On February 26, 2020, in the very early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Taiwan counted its 32nd confirmed case of the infection. The patient, a woman caregiver, had gotten the illness from an 80-year-old man she was taking care of, who would become the country’s 27th positive case.
The caregiver was Indonesian. She was also undocumented.
In the following days, after learning that she was an undocumented migrant worker, authorities worked to track her down, eventually finding and isolating her.
After the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control confirmed that an “illegal” migrant worker had tested positive for COVID-19, the public panicked. People worried that undocumented migrant workers would become a blind spot for Taiwan’s pandemic prevention program, and their communities a hotbed of the infection.
In response, the Ministry of Labor, announced in a press release that under its “Expanded Overstayers Voluntary Departure Program”, the agency would track down undocumented migrant workers, in collaboration with the National Immigration Agency (NIA).
“Overstayers who turn themselves in are entitled to receive penalty relieves, including no detention, no entry ban and a minimum amount of fine,” said General Director Chui, head of the NIA, in the press release. “The purpose of this program is to encourage overstayers to turn themselves in so the Agency can help them return home safely.”
In the midst of the pandemic, the number of domestic migrant workers fell from 713,732 in January 2020 to 708,000 in July 2020. But despite this, the number of missing migrant workers continued to rise, jumping from 48,545 in January to 51,153 by July 2020.
This trend points to persisting and deep-seated flaws in Taiwan’s migrant labor policies. The pandemic has not only brought these problems to fore, but has also turned their consequences fatal.
On February 26, 2020, an undocumented migrant worker became Taiwan’s 32nd confirmed case of COVID-19. The events that followed showed a system that treats laborers as sub-humans, discouraging them from seeking help, and ultimately interfering with pandemic control measures.
Guest workers
Underlying this undocumented labor dilemma is flimsy legislation built on faulty philosophy.
Passed as a corrective to their dulling competitive edge in the global market, Taiwan’s Employment Service Act has allowed them to keep wages low by opening their doors to migrant workers. Over the years, the Act has progressively loosened its originally unreasonable regulations, and workers have enjoyed a growing ease of finding opportunities in Taiwan.
Nevertheless, there remain big enough cracks in the law that allow corruption and bribery to flourish, while maintaining a hard limit on workers’ prosperity.
Currently, strict rules govern the hiring process to control the number of blue-collar laborers in the country, as well as their distribution in key occupations and industries. Workers can only be accepted – or transfer – to a new job if the employer has a slot to spare. Their chances at getting naturalized are even worse and is close to zero in almost all cases.
This whole process of setting quotas and rigid restrictions on a worker’s status has promoted a guest worker regime in Taiwan, under which its migrant laborers are seen as little more than a cheap, largely dispensable human resource, whose needs for personal development come a distant second to profit.
It has also empowered brokers, giving them great influence over the chances of a migrant worker to be re-employed or transferred to a new employer. For example, the Workforce Development Agency of the Ministry of Labor requests recruitment agents to inform the Agency whenever a migrant worker is applying for transfer to a new employer or not.
Brokers, who bear much of the responsibility and upfront costs of bringing workers to Taiwan, use this as leverage, frequently overcharging clients for a huge profit.
Workers requesting to transfer to a new employer or to extend their working contract have to pay fees that can reach as high as NT$ 30,000 to NT$ 100,000 (roughly equal to US$ 1,000–US$ 3,500). These “job-buying fees” proposed by brokers are too steep for migrant workers, who, according to domestic laws, should earn NT$ 24,000 per month (roughly US$ 850). Care workers earn even less, bringing home NT$ 17,000 per month (around US$ 600).
Across three decades of implementation, amendments, and pitfalls, Taiwan’s Employment Service Act has solidified a troubling worldview in the country, one that paints its migrant workers as tools, sub-human and non-essential, reducing them to a temporary and expendable resource.
Even after years of service, many migrant workers in Taiwan are at constant risk of deportation. They are also denied citizenship and basic legal, medical, and recreational needs.
Systemic challenges
“The Ministry of Labor’s attempts to limit the flow of migrant workers so as to reduce the risk of coronavirus infection has made it difficult for employers to bring in new migrant workers from their countries of origin,” said General Manager Hsu of Meijia Taiwan, a recruitment agency based in Taichung.
“[I think] this provides an opportunity to rectify and better improve the current guest worker system.”
While the government’s 1955 Counseling and Protection Hotline for Foreign Workers can provide counseling, complaint assistance, and legal advice, the systemic challenges migrant workers require much more work.
In Taiwan, the boundary between the host and the guest worker is strictly distinguished. Their jobs put them in vulnerable situations, and workers are exposed to extraordinary external risks. Often, a quick and easy solution would be to just send them back to their home countries, abandoning responsibility over them.
Not only are the workers shut out of citizenship, even after years of service, but they are also denied other legal, medical, recreational, and physical and mental health rights.
As the number of migrant workers in the country increases, and their working years continue to extend, arbitrary deportation whenever employers consider them to be problematic should not be regarded as a solution to the problem of migrant workers.
There also needs to be a greater acceptance and involvement of migrant workers’ unions. Over the past two decades, only three such groups have been founded in Taiwan: the Yilan Migrant Fishermen Union, the Taoyuan Domestic Caretakers’ Union, and the National Home-based Worker’s Union.
Taiwanese business owners still view unions as troublemakers rather than partners. Meanwhile, fear of termination prevents foreigners from getting involved in local unions. Both these factors not only hinder the development of migrant worker unions, but also make it difficult for government to establish effective communication channels for this group of workers.
Apart from unions, non-governmental organizations, and social organizations, the recruitment agencies — entities that stand between workers and employers — can play a significant role in resolving tension and mistrust by providing the most up-to-date information to their worker-clients and regularly checking in on workers’ well-being.
Taiwan has become highly dependent on migrant workers, who do much of the unglamorous work and heavy lifting that keep the country’s economy chugging along. It’s only right that we should pay more attention to their voices and situations. ●
Chen Han-Tang is a doctoral student and a researcher with 1095 Culture Studio, which was set up in February 2016 in Taiwan to enhance mutual understanding between migrant workers and Taiwanese people while promoting the rights and well-being of migrant labor.
