker policy did not so unchallenged and was criticized by unionists and the public. The employers want more migrant workers while unionists want to stop the inflow of migrant workers.
2.2 Three major migration waves
Taiwan does not have an open-door policy for international migration except for professional workers. For temporary immigrants, applications must meet strict requirements and consequently a rather limited number of cases are granted . In sum there are three distinct communities of migrant workers in Taiwan.
2.2.1 Foreign professionals, highly-qualified workers
According to the statistics of the Ministry of the Interior, in 2004 69.4 percent of foreign residents were migrant workers, 19.9 percent were foreign brides and 10.7 percent were foreign professors. After 1992, the foreign professionals can apply and obtain their work permits from the government easily through their employers. During the period of their work permit, they can change employers if their new employers successfully obtain new work permits for them. There is no ceiling limitation to the number of white-collar foreign workers. Moreover, there is no time-limitation for their contract.
2.2.2 Migrant workers
They are the largest group of foreigners in Taiwan. Based on government data in February 2005, there were around 309,776 migrant workers in the island. This accounted for 3 percent of total employment (10,219,000) in Taiwan. They were from Thailand (33 percent), the Philippines (29.5 percent), Indonesia (7.5 percent), Vietnam (29.9 percent) and 55 workers from Mongolia (0.02 percent). They worked in the manufacturing industries (52.9 percent), construction industries (3.8 percent), crewmen (0.95 percent) and some of them worked as domestics and caretakers (42.3 percent )
(Table 1.1).
Migrant workers employed in the industries and construction are under the supervision of the Labor Standards Law (LSL) which offers nondiscrimination and legitimate protection in minimum wages (NT.15840=USD.495), working hours and


Table 1.1 : Foreign Workers in Taiwan (end of February, 2005)
Country
Industry Thailand Indonesia Philippines Vietnam Malaysia Mongolia
Total 309,776 102,226
(33.0%) 23,098
(7.5%) 91,616
(29.6%) 92,759 (29.9%) 22
(0.01%) 55
(0.02%)
Manufacturing 164,010
(52.9%) 87,997 4,927 55,655 15,398 19 14
Construction 11,898
(3.8%) 10,918 24 459 496 1 -
Fishing crew 2,928
(0.95%) 13 301 726 1,888 - -
Caretaker 128,379
(41.4%) 3,232 17,435 33,298 74,371 2 41
Domestic helper 2,561
(0.8%) 66 411 1,478 606 - -
Source: Counsel of Labor Affair, Executive Yuan, Taiwan, website: http:// www.evta.gov.tw
, accessed on 16 August 2005.

working conditions; however, for domestic helpers and caretakers, labor conditions and pertinent rights are subject to the employment contract agreed upon between the worker and the employer. Such regulation has forced many domestic and caretakers to enter into unfavorable contracts with employers.
As fishermen, since they live most of the time in the sea and are rather dispersed. It is difficult to notice them. As a result, their realities were often hidden from the public’s scrutiny. The Mainland Chinese fishermen are severely discriminated as ‘special foreigners’ because of their nationality. This is mainly due to the policies toward the Mainland Chinese. They were treated differently from the others and were not allowed to go on land.
2.2.3 Foreign brides
In recent years, the number of intermarriages in Taiwan has increased. About one of every four marriages in Taiwan now is between Taiwanese men and foreign women. According to the statistics of the Ministry of the Interior, in 2004 there were about 338,000 foreign brides, among them 216,000 (63.9 percent) from Mainland China. (Table 1.2) These women are usually married to Taiwanese men who have scare resources, and therefore have lower opportunities for a marriage with local women. The lack of resources means that foreign brides face great economic pressures in Taiwan. Needless to say, they face communication problems because of differences in language and cultures, majority of them end up as the nurses or caretakers of the family, and become forced labors, the reproductive machines for the society and invisible producers for the economy. Moreover, since they are mostly from economically less prosperous regions in Southeast Asia, they also tend to be stigmatized and victimized by the mainstream society.
2.3 Objectives and dynamics of Taiwan labor migration policy
Taiwan’s migrant worker policy rests on four topic principles:
1. To ensure migrant labor should only be a supplementary labor force.
2. To prevent migrant workers from becoming de facto immigrants or long term residents in the country and to avoid legalizing irregular migrates.

