Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Domestic Caretaker Union -DCU- 桃園市家庭看護工職業工會/Facebook
MIGRANT WORKER ADVOCACY groups demonstrated on Wednesday, December 18th. This marked International Migrants Day. To mark this, organizations demonstrated in front of the Ministry of Labor.
Some of the demands by migrant worker groups are familiar. For example, migrant worker groups called for an end to the current broker system. As part of this system, migrant workers need to pay expensive fees to the brokers that arrange for their employment in Taiwan, as well as their travel to Taiwan.
Many times, migrant workers are not able to afford these fees. Consequently, migrant workers take out loans in order to pay these fees. But such loans are sometimes from brokers themselves. As a consequence, migrant workers end up enmired in what has sometimes been termed debt bondage. Some migrant workers, such as those that work on Taiwan’s distant water fishing fleet, are considered to be in a form of modern slavery.
Similarly, migrant worker groups called for migrant workers to be allowed to change jobs without going through a manpower broker, as is currently required. This proves another means by which brokers have enormous power over migrant workers.
Indeed, the broker system has been criticized as a legacy of authoritarianism. Individuals who became brokers were generally close to the party-state. As such, labor broker served as a sinecure position for those close to the KMT.
Likewise, migrant worker groups called for improvements to Taiwan’s long-term care system. This is because a new program will allow migrant workers to serve as dispatch workers. The criteria of those who are eligible for the program, who were previously limited to individuals with physical or mental disabilities or in need of critical care, has since been expanded. But in the process of expansion, this has placed new limits on benefits that dispatch workers in such roles previously enjoyed.
Livestream of the protest
More generally, the Ministry of Labor was criticized. New Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han, who was previously an environmental activist close to organized labor before becoming a DPP legislator, was criticized for not living up to his previous actions in assisting migrant workers. Former Minister of Labor Hsu Ming-chun was criticized over allegations she spent 3.56 million NT to pay for a musical concert event that she sang at.
New initiatives from the government will allow “runaway” undocumented migrant workers to re-enter the workforce. This is a rising population in Taiwan, with there being 89,666 undocumented migrant workers in Taiwan last year. Yet undocumented migrant workers are increasingly hired in industries in desperate need of workers, such as the agricultural industry.
The significant number of undocumented migrant workers was framed as a result of needing to escape brutal workplace conditions and the broker system. Yet the government has rejected calls for a more systematic way of addressing this issue, instead preferring to deal with undocumented migrant workers on a case-by-case basis–not so different from how Taiwan has preferred to deal with asylum seekers on a case-by-case basis rather than set up a systematic process for vetting asylum seekers. Another contributor to the issue of undocumented migrant workers has been when mothers are at risk of being separated from their children after divorces.
It is to be seen whether the government takes action, then. Certainly, while Hung may be a more sympathetic Minister of Labor–and perhaps may welcome protests from civil society that strengthen his ability to take action on certain issues–it is also possible he increasingly accommodates the status quo in office.