TAIWAN - MIGRATION IN 2000

The export driven Taiwanese economy scored a strong export growth of 22 percent in the year 2000, with GDP reaching 6.3 percent. This occurred in spite of the difficulties that followed the election of President Chen Shui-bian, particularly the stock market’s 40 percent decline. Unemployment also reached a 2.9 percent high. In spite of slackening confidence, Taiwan’s reserves are still the third highest in the world and capital outflows have declined. Like other economies in Asia, Taiwan is particularly sensitive to the performance of the US economy, its main trade partner.

Throughout the year, Taiwan had to grapple with a growing foreign workforce and possible measures to reduce it. The intention was to limit the total number of migrant workers below 300,000 and to open more employment to local workers. The Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) announced in March that manufacturers and operators of construction projects which laid off a percentage of workers in the last two years would not be allowed to hire migrant workers. The hiring of foreign caregivers was also limited to patients suffering from one of 32 diseases listed by the government. In May the reduction of migrants in the manufacturing sector by 15,000 annually was announced. However, the increase in the demand for househelpers kept the total number of migrants above the 300,000 threshold. At the end of 2000, foreign workers were 326,515. The largest group was from Thailand (141,180), followed by the Philippines (98,161), Indonesia (77,830), Vietnam (77,476) and Malaysia (113). The most significant change was the increase of migrants from Indonesia (89 percent over the previous year), employed largely (81 percent) as caregivers and domestic workers.

Under the more general policy of reducing foreign labor, the number of Filipino migrants in the country was further reduced when a ban was imposed on 1 June on the hiring Filipino workers for manufacturing and construction jobs. The official reason for the ban was the litigious approach of the representative office of the Philippines in Taiwan, encouraging workers to file lawsuits against Taiwanese employers and compiling a blacklist of employers and brokers. However, Taiwan and the Philippines were also involved in an air row, after the Philippines unilaterally rescinded the agreement and direct flights between the Philippines and Taiwan were discontinued. The ban was lifted on 1 December, after the Philippine government agreed that its representative would intervene in disputes only with the consent of the employer and the participation of the CLA. During the ban, the number of Filipino migrants in Taiwan went down from 109,076 to 100,324, which translated to a loss of US$20 million in foregone wages.

Problems concerning the working conditions of migrants, particularly no days-off and inadequate pay for overtime work, surfaced throughout the year. A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) representative proposed excluding migrant workers from the minimum wage, which labor officials opposed. The phenomenon of migrants abandoning the work place (the so-called runaways) decreased slightly in percentage points from 1.44 in the previous year to 1.37. Indonesians had the highest runaway proportion (2.93), followed by Filipinos (1.19) and Thais (0.88).

Foreigners can now apply for permanent residence in Taiwan, provided they have lived in the country continuously for seven years. Foreign spouses can also apply for permanent residence after five years of living in Taiwan. Those eligible for permanent residence are approximately 46,000.

There are some 80,000 Mainland Chinese living in Taiwan; half of them perhaps in an irregular situation. Those who are legally present are spouses of Taiwanese citizens, scholars and others on temporary visas. The rest have entered Taiwan clandestinely by boat. More than 14,000 have been repatriated since 1992 while 1,300 are in detention centers waiting to be repatriated to the Mainland.