Table 1.2: Foreign Brides in Taiwan (2001-2004)
Years Total amount of Marriages Foreign brides(exclude Chinese spouses) Spouses from Mainland China Proportion of foreign brides
2001 170,515 19,405 27,342 27.2%
2002 172,655 20,107 29,545 28.4%
2003 171,483 19,643 34,426 31.4%
2004 131,453 20,338 10,972 23.8%
1987-2004 122,000 338,000
Source: Ministry of the Interior (2005), Executive Yuan, Taiwan, website: http:// www.moi.gov.tw/stat, re-compiled by author on 12 August 2005.


Table 1.3: The Major Countries of Origin of Brides in 2004
(exclude Chinese spouses) Unit: Person
Countries Spouse Residency Long-term Residency
Vietnam 60,302 55,913
Indonesia 10,800 10,027
Thailand 8,285 7,492
Filipino 3,939 3,364
Cambodia 2,586 2,461
Source: Ministry of the Interior (2005), Executive Yuan, Taiwan, website: http:// www.moi.gov.tw/stat, re-compiled by author on 12 August 2005

3. To prevent migrant workers from becoming a source of social problems.
4. Not to interfere and retard the upgrading of industries .
These four principles are implemented through specific measures:

2.3.1 Restricting the importation of migrant workers in specific industries and occupations.
The number and the categories of migrant workers to be imported are limited by the CLA (Council of Labor Affairs). The Taiwan government holds the right to indicate which kind of industries and occupations could import migrant workers, and how many. In general, manufacturing industries are allowed to import migrant workers up to 30 percent of the total workforce in their own firms, the construction industry is allowed up to 65 percent and seafaring and fishing industries up to 50%.
2.3.2 Restricting the period of work in Taiwan
In order to avoid future immigration, migrant workers are allowed to stay in
Taiwan only for a limited period of time and they have to renew their resident certificates with valid contract through the foreign police office. After finishing their stay in Taiwan, migrant workers must leave Taiwan and could not return as a migrant worker again.
2.3.3 Avoiding social and health problems.
The government requires all migrant workers to submit a certificate of good health through a hospital recognized by Taiwan’s Department of Health. Upon entering Taiwan they are again required to have a medical check every six months which includes an HIV antibody test, syphilis serum test, pregnancy test, malaria test and so on. Migrant workers are also rejected for blood-donation.
2.3.4 Limiting the mobility of migrant workers.
By law employers must provide migrant workers with food and lodging, and migrant workers are not supposed to change employer except for some serious mal treatment like sexual abuse, or for closure of their companies. The employer is given a quota of workers and this allotment is not transferable to other employers. If a worker runs away, the quota can be reduced or taken away, leaving the employer unable to find another migrant worker. In this way the government tries to control the number of migrant workers and the place where they should stay. Most employers take steps to avoid workers running away and increase controls over the workers, through confiscation of passports, forced savings and restricting their possibilities to move around. For example, the government allowed employers to deduct up to 30 percent of the workers’ salary every month, till the time the workers finish the contract; the deducted money is returned to them on their departure day. All these actions critic to say that Taiwan employers violate the human rights and freedoms of their workers.
2.4 The brokerage system
The Taiwan government does not handle the recruitment of migrant workers directly. As a result, in recruiting migrant workers, the use of manpower agencies in both Taiwan and sending countries becomes necessary.
Because of the quota policy (as I mentioned above, p.15) and competition among agencies, Taiwan brokers need to convince the employers to grant them the rights to recruit migrant workers. In exchange Taiwan brokers handle all the paper works and procedures at the Taiwan side. Then they ask their partners abroad to find the workers

