Taiwan’s migrant worker population is demanding greater say in policy that affects their lives in Taiwan and an end to the broker system.
The News Lens
Date: 2018/01/09
By: Brian Hioe
One in 10 Taiwanese children in elementary school and middle school has a foreign-born mother.
Despite heavy rain, wind and cold, several hundred migrant workers and supportive
Credit: Li Mu-yi
Taiwanese activists marched on Jan. 7 from the Ministry of Labor to the Presidential Office in Taipei. There, migrant workers held a rally in front of the barriers that Taiwanese media have labelled “the largest restricted area in Taiwanese history.”
Migrant workers demanded that domestic workers and caregivers are also included under the Labor Standards Act, that the current broker system is abolished and that the government promotes direct hiring; that migrant workers in Taiwan be able to freely transfer to new employers; that there are no limitations set for working periods in Taiwan; and that non-citizens should have some policy making rights.
Taiwan’s migrant worker population has long called for an end to the current system in which employment brokers act as middlemen who arrange transport and employment for migrant workers, seeing as this allows them to impose high fees at every stage of the employment process. [FULL STORY]
