國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
1
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND
With total population of 253,609,6431, Indonesia is one of the most populous countries in the world. This situation leads to scarcity of jobs where the offered job vacancies far below the high numbers of human resources. Therefore, the predominance is to send its people working abroad. Initiated in 1970, this policy has been supported by the government due to the foreign exchange contribution from remittances the workers send to their family in Indonesia. Amongst many working destination countries, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia are top two of the list.
Indonesian workers prefer Saudi Arabia for a wish to fulfill their obligation as a Moslem to be hajj2 during their working period there. Meanwhile, Malaysia is chosen because of the similarities of geographic, cultural, linguistic, and religious aspects as Indonesia. Unfortunately, the high sexual and physical abuse cases to Indonesian workers in Saudi Arabia urge the government to restrict the workers from going to the biggest oil country. By that, Malaysia remains the main destination for Indonesian workers, although many start shifting to East Asia areas with Taiwan as the rising and leading destination country.
According to the data from Taiwanese Council of Labor Affairs (行政院勞工委員會), there were 6,020 Indonesian workers in 1994 which sky-rocketed to 191,127 by the end of 2012.
For this, Taiwan is the second destination for Indonesian workers by Indonesia’s Ministry of
1 Based on CIA World Factbook in July 2014 (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/id .html accessed on November 6, 2014 at 22:19)
2 Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca that every Muslim is required to make at least once in his life, provided he has enough money and the health to do so (according to http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/hajj accessed on June 13, 2014 at 12:36).
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
2
Manpower by having 30,669 workers sent there in that year only. From the numbers, 84% were females who worked in domestic sector as caregivers for elderly or children.3
This affirms the fact that Indonesian workers have a good market share in Taiwan. The numbers increase because of several reasons. First, Taiwan offers the most attractive salary compare to other destinations, including for those who work in the domestic sector. For Asia-Pacific region only, the comparison as follows:
Table 1. Salary Comparison of Indonesian Workers in Asia-Pacific in 2013
Source: BNP2TKI, “Penempatan dan Perlindungan Tenaga Kerja Indonesia Tahun 2013,” 2013.
This number is even higher compared to wages offered in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, which are 500 RM (US$ 153) per month and 800 Riyal (US$ 213) per month4 respectively.
Second, Taiwan has better living situation as the government protects the workers’ rights which are guaranteed by the promulgation of Taiwan’s Labor Act.5 In accordance to the Law, the maximum working hour is eight hours a day or 84 hours every two-week (Article 30), with total overtime hour of no more than 46 hours per month (Article 32). Furthermore, the worker is entitled to one regular day off in every seven days (Article 36) which can only be suspended by the act of God, an accident or unexpected event requires continuances of work under the
3 Bureau of Employment and Vocational Training, Council of Labor Affairs ( 行政院勞工委員會). Foreign Workers in Productive Industries and Social Welfare by Nationality. 2012.
4 Bank Indonesia, “Laporan Survei Nasional Pola Remitansi TKI,” (Jakarta: Direktorat Statistik Ekonomi dan Moneter, 2009), p. v.
5 Ministry of Labor, Taiwan’s Labor Standard Act, 2013.
COUNTRY CURRENCY SALARY EQUIVALENT
Singapore Singapore Dollar 520 USD 416
Hong Kong Hong Kong Dollar 4,010 USD 517
Taiwan New Taiwan Dollar 19,047 USD 627
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
3
condition that the worker receives wages at double the regular rate (Article 40). For that, the employer must report the suspension details and reasons within 24 hours to the local competent authorities. In contrast, many Indonesian female workers in Saudi Arabia are not allowed to leave their employer’s house due to their tradition and culture where women must obey the order from men. According to Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Labor, domestic labors must respect not only Saudi society’s habits but also traditions, and must not participate in any activity that might harm the family.6
Lastly, cases of mistreatment of Indonesian workers in Taiwan are lower compared to any other destination countries, particularly for physical and sexual abuse cases in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. Ferry Yahya, Head of Indonesia Economic and Trade Office in 2010, acknowledged that there are some sexual and physical abuse cases against Indonesian workers in Taiwan yet it has never been a major issue.7 Based on the data from National Agency for Placement and Protection of Indonesian Workers Overseas (BNP2TKI), there were 7,520 mistreatment cases of Indonesian workers in Saudi Arabia from 2011 to 2013, 1,720 cases in Malaysia and only 709 cases in Taiwan.8 However the actual numbers of unreported cases are likely far higher.
