The Taitung County government has announced plans to consolidate local indigenous Family Service Centers (IFSCs) under the Social Affairs Department, sparking backlash from grassroots social workers and indigenous community members alike. On the surface, the move might seem to be a simple administrative and financial readjustment. In practice, it has implications for indigenous social work as a profession and for cultural security, and deserves attention and sober evaluation.
The IFSC system has been in operation for 28 years and is deeply rooted across indigenous communities, developing as a community-centered support system built on indigenous language and cultural competencies.
Social workers at the centers provide family support and welfare services, while also playing a critical role in cultural bridging and community support networks. They are an indispensable component of the social welfare system and an irreplaceable resource for indigenous Taiwanese.
In the government’s strengthened Social Safety Net 2.0 for this year to 2030, approved by the Cabinet in November last year, IFSCs were clearly designated as essential access points for basic services within the wider national social safety net. Any administrative adjustments by the Taitung County Government must align with this policy direction. As such, restructuring cannot be used to abolish, subsume or merge these service centers, ensuring policy continuity and service stability.
If IFSC social work were incorporated into the general administrative framework, it would risk undermining cultural responsiveness and further marginalizing indigenous social work as a profession. This would weaken the foundations of cultural security built into the services, which exist not as an extension of general social services, but as a distinct institution embedded within cultural heritage, social restoration and the protection of indigenous rights.
The case has also attracted attention from the central government. Democratic Progressive Party legislators Asenay Daliyalrep (Chen Ying, 陳瑩) and Saidhai Tahovecahe have each expressed concern and their perspectives as indigenous legislators — testimony to the salience of the issue for indigenous social welfare and policy development.
Indigenous social work, centered on cultural security, emphasizes services that respect the cultural, linguistic and historical contexts of the communities they serve. Merging initiatives based solely on administrative or financial factors would weaken service quality and risk breeding systemic distrust.
According to the spirit of the Indigenous Peoples Basic Act (原住民族基本法), the government must provide social welfare services that account for cultural differences and ensure indigenous participation in decisionmaking processes. In facing controversies over service consolidation, the government should adhere to the following principles: maintaining the IFSC system and its professional autonomy; ensuring supply stability and proper use of dedicated funding; protecting indigenous participatory rights in decision-making; and implementing culturally secure service systems.
IFSC social workers who have been working tirelessly within their communities should receive proper support and recognition from the government. They should not, in the name of administrative consolidation, be sacrificed alongside the model of indigenous cultural security. To protect IFSC centers is to protect not only indigenous social work as a profession, but also the dignity and rights of all indigenous Taiwanese.
Malas Takisdahuan is an assistant professor.
Translated by Gilda Knox Streader
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