Table 1.4: The Forced-Saving Situation of Foreign Labor (2000/2001)
Unit: NT
Items Total No forced-saving Force saving
Monthly Proportion Average monthly forced-saving
Aug.2000 100.0% 19.2% 80.8% 17.7% 2,943(USD.92)
Manufacturing 100.0% 18.7% 81.3% 17.9% 2,954(USD.92)
Constructions 100.0% 32.2% 67.8% 9.6% 2,626(USD.82)

Aug.2001 100.0% 35.6% 64.4% 18.7% 2,998(USD.94)
Manufacturing 100.0% 34.9% 65.1% 19.3% 3,071(USD.96)
Constructions 100.0% 54.8% 45.2% 10.7% 2,402(USD.75)
Source: Survey of Utilize and Management of Migrate Workers on 2002, Council of Labor Affairs, Executive Yuan, Taiwan

and take care of all the procedure abroad. Almost all the employers in Taiwan recruit migrant workers through manpower agencies (Table 1.5). It is not only because to recruit a migrant worker is need to spend the long, bureaucratic procedures, but also for the grand kickbacks. The system allows the employers to pay no fees for the recruitment and even collect kickbacks to award the contracts to certain brokers. Obviously, these brokers do not offer their services free of charge. It is free to the employer side, but very expensive to migrant workers. The workers need to pay between NT.100,000 -150,000 (USD.3,120-4,679) as a placement fee for the brokers . The riot of 170 Tai workers in Kousiung on 21 August of 2005 brought the Taiwan public attention on the grand kickbacks in the broker system. The amount of NT.170 (USD.5.3 million) million of kickbacks of thousands workers revealed a possible plot by commercial and political interests to exploit Thai workers. The excessive fees charged to migrant workers by the brokers is one of the main reasons why these workers run away and work illegally . According Yi Kun Lee, migrant workers spend their first year earnings to pay their hometown debt and broker fees, in the second year they pay the interest on debts and only in the third year they start to earn their own money .
The absence of the Taiwan government in the recruitment and management of the migrant workers program makes the brokers follow the rules of the market and does not encourage them to play a positive function such as helping the workers to handle their grievances and adjust to Taiwan society, organizing activities. In the alliance between employers and brokers, the interests of the migrant workers are ignored.

3. The development of the labor migration policy in Taiwan
3.1 Open door to recruit migrant workers in different industries

Table 1.5: The situation of companies recruiting migrate workers through manpower agencies (Aug, 2001)
Item Total No through manpower agency Through manpower agency
Consider direct-hiring Never consider direct-hiring
Total 100.0% 1.2% 98.8% 19.6% 79.2%

Manufactures 100.0% 1.1% 98.9% 19.4% 79.5%
constructions 100.0% 3.5% 96.5% 26.0% 70.5%
Source: Survey of Utilize and Management of Migrate Workers on 2002, Council of Labor Affairs, Executive Yuan, Taiwan.

Initially, the importation of migrant labor was only to meet the public construction
projects. However, the pressure from industries and the fierce competition among them for labor forced the government to liberalize hiring. Apart from the major construction projects, by 1991, 15 occupations in 6 industries had started to import 15,000 workers from overseas. From 1992 onwards, the government changed its policy from “occupational type” to “industrial sectors”. As a result, the criteria of what employers could import migrant labor were relaxed. Following that, 32,000 workers were imported for the 68 industrial sectors, 32,000 were imported for public construction projects, 35,000 workers were imported for 73 additional industries. Also, further liberalization in the import of domestic caretakers and workers took place. The rapid liberation of the migrant workers policy resulted in a significant number of migrant workers (Table 1.6)
3.2 The continuation of the importing migrant workers program
The government used to claim that “Migrant Labor can only supplement the shortage of labor but not replace local labor” . However, after 16 years of the so-called supplementing labor, it is obvious today that that was not realistic. In reality, migrant labor has already become a permanent feature of the Taiwanese economy, although the State does not admits this.
The Taiwanese employer association, government officials and some neo-liberal economists explain the phenomenon of massive importation of migrant workers because of the labor shortage and the majority local people do not want to involve some hard industries, to justify the cheap labor policy. The argument goes, since the speed of up-grading the industrial structure could not catch up with the up-grading of the educational attainment of the labor force, and the real wage increase, there is a necessity
to import labor from other low-income countries to fill up the shortage. This argument is challenged by Lee, also a neo-liberal scholar, who clearly stated that. Starting from the mid of 1990’s the role of migrant workers has shifted “from providing low cost labor to providing management flexibilities” .
Likewise Mei Chun Liu argues that the separation of production and social reproduction, an institutional result of foreign labor policy, has made most of reproductive costs (such as the cost of education immigration, medical expenses, and retirement costs) been transferred or externalized to their sending families/countries. This is why migrant labor could remain cheap at a level unacceptable to local workers.