A higher salary, better living and working conditions, as well as low sexual and physical abuses in Taiwan create a good working environment for the workers. Nevertheless, Taiwan’s Ministry of Labor stated that there were 9,759 Indonesian workers runaway in Taiwan per 2013 which became the highest compared to other nationalities of runaway workers. Table 2 below presents the total number of runaway foreign workers based on their nationalities. The statistics
6 “Domestic Labor Obligations”, Ministry of Labor Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: 2014, accessed October 6, 2014 at 18.23, http://www.musaned.gov.sa/en/DomesticWorkers/DomesticWorkerDuties
7 “RI Workers in Taiwan Finds Solace on Aug 17”, Grraham Duncan: 2007, accessed December 19, 2013 at 16.31, http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2007/08/19/ri-workers-taiwan-find-solace-aug17.html
8 BNP2TKI, op cit, p. 49.
‧
from Taiwan’s authority includes completed data of four nationalities only, which are Indonesian, Filipinos, Thais and Vietnamese.
Table 2. The Numbers of Runaway Foreign Workers in Taiwan Based on Nationality (2003-2013) Industries and Social Welfare”, 2014, data is compiled by the author.
Figure 1 below presents the respective percentage of runaway workers from Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia in the total number of runaway foreign workers in Taiwan from 2003 to 2013. Based on Figure 1, it could be inferred that Vietnamese and Indonesian workers are the top two countries that hold high numbers of runaway foreign workers in Taiwan.
Vietnamese workers reached its peak in 2004 but slowly decreasing and never exceeded 50% of total runaway foreign workers in Taiwan in the following years. Nevertheless, the trend of Indonesian workers is the reversed of Vietnamese workers. In 2004, the number of Indonesian runaway workers was considerably low but it kept increasing and reached its peak in 2013 which accounted for 50% of the total runaway foreign workers in Taiwan. When other countries were able to diminish the number of runaway workers, Indonesian workers’ number was sky-rocketing.
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
5
Figure 1. Runaway Foreign Workers in Taiwan Based on Nationality, 2003-2013
Source: Taiwan’s Ministry of Labor, “Runaway Status of Foreign Workers in Productive Industries and Social Welfare”, 2014, data is compiled by the author.
In regard to the elaboration mentioned above, thus this thesis is aimed to answer the following question: “Why is the number of runaway Indonesian workers in Taiwan high, despite Taiwan’s better working and living conditions?” In order to answer the question, I argue that Taiwan’s guest worker policy and ineffective cooperation between Indonesia and Taiwan have imposed excessive burden on Indonesian guest workers, hence contributing inadvertently to the relatively high numbers of runaway Indonesian workers in Taiwan.
REVIEW OF EXISTING LITERATURE ON THE STUDIES OF GUEST-WORKER SYSTEM IN TAIWAN
Research on foreign workers in Taiwan, particularly Indonesian workers, has mostly focused on comparative studies of Indonesian and Filipino workers, the role of Taiwanese agency in creating stereotypes of foreign workers in Taiwanese households, and job satisfaction
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
70.00%
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Thailand Philippines Vietnam Indonesia
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
6
and mistreatment of guest workers. None of the above topics addresses the issue of Indonesian runaway workers which is actually one of the major concerns for Indonesian workers (besides physical and sexual abuse, illegal working conditions, and even prostitution). This thesis undertakes to analyze the underlying causes of relatively high numbers of runaway Indonesian workers to address the under-explored issue.
The mistreatment inflicted upon Indonesian workers abroad is common knowledge to the Indonesian people. However, when guest workers enjoy better living and working conditions, as offered in Taiwan, there should be no major issues among them as they are satisfied with their work as well as the living environment. However, the matter of runaway foreign workers is one of pressing issues in managing foreign workers in Taiwan. As Indonesian workers have accounted for more than 50% of total runaway foreign workers in Taiwan in 2013, it is highly crucial to find the root causes and appropriate solutions.
Previous scholarly articles have attempted to address the issue of runaway foreign workers. The existing literature focuses on just one of the perspectives, i.e., either the perspective of the sending country, or that of the receiving country. However, the phenomenon of guest workers is a transnational issue which involves more than one country. It is hence imperative to analyze the issue of guest workers from two perspectives: the perspective of the sending country, and that of the receiving country. This research will apply such two-way perspectives to gain a comprehensive understanding of the root causes of runaway workers.
