Experiencing foreigners : Taiwan's low-skilled immigrant workers and policies

In the 1980s, internal and external economic, social, and political restructurings in Taiwan created a need for low-skilled foreign labourers (FLLs). Today after more than a decade of Taiwanese foreign labour policy, these FLLs workers, especially female FLLs, have been repeatedly mistreated and discriminated against. Using Taiwanese governmental reports and statistics, academic articles, newspaper, and popular writings, this project discusses common features of current international migration patterns and presents four theories to explain these features. This project also presents and examines the evolution and the impacts of Taiwan's foreign labour policy. Special attention is given to female migrant labourers. The findings of this project indicates that FLLs are mistreated, Taiwanese workers' long-term employment prospects maybe [sic] undermined, and Taiwanese society in general is negatively impacted. To improve foreign low-skilled labourers' working and human rights in Taiwan, this project makes three recommendations. Firstly, it is necessary to improve current foreign labour policy by refining its regulation, extending its jurisdiction to include foreign domestic and health workers, and ensuring its implementation. Secondly, the Taiwanese public needs to be informed in order to develop a keener understanding of the value and importance of FLLs. Thirdly, Taiwan must follow international labour standards for the protection of its foreign low-skilled workers. Overall, this project helps to provide a basis for anticipating migration problems resulting from this emerging aspect of globalization while this project focused on Taiwan, the findings could be analogous to the conditions in other countries, thereby exposing similar problems and providing possible solutions.--Page i.