1. Introduction
4.1 Formosa with A Strict Control on the Inflow of Immigrants
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CHAPTER FOUR
4. A Case Study on Taiwan
4.1 Formosa with A Strict Control on the Inflow of Immigrants
Taiwan is a geographically small island with dense population. From the 17th century to the 1940s, immigration and the development of Taiwan were largely shaped both directly and indirectly by the Dutch and the empires of China and Japan. The late 1980s marked a key era of migration transition, both internally and internationally, as the impact of economic restructuring, burgeoning globalization, and political liberalization became apparent. There was a marked increase in international migration, including the increasing inflow of foreign contract workers from Asia-Pacific who responded to dual labor market opportunities in Taiwan (Lin, 2012). The Taiwanese government decided to open the country's borders to low-skilled immigrants in the 1990s, and subsequent inflows of foreign contract workers from countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and foreign wives have begun to serve as a new source of population growth. The government has adopted strict immigration policy but loose emigration policy at the same time. Although Taiwan has a strict immigration policy, the number of foreign nationals (not including people from mainland China) living in Taiwan still jumped from around 30,000 to 485,308 between 1991 and 2013. Statistics from National Immigration Agency, as of February 2013, 88.80% of the total foreign population excluding mainland Chinese people are in the labor force: 80.13% are unskilled workers, and only 1.38% are teachers, 1.01%
businessmen, and 0.46% engineers. In Taiwan, the largest foreign population in Taiwan is composed of foreign spouses and foreign laborers; the former mainly come from Southeast Asian countries and mainland China38, and the latter mainly come from Southeast Asian
38 According to National Immigration Agency, as of February 2013, there are 473,144 foreign spouses; among them, 319,286(67.5%) are from mainland China.
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countries as well. This was mainly due to the arrival of blue-collar guest workers beginning in the early 1990s as well as an increase in marriages between ROC citizens and foreign nationals. Thus immigrants in Taiwan can mainly be divided into three categories according to their identity:
1. Unskilled workers:
Low-skilled labor shortages in export-orientated manufacture and other sectors were exacerbated by rising levels of education and skills and the increased unwillingness of Taiwanese to undertake so-called 3D low paid jobs (Cheng, 2002: 95). The temporary immigration of foreign contract workers to Taiwan was originally triggered by serious labor shortages that forced the government to open the door to foreign labor in 1992. By the end of April 2013, there were 454,171 foreign contract workers in Taiwan39, 245,620 of whom were employed in the industrial sector and 208,551 in the services industry as caregivers and home domestic workers. The main sending countries include Indonesia (44% of all foreign contract workers), Vietnam (23%), the Philippines (19%), Thailand (14%), and Malaysia (0%). Migrant workers are able to stay in the country up to twelve years; the previous limit was six years to nine years.
2. Skilled workers:
For the sake of economic development since the 1960s, Taiwan has not restricted the immigration of educated foreigners — mostly professionals and managers as well as their dependents from North America, Japan, and partly from Europe. Unlike low-skilled foreign workers, there is no quota and no restrictions on their duration of stay. The Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) has begun to issue work permits to foreign professionals since 15 January 200440. Foreign professionals who are employed to work in the ROC are limited to working as specialists or technicians, executives of enterprises set up by overseas Chinese and
39 Source: http://www.evta.gov.tw/content/list.asp?mfunc_id=14&func_id=57, accessed on 11 June 2013.
40 Source: http://iff.immigration.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=1086934&ctNode=29928&mp=T002, accessed on 9 July 2013.
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foreign investors, school teachers, teachers at supplementary language schools, sports coach or athlete, arts or entertainment arts workers, or crew members of merchant ships or working ships. Their salary shall be no less than the average monthly wage of NT$ 47,971 dollars, as published by CLA for professional and technical positions in industrial and service businesses. However, such salary restriction does not apply to foreigners under some circumstances. For example, it does not apply to foreign students and oversea compatriot students who have acquired a bachelor's degree or higher from a public or registered private college in Taiwan after 2011 academic year and earn an average monthly salary of at least NT$ 37,619. In addition, as of March 2013, there are 28,170 foreign professional holding valid work permit in Taiwan41: in terms of nationality, Japan is the majority (29.34%), the United States is the second (21.05%); in terms of occupation, specialized or technical workers are the majority (51.41%), and language teachers at cram school are second (19.44%), and teachers at school are third (9.40%).
3. Foreign spouses:
Most of them are female spouses from Southeast Asian countries and mainland China who married Taiwanese men and have immigrated into Taiwan to reunite with their husband.
They contribute greatly to demographic changes which shape contemporary Taiwanese society. Among these foreign spouses, people from mainland China make up the majority (two-third are mainland Chinese). Studies have shown that men who marry immigrant wives usually have low socio-economic status, and therefore have difficulty finding Taiwanese wives (Zhang, 2000; Hsia, 2003; Chung, 2004). Thus foreign spouses are usually described as a group of disadvantaged women in Taiwan. According to the Employment Service Act and Act Governing Relations between Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area, foreigners who marry ROC citizens and get the dependent residence after their arrival in
41 Source : http://www.evta.gov.tw/files/58/102 年 3 月提要分析.pdf, accessed on 9 July 2013.
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Taiwan can work in Taiwan without needing a work permit; starting from 14 August 200942, mainland Chinese spouses who is permitted to have a spouse residency or long-term residency can work in Taiwan without a work permit. In reality, marriage spouses from Southeast Asian countries and mainland China are identified as lower-class with suspected bogus marriage, average younger age, lower education, less advantaged background, earlier pregnancy, Chinese illiteracy (of Southeast Asian spouses), and less capable motherhood (Cheng, 2008). Thus most of them usually work as unskilled or low-skilled workers in Taiwan.
Table 14: Foreign Residents by Occupation by 2013 (Mainland Chinese are Excluded)43
Item Numbers Percentage Main shares(%)
Grand Total 485,308 100.00 15 years& Over 478,258 98.55 Labor Force 430,960 88.80
Gov. Employees 0 0.00
Businessmen 4,920 1.01 Japan(45.57%), America(12.03%)
Engineers 2,234 0.46
Accountants 10 0.00
Lawyers 16 0.00
Correspondents 32 0.01
Teachers 6,688 1.38 America (42.79%), Canada(14.62%), UK(10.89%)
Doctors 355 0.07
Care Workers 24 0.00
Missionaries 1,694 0.35 Skilled Workers 260 0.05
42 Source: http://www2.mac.gov.tw/mac/RuleView.aspx?RuleID=3&TypeID=3, accessed on 9 July 2013.
43 Source: National Immigration Agency (retrieved 9 July 2013, from http://www.immigration.gov.tw/public/Attachment/341513343691.xls)
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Foreign Laborers 388,876 80.13 Indonesia (43.56%), Vietnam (19.91%), Philippines (20.76%), Thailand (15.77%)
Sailors 392 0.08
Others 23,712 4.89
Unemployed 1,747 0.36
Not in Labor Force
47,298 9.75
Housekeepers 25,541 5.26 Vietnam(52.29), Indonesia(11.33) Students 21,564 4.44 Malaysia(36.95), Vietnam(12.41),
Indonesia(10.06)
Others 193 0.04
Under 15 years 7,050 1.45