State’s Role in Managing Foreign Workers and European Guest worker Policy
As one of the consequences that stemmed from international migration, foreign workers phenomenon has received significant attentions from many scholars, especially in the current
‧
speed of globalization. One of the major issues in globalization studies is the importance role of state according to the Westphalian9 description. Some scholar, such as Kenichi Ohmae, has argued that state’s role is becoming less significant in this borderless world. Therefore the role of government emphasized on educating their people and provides information as accurate as possible so that people and companies may take their own decision – or to borrow his term, “the government needs to let in the light”.10
Nevertheless, other scholars argue that the role of government has become even more crucial in this globalization era especially because states respond to the social pressure in their domestic level.11 Indeed international migration issues may cause some issues in the domestic level of host states such as the depression of local wages, the potential social problems of integration, housing and overcrowding as well as political and security issues.12 Moreover international migration always involves at least two actors (notably sending states and host states) therefore government needs to regulate migrant labor within national borders, international and macro-regional level. 13 Furthermore, Mittelman argued that “typically immigration policies include a system for recognizing professional qualifications, easing entry for groups such as physicians and engineers, and erecting barriers to the free flow of unskilled labor.”14
9 The term of Westphalian originated from the Peace of Westphalian which legitimated the right of sovereigns to govern their peoples free of outside interference, whether any such external claim to interfere was based on political, legal or religious principles (referred to http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AJLH/2004/9.html accessed on January 13, 2015 at 11:17).
10 Kenichi Ohmae, “A Steady Hand,” in The Borderless World: Power and Strategy in the Interlinked Economy, (United States: Harper Business, 1990), p. 194-201.
11 James H. Mittelman, “Globalization and Migration,” in The Globalization Syndrome: Transformation and Resistance, (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2000), p. 58-73.
12 Weng-Tat Hui, “The Regional Economic Crisis and Singapore: Implications for Labor Migration”, in Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, Vol. 7, Nos. 2-3, 1998, p. 206.
13 Ibid, James H. Mittelman, op. cit.
14 Ibid, p. 63.
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
8
Indeed the practice of immigration policy is similar with Mittelman’s definition. The most-adopted policy is the guest worker framework which has variations application but shared similar essences such as not allowing the migrant workers to stay after the expiration of their contract and that they will always hold the status as temporary workers.15 This policy was first emerged in European countries as that continent experienced the flow of immigrants and foreign workers since the end of World War II.
According to Klaus J. Bade, there are three phases of migration into Europe which are (1) decolonization, colonial and post-colonial migration, (2) labor migration, and (3) refugee and asylum migration.16 The first and second phase occurred from 1940s to 1970s along the collapse of European empire and the European economic boom. At that time, mostly western European countries admitted pro-colonial ethnic groups and European descents.The government facilitated the returnees and immigrants with citizenship and linguistic program as part of integration programs for European and colonial immigrants whom received equal rights. In addition, the immigrants also filled the demand of low-wage and unskilled labors and as the demand kept rising the western European governments (notably West Germany and France) opened their door to the immigrants from southern European, post-colonial countries (northern Africa and Asian countries) as well as Turkey. Nevertheless, post-colonial countries’ immigrants and Turks received the most disadvantage treatment and benefit as they were seen as outsiders or alien. The last phase occurred from 1950s until 1990s where the refugees and asylum seekers also came from post-colonial countries, eastern European, or former Soviet Union countries.17
15 Tseng, Yen-fen and Hong-zen Wang, “Governing Migrants Workers at a Distance: Managing the Temporary Status of Guest workers in Taiwan”, International Migration, Vol. 52 (4), 2011,, p. 2.
16 Klaus J. Bade, “Migration and Migration Policies in the Cold War,” in Migration in European History (2003), p.
221-230.
17 Ibid, p. 262-265.
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
9
Initially, the government’s response toward the immigrants was positive. Many companies raised the issue of labor shortage therefore demanding government to admit more foreign workers.18 Moreover the war brought consequences of large population losses and the obligation of restructuring, particularly in post-colonial countries. In addition, the guest worker advocates in Western Europe succeeded to persuade policy makers to admit foreign workers by arguing that such policy would bring economic and political relief to poverty and dictatorship government in Mediterranean neighbors.
