Taiwan opening its doors to migrant workers from India

The eleven-minute programme was produced by Taiwan Public Television and uploaded to Youtube by them

Earlier this year, a Taiwanese television station approached TWC2 for information and interviews as it was making a report on the proposal to allow migrant workers from India into Taiwan’s manufacturing sector.

They came to us because, in their research, they found that Singapore has long had migrant workers from India. How do they fit in? What are the issues we have to deal with? The producer felt that TWC2’s insights would be useful for their programme.

We quickly pointed out that Indian migrant workers coming to Singapore are generally in the construction sector. Our manufacturing sector is not open to them, so there already is a key difference. But the producer was still interested because the debate in Taiwan is really about social and cultural fit.

00:31 – Near Singapore’s landmark, the Merlion Park, the construction of a park is underway. The migrant workers are wiping the floor very carefully; dusting the sidewalk outside the construction site. Singapore relies on a large number of South Asian migrant workers in its workforce. India is one of them.

00:50 – [Ye Junjia, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University] [English]
Indian migrants have been arriving in Singapore since colonial times. Singapore would not exist and would not be able to develop as quickly as it has if it were not for the labour of hundreds and thousands of of workers coming in to carry out a lot of the very physical labour of building the city.

01:22 –Singapore has a population of 5.92 million. Because of the declining birth rate, the demand for foreign labour increases year by year. The number will exceed more than 1.5 million in 2023. Among them, there are more than one million blue-collar migrant workers. Migrant workers in the construction, shipbuilding and process industries number more than 440,000 ,according to statistics from Singapore civil society groups. Indian migrant workers account for about 200,000.

01:47 – [Ye Junjia, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University] [English]
Most of the male low-wage labourers live away from Singaporeans. Most of them live in large purpose-built dormitories. There is not very much every day interaction. There is actually quite a lot of segregation.

02:10 – This is Singapore’s Little India. The streets are full of the atmosphere of South Asia. It is said to be more Indian than India. South Asian migrant workers living in a dormitory in the suburbs come here to try the food of their homeland on their day off.

02:27 – [Ada Cheong, Head of media, TWC2 Singapore] [English]
Workers have less freedom, a lot less free time to come to the city centre because they have to travel very far and the dormitories aren’t always well connected by public transport.

02:38 – Parks in Little India are the places where South Asian migrant workers often meet and get together.

02:43 – [Ada Cheong, Head of media, TWC2 Singapore] [English]
A lot of workers like to come here on their day off because there’s a park where they can gather and meet their friends or to just relax on their day off. And it’s also where they can send money home. There are legal remittance services.

02:56 – Indian workers have a history of coming to Singapore for nearly 200 years. Stereotypes still exist in society, but scholars believe this perception has no basis.

03:09 – [Ye Junjia, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University] [English]
What in social sciences we call ‘brown men’ committing crimes at a higher rate than non-‘brown men’ has been existing for a long time. But there is no data to support this stereotype. In fact, what I do know is that for many migrant workers that I have encountered, they are very aware of the rules and regulations in Singapore because if they were to violate these rules and regulations, the consequences that they have to bear is quite severe. They may not have money to pay the fine, or they may be repatriated.

04:06 – There are 18 million Indian migrant workers worldwide. Among them, the Middle Eastern countries have the highest number of 8.5 million. Other countries include Germany, Italy, France and Singapore. Japan has also signed an MOU with India. South Korea is currently in discussions to sign a treaty.

04:26 – On 16 February 2024, India and Taiwan (represented by our envoy to India) signed an MOU on labour cooperation.

04:36 – [Taiwan’s representative to India] [Chinese]
So we want to say there are more economical sources of migrant workers so that our employers can have more options. But there still needs to be guarantees to ensure that the employment of our people will not be affected. And this will be good for our economic development. As well as being beneficial to the stability of our society. It can only be done under this basis.

