For those wanting to travel on a limited budget, there are many working holiday options available. However, one case of a Taiwanese person working abroad has caused quite an upset in Taiwan. The story concerns a university graduate who hurried off to take part in Australia’s working holiday program before he reached the program’s upper age limit of 30. Once there, he did unskilled jobs, with the aim of earning several times the salary he could make in Taiwan. As he says himself, he is basically a Taiwanese migrant worker.
According to a report about him in Business Today, the man stated plainly that he did not travel abroad to gain life experience or to broaden his outlook, but simply to make money.
The most interesting thing about this is that it shows that some people are now identifying themselves as Taiwanese migrant workers. As the graduate says, there were about 600 people working in the same factory, including about 150 from Taiwan.
“Actually, we are Taiwanese laborers,” he says.
His use of the word “we” is no accident. What it shows is that — from the point of view of those working together day in, day out — I see you covered in blood (the factory being a slaughterhouse) and you notice how awkward I feel. As time goes by, the workers share their unspoken predicament and form a kind of class consciousness. What they feel is that “We are Taiwanese workers, we empathize, we share and we encourage one another.”
If Taiwan’s economy goes on as it is, without improving, the emergence of this Taiwanese laborer consciousness and identity will spur a similar awareness among Taiwanese youth who feel that they have no future. As an Indonesian migrant worker — who is qualified to be a teacher — once said to me, the biggest psychological obstacle she faces is how to make herself accept that she is a laborer.
In fact, the phrase “Taiwanese laborer” was heard back when Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was president. The opposition accused Chen of ruining the economy and said that Taiwanese would soon have to become migrant workers. In fact, however, the phenomenon of “Taiwanese laborers” did not come to pass when Chen was in office.
Times have changed. According to figures made available by the Australian representative office in Taipei, the number of temporary work permits issued to Taiwanese increased from 9,000 for the whole of 2008 to more than 10,000 for the first half of last year — probably the fastest increase for any country in the world.
Although the number of Taiwanese migrant workers is growing quickly, that does not mean that there are very many of them yet. However, the dismal state of the economy under President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is all too obvious. Salaries have shrunk to the same level they were 14 years ago and Taiwan’s economic growth rate is one of the lowest in Asia. Taiwan has the highest unemployment rate of the four “Asian Tiger” economies and a “blue light” indicator — signaling economic contraction — has been flashing for nine months in a row. Notably, Taiwan ranks second from bottom in the world for attracting foreign direct investment and since the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) returned to government in 2008, the outflow of listed investment capital to China has sped up — an accumulated outflow of NT$600 billion (US$20.44 billion) so far.
As capital gushes from Taiwan to China, Taiwan straggles behind in attracting overseas investment. Without investment, there can be no job opportunities, so young Taiwanese will unavoidably be forced to see themselves as “Taiwanese laborers.” Ma has already set his legacy — he will long be remembered as the father of Taiwanese migrant workers.
Christian Fan Jiang is deputy secretary-general of the Northern Taiwan Society.
Translated by Julian Clegg
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not