The implementation of guest worker policy in Europe was based on granting one year renewable work permit and rotation system for encouraging the migrant workers to return home.19 However, most of migrant workers stayed more than one year and the rotation system was not fully implemented. The oil shock bomb in 1973 was the turning point of guest worker policy in western European countries as their economic was decreasing and many companies collapsed creating high unemployment especially for the natives. West Germany was the first country that stopped migrant entry and implemented restrictive entry rules which was followed by other European countries. Their objective was once the migrants workers were no longer recruited, they would return home.20 Nevertheless, many stayed and demanded the liberalization of policies that included acceptance of migrants’ settlement, granting family reunification rights, improvement of living and working conditions, naturalizations and anti-discrimination laws.21 The Western European governments had no choice but to integrate them otherwise they would have contradicted the democratic principles to which western European countries upheld.22
18 Piotr Plewa, “The Rise and Fall of Temporary Foreign Worker Policies: Lessons for Poland”, in International Migration, Vol. 45 (2), 2007,p. 12-15.
19 Ibid, p. 15.
20 Stephen Castles, “Guest Worker in Europe: A Resurrection?”, in International Migration Review, Vol. 40 No. 4, 2006, p. 742-744.
21 Ibid, Piotr Plewa, op. cit.
22 Ibid.
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
10
The integration of migrants to European community surely brought many consequences such as high unemployment rate and discrimination. One of the consequences from the integration policy, according to Stephen Castles, is the creation of ethnically diverse but socially divided European societies.23 The integrated immigrants are still perceived as outsiders by the native people hence ethnic minorities is created. This raised concerns in several issues such as social exclusion, labor market segmentation, residential segregation and high unemployment.
Furthermore, Philip N. Jones argued in Germany, the immigrants are still disadvantaged due to their lack of capabilities in high-skilled jobs.24 Therefore they could not meet the increasingly demand of skilled and qualified workers. The Turks, as Germany’s ethnic minority, has consistently been the primary focus of antagonism and heightened with the growth of militant Islam. In addition, in her research, Barbara Herzog-Punzenberger argued that Turkish second generation are overrepresented in the lowest level and underrepresented in high level of Austrian school types thus makes them incompetent in Austrian labor market.25 This phenomenon is caused by the little attention to special needs of children with different cultures and languages in Austrian school system. Further she concluded that Austrian school system seems to be more oriented preparing certain part of population rather than providing everyone with the best resources thus leading to ethnic segmentation.
Concerned with the immigrants issues, European countries started to tighten their immigration policy in early 1990s especially with the enlargement of European Union (EU) to include poorer countries such as Bulgaria and Romania. According to Tito Boeri and Herbert Brucker, since 1990, there have been 92 reforms of national migration policies in the EU-15
23 Ibid, Stephen Castles, op.cit.
24 Philip N. Jones, “Immigrants, Germans and National Identity in the New Germany: Some Policy Issues,” in International Journal of Population Geography, Vol. 2, 1996, p. 119-131.
25 Barbara Herzog-Punzenberger, “Ethnic Segmentation in School and Labor Market – 40 Years of Legacy Austrian Guest worker Policy,” in International Migration Review, Vol. 37 No. 4, 2003, p. 1120-1144.
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a
tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
11
which means more than 5 reforms per year.26 Most of these reforms included increasing procedural obstacles for visa or citizenship applicants, reducing the duration of work permit, making family reunification more difficult, as well as tightening restrictions in asylum policies and national quotas. The main objective of the policy is making the entry to EU more and more difficult.
Lessons Learned from European Guest worker Policy
The experience of European countries with immigrant issues has provided a lesson for other regions, especially Asian regions, when they faced similar issues, i.e., the need of importing foreign workers yet preventing them from obtaining permanent residence.. With the decrement of oil prices, many Asian migrant workers in the Middle East shifted to places closer to home, especially those newly industrialized economics (NIEs), such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan. Indeed during 1960s and 1970s, employment growth in manufacturing of metal products increased significantly; 13% to 27% in Hong Kong, 12% to 28% in Korea, 20% to 55% in Singapore and 20% to 33% in Taiwan.27
In addition, the demographic conditions in Asia also played a major role in the migration process within Asia. As noted by Charles Stahl and Reginald Appleyard, some of the countries in Asia are the world’s most densely populated countries whereas the others are least densely populated countries due to different range of topological features.28 Hong Kong and Singapore, for instances, contain 5,700 and 2,600 persons per square kilometer, and Taiwan has 547 persons
26 Tito Boeri and Herbert Brucker, “Why are Europeans so tough on migrants?”, in Economic Policy, October 2005,
26 Tito Boeri and Herbert Brucker, “Why are Europeans so tough on migrants?”, in Economic Policy, October 2005,