Table 1-6: Chronology of Labor Importation Measures
Industries Data Description
Measures in Response to the Demand for Manpower in Fourteen Major Construction Projects 1989 Since September 2000, all industries separate in two categories:
General manufacturing industry and
High-Tech. industry.

Six Year Development Plan 10/28/1989
Six industries fifteen occupations
10/12/1991
1992.05.08 Employment Service Act.
Domestics / Caretakers 08/17/1992
Crewmen 08/20/1992
Sixty-eight industries 09/26/1992
1993.09
Seventy-three industries
01/12/1993
Six industries(Chinaware..) 05/23/1993
New plants or extended equipments firms 08/17/1993

3D industries 1994.08
Export Processing Zones and Science-Based Industrial Park 09/14/1994
Major investment-manufacturing 10/08/1994
Major investment-construction 10/08/1994
Seven industries 05/01/1995
Extended manufacturing 1997
Source: Council of Labor Affairs, Executive Yuan, re-compiled by author at 12 August 2005.

So, labor shortage is a political excuse .
3.3 The extension of the work-period
At first, the maximum work period of a migrant worker was two years. A migrant worker could go to Taiwan only once. In 1998, after the lobbying of employer associations, migrant workers were allowed to stay in Taiwan for one year additional, making it a maximum stay of tree years. In January 2002 migrant workers are allowed to stay in Taiwan for a maximum of 6 years. They can re-enter the country for employment as often as they like during this period. However after a maximum stay of three years they must leave the country for a minimum of one day in order that they are
not eligible to apply for permanent residency . The extension of the work period for migrants was helpful for employers to save the costs of training newcomers.
3.4 The extension of the source countries
The selections of countries of origin were based not only on factors like geographical distance and cultural affinity, but also on political and economic interests. Given Taiwan’s ambiguous status in international politics and the continuous obstruction of the Beijing government, Taiwan has found the difficulties in establishing diplomatic relation with most countries in the world. The so-called “migratory diplomatic policy” has become a way to expand the poor international relations and to exchange economic interests. In Taiwan, migrant policy serves as the political, international bargaining chip with partnership countries.
Therefore, in addition to the original sources countries (Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia), Taiwan is trying to search for the new migrant source countries: Indonesia (1996), Vietnam (1998) and Mongolia (2004). Chen Chu, the minister of CLA, made a visit to Bangladesh in August 2004 to further the dialogue to open up the job market in Taiwan to Bangladesh workers.
Taiwan government also implements from time to time the temporary frozen policy towards the source countries which do not respect Taiwan authority or fail to control irregular workers, for example: in 2000 hiring of Filipinos workers was frozen, in 2002 the one of Indonesian workers and in 2005 the one of Vietnamese workers.
3.5 Unemployment problems after 2000
In March 2000, the Presidential Elections resulted in the change of government; Chen Shui Bien became the first President to come from the opposition parties in Taiwan. During his election campaign, he promised to cut migrant workers’ quota by 15,000 every year. This was his Party’s response to the worse unemployment in recent years (Table1.7).
On the 17th May 2001, the use of migrant workers in new construction projects was banned . On 2nd Sept 2000, the government’s Labor Commission implemented the stringent measure of raising the level of suitability score for patients to qualify for the hiring of migrant caretakers to avoid employers using fake certificates to recruit caretakers. In July 2001, in order to prevent hospitals from giving out too many fake suitability certifications to disabled or physically needy patients, so that their families

