A Reuters report published this week highlighted the struggles of migrant mothers in Taiwan through the story of Marian Duhapa, a Filipina forced to leave her infant behind to work in Taiwan and support her family.
After becoming pregnant in Taiwan last year, Duhapa lost her job and lived in a shelter before giving birth and taking her daughter back to the Philippines. She then returned to Taiwan for a second time on her own to find work. Duhapa’s sacrifice is one of countless examples among the hundreds of thousands of migrant workers who sustain many of Taiwan’s households and factories, despite remaining largely unprotected under the law. Women from Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand make up about half of Taiwan’s more than 800,000 migrant workers, many of whom leave children and families behind to provide for them financially.
For those who become pregnant while in Taiwan, motherhood comes at a cost. An estimated 6,000 migrant workers become pregnant each year; data from the Bureau of Labor Insurance show that nearly 80 percent of industrial migrant workers end their contracts and return home after becoming pregnant, rarely voluntarily.
In a United Daily News report published in January, Indonesian migrant worker Xiaomi recounted being coerced by her broker into signing a “voluntary” resignation letter after becoming pregnant. The document was written in Chinese and she was barred from taking a photograph of it or seeking advice prior to signing.
The Gender Equality in Employment Act (性別平等工作法) forbids employers from citing pregnancy, childbirth or childcare as grounds for terminating a contract, yet, for years, advocacy groups have documented similar accounts across industries, exposing an entrenched pattern of coercion, misinformation and intimidation that drives many female migrant workers to quit their jobs or conceal their pregnancies.
The problem partially stems from loopholes that allow brokers and employers to exploit gray areas in labor laws. While firing a worker for becoming pregnant is illegal, coercing her to resign and framing it as “voluntary” often goes unpunished.
Government oversight is lacking and the system relies heavily on self-reporting through the 1955 hotline — a risky option for migrant workers fearing retaliation or job loss.
To make matters worse, most migrant workers — particularly domestic caregivers — are excluded from the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) and not reflected in official statistics. The true scale of the problem is likely far greater than what is visible.
Taiwan’s rapidly aging population and declining birthrate are expected to deepen labor shortages and economic strain. President William Lai’s (賴清德) proposal to ease requirements for hiring foreign caregivers to encourage childbirth confirms this reality — Taiwan needs its migrant workers, and will continue to need them even more in the years ahead.
Why, then, are female migrant workers discouraged from staying in the nation and raising families of their own? It is deeply hypocritical for a nation that prides itself as a beacon of democracy and human rights to turn a blind eye to the exploitation of people whose labor helps carry the economy and care for its most vulnerable.
If the government is serious about addressing the nation’s demographic and labor crises, and safeguarding its international image, it must stop dragging its feet and enact reforms that protect migrant workers from discrimination, hold employers and brokers accountable, and guarantee that no woman of any nationality loses her livelihood simply because she chooses to have a child.
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