Care for Taiwan’s elderly used to be a family responsibility, but demographic upheavals and urbanization have ushered in an era of domestic caregivers from Southeast Asia. A look into that industry offers a snapshot of isolation, economic desperation, and mutual culture shock.

The News Lens
Date: 2019/05/03
By: =J. Zach Hollo

After two years working as a domestic caregiver, Siti Djunaidah knows she’s not allowed to be angry. She lives with a lone 94-year-old Taiwanese woman she refers to as Ama, which means grandma in Taiwanese. Djunaidah, 46, speaks Mandarin but knows very little Taiwanese, Ama’s only language. When communication errors occur, Ama lashes out. But for Djunaidah, it’s just part of the job.

“One day she’ll be yelling at me, the next day she’ll have forgotten all about it,” Djunaidah said. “It’s okay. Old people are like this.”

Djunaidah and Ama inhabit the family’s ancestral home, a humble one-story house in a bucolic village near the city of Nantou in western Taiwan. Djunaidah’s job is all-consuming. She must do all the household chores as well as cook Ama’s meals and help her bathe once every three days. Djunaidah must watch Ama virtually all the time to be ready to respond if an injury occurs. They even sleep in the same bed, so Ama won’t roll off.

Djunaidah makes US$560 (NT$17,300) per month, well above Indonesia’s average income of less than US$300. She sends about half her earnings to family and saves the rest. Her husband and three daughters live in Indonesia’s Central Java province. When Djunaidah first left for Taiwan about eight years ago, her daughters were eight, 10 and 12 years old, and the family was in dire need of money. “In Indonesia, I didn’t have enough money to provide for my children,” said Djunaidah. “In Taiwan I made enough money for them to have food, go to school, and buy things.”    [FULL  STORY]