Table1.7: The Unemployment Rate and Migrate Workers (1993-2003)
Years Unemployment Rate Unemployed workers Migrate workers
1993 1.45% 128,000 98,000
1994 1.56% 142,000 152,000
1995 1.79% 165,000 189,000
1996 2.60% 242,000 237,000
1997 2.72% 256,000 248,000
1998 2.69% 257,000 271,000
1999 2.92% 283,000 295,000
2000 2.99% 293,000 327,000
2001 4.57% 450,000 305,000
2002 5.71% 515,000 304,000
2003 4.99% 503,000 300,000
Source: Manpower Survey Results in 2004, Directorale-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, Executive Yuan, Taiwan; re-compiled by author at 12 August 2005.

could hire foreign caretakers, the government reduced the number of clinics authorized to issue such certifications from 1,004 to 176.
3.6 Human-Rights Orientation after 2000
To some extent the migration policy was influenced by civil society. Since the importation of migrant workers, there are more and more critics from NGOs. Protests to condemn the lack of legal protection, unequal and inhuman treatment, high broker fees and exploitation were held every year to ask the authorities to pay attention on the protection of migrants’ rights. Migrant workers also join the rally which is yearly organized by CALL (Committee for Action of Labor Legislation), the large grassroots labor federation in Taiwan. Since the Chen government came up with the slogan: “Rule by Human Rights Standard”, it seems his authority needs to do something to show the difference with previous one. In 2001, the government implemented a reform, including the following:
3.6.1 Payment shall follow the labor contract
CLA has issued new rules for the workers’ salary on November 9, 2001. The salary should always be accompanied by a salary slip which is translated in the employee’s home country language. Under the newly amended regulations by CLA on November 7, 2002, an employer is not allowed to deduct brokerage and other fees from the workers' salary. Also, the formal official regulation “30 percent salary deduction as monthly deposits with the consent of the worker” has been deleted.
3.6.2 Lowering the brokerage fee
CLA has revised the regulation about Taiwan manpower agencies’ brokerage on
November 9, 2001. CLA suggests the expect of brokerage fee should be not over one month foreign workers’ basic wages（NT 15,840=USD.495） And it is stipulated that Taiwan manpower agencies can only charge a monthly service fee from migrant workers. The monthly service fee shall not be more than NT$1,800(USD.56) in the first year, NT$1,700(USD.53) in the second year and NT$1,500(USD.47) in the third year.
The Taiwan government promoted Direct Hiring Programs with Vietnam (2004), the Philippine (2001), Thailand (2001) and Mongolia (2004) to prevent manpower monopolies, to introduce more effective channels for recruiting foreign workers, and to lower the costs they must bear.
In 2003, many incidents of migrants been abused were reported by the media, but the explosive one was the death of the Presidential State Policy Consultant, Liu Shia, a well-known Taiwanese writer and an advocate of the rights of the disable. On February 8, 2003 she died after being attacked by her Indonesian caregiver Vina, who suffered from convulsion disorder, a psychological affliction caused by emotional stress, which made her unable to distinguish between reality and imagination.
This incident shocked the Taiwanese public. On one part, some employers were worried that they had placed an unexploded bomb at home. Others argued that the violation of the rights of household workers, especially the deprivation of rest days among migrant caregivers, the pressure and isolation at work, made both the patients and household workers become victims. In April 2004, the Taiwan International Workers Association with other NGOs advocated to draft a new law called “Household Service Law”, to protect the most vulnerable migrants, the domestic workers. To respond to pressure from NGOs, the government revised the regulation on January 13, 2004 to allow NGOs to establish non-profit employment service agencies.
3.6.3 Avoiding forced repatriation
To prevent unjustified repatriation, on November 9, 2001 CLA has required in the “Regulations on the Permission and Administration of the Employment of Foreign Persons” that an application for hiring migrant workers must be submitted with an original copy of the agreement of contract termination signed by foreign workers. But there is no procedure to control it under the unjust employ and employee relation. So this policy becomes moot.
3.6.4 Canceling the compulsory pregnancy test
CLA has amended related regulation on November 7, 2001 to cancel the regulation against marriage during employment period. In addition, the pregnancy test from the regular bi-annual medical examination has also been cancelled starting November 9, 2002. At the moment, foreign workers will follow the regulation based on the “Measures of Inspection and Supervision of Health Examination for Foreign Persons” announced on January 13, 2004, and take the medical examination from the date they have entered Taiwan for 6 months, 18 months and 30 months, however, without the requirement of the pregnancy test. In other words, foreign workers will not be repatriated if they fail the pregnancy test. The rights of pregnant foreign workers will also be protected under the “Gender Equality in Employment Law.”
This policy faces encountered lots of critics from both employers and NGOs because the law was implemented without a comprehensive package of supporting measures; there is no support program to meet demands from both parties, where the employers need substitute labor and migrants do not want to lose their jobs. The law is bound to be ineffective.
3.6.5 Inspection program
CLA has assigned more than 110 inspectors to visit foreign workers to understand their employment situations on October 2000. The inspectors have been assisting in the explanation of pertinent legal regulations and managements and in their regular visiting to the employers.

Conclusion
The historical review of Taiwan migration enables us to see different forms of migration in this century, there were political migration as in 1949 one million Mainlanders, internal migration as suburb-rural immigrants in 1960s, economical migration as migrant workers in 1990s and marriage migration. Taiwan is de fact a multicultural society with different ethnic groups. This phenomenon continued encountering more challenges by the foreign labor migration in 1990s.
The Taiwan government contends that it is less likely host large numbers of immigrants because Taiwan is a densely populated and small island nation . In 1990s, migrant workers, however, are introduced into Taiwan as "Guest Workers" they are considered only supplementary to the country's job market and economic development. Taiwan government adopted temporary labor migration policy which is based on the ideals that the migrant workers should not be allowed to settle; foreign residents should not be offered citizenship except in exceptional cases as highly skill workers. The government policy towards to labor migration was followed the exclusive principle. This ideology is easily to lead the society treat migrant workers xenophobia.
This temporary labor migration policy has many problems. The high placement fee and run-away problems of migrant workers are the most troublesome one. This renders workers more like to take up any exploitation that might be imposed on them just to ensure the continuity employment during the restrict period of stay in Taiwan or the workers are chosen to run away to earn more money.
To make sure their stay and return, the Taiwan government implemented a control system on labor migration such as the unchangeable allotment quota for the employers; restricting workers’ ability to change employers; restricting their residence stay with their work permit; these make migrant workers are employed in an unequal power relationship, which can easily lead to abuses.
Even though the government after 2000 is keen to improve Taiwan’s human rights conditions on migrant workers. Unfortunately, there has been no fundamental change at the structural level. The government remained the private broker system and migrant workers still do not have the right to transfer to another employer freely. Therefore, the aspiration for human rights protection still treat migrate workers as temporary phenomenon and labor force.
Since the liberation of migrant workers policy in 1992, the authorities no longer discussed whether and on what scale Taiwan wanted migrant workers, but rather than tries to estimate how many migrant workers are reasonable . It means that migrant workers policy was implemented without an overall evaluation of the country’s industrial development. Migrant workers as Guest Workers and as a buffer for the economy were greatly utilized. In fact, the continuous labor migration phenomenon means that Taiwan economy would depend on foreign force and foreigners were as part of the permanent workforce.
However, there are still some signs of changes, Taiwan government allowed the second three-year term in 1998. And continuously after the riot by 170 Thai workers working for Kaohsiung (the south of Taiwan) Rapid Transit Corporation (KRTC) at their dormitories on Aug. 21 of 2005, CLA is considering liberalize the limitation of working period of migrant workers in the future . This shows clearly that labor migration policy in Taiwan would meet a major conceptual change and the discussion of long-term labor migration will be possible.


]]> http://blog.roodo.com/lorna0201/archives/7612221.html http://blog.roodo.com/lorna0201/archives/7612221.html Articals in English Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:53:25 +0800