04:58 – Before signing the contract by the end of 2023, there was news that 100,000 Indian migrant workers would be brought in. Some people have launched a petition on the internet against increasing the number of countries that provide migrant workers.

05:09 – [Yuna, petition representative] [Chinese]
It is not directed at any specific country. We hope the government can give priority to solving this problem before opening up new source countries for migrant workers. These small voices of the Taiwanese people.

05:22 – Taiwanese society is very unfamiliar with India as a country and culture. How do we alleviate people’s concerns? The Ministry of Labour has recently held several consultation meetings on the issue, inviting all sectors of society to provide planning opinions.

05:36 – [Su Yuguo, Director of Transitional Labour Force, Transnational Labour Team, Ministry of Labour]
Like the way a house is built part by part, we will introduce it on a smaller scale. After discussion, we also evaluated when it first started to consider the manufacturing industry. We plan to open it to 1,000 people first. We are now currently evaluating, maybe for at least one year.”

06:09 – A small scale trial was first started in the manufacturing industry. Considering that corporate employers have a more complete set of management measures, industry believes that it should be left to the market mechanism to compete freely.

06:20 – [Yan Haobing, Supervisor, Republic of China Human Resources Association, Director of Transitional Labour Force, Transnational Labour Team, Ministry of Labour]
I think it is possible. You just let the market run free. You should open it up to businesses and employers to make their own choices. I think this is a better way to achieve. It will be faster to open up. Then you can really try out this country and our cultural compatibility.

6:40 – The current total number of international migrant workers in Taiwan exceeds 750,000.

There are four main sources:
Indonesia 270,000
Vietnam 260,000
Philippines 140,000
Thailand 60,000

06:54 – [Yan Haobing, Supervisor, Republic of China Human Resources Association, Director of Transitional Labour Force, Transnational Labour Team, Ministry of Labour]
These are the current exporting countries. In fact, we still have enough manpower. Just that if we add India, we would give employers more choices. 77% of employers want to hire Indonesian migrant workers to come and be our caregiver or domestic helper. Will the introduction of India cause the employer to change his mind? I think it may not be that simple.

07:18 – For migrant workers in social welfare jobs, Taiwanese prefer to hire Indonesians, while nearly half of manufacturing workers are migrant workers. 46% are Vietnamese. Taiwan opened up to Mongolian migrant workers, but there was no continuous introduction. Business owners believe that cultural differences and costs are both challenges.

07:36 – [Yan Haobing, Supervisor, Republic of China Human Resources Association, Director of Transitional Labour Force, Transnational Labour Team, Ministry of Labour]
Mongolian migrant workers are also fully available. But you can see that it has stopped for several years. You open up, but the people, the culture doesn’t fit in with Taiwan. So, if you open up to India, wouldn’t you have the same problem?

07:57 – [Su Yuguo, Director of Transitional Labour Force, Transnational Labour Team, Ministry of Labour] [Chinese]
Because it’s already stipulated in the MOU, both sides should prioritise direct hiring. We also know that India’s way of exporting labour involves referrals from intermediary organisations. But in terms of direct hiring, they are relatively inexperienced. Therefore, we will follow the MOU and some suggestions from society. We should first discuss with the Indian side, how to establish a new model of direct employment for migrant workers.

08:44 – With regard to the first government-to-government employment model, Alex from TWC2, a Singapore civil society organisation, also believes that this could be one way to improve the situation of migrant workers.

08:56 – [Alex Au, TWC2 Singapore] [English]
TWC2, our organisation, has recommended that the Singapore government should get involved in the way workers look for jobs in Singapore. We have long advocated that Singapore should maintain an internet-type listing of all the available work permit jobs in Singapore so that anybody from India, Bangladesh or Vietnam or the Philippines can look at what jobs are available and apply directly for the jobs instead of going through an agent. That’s just one of the possibilities.

09:34 – [Palani, Indian migrant worker, injured in an accident] [Pidgin English]
A lot, half, of loan I return already. Half have, later I settle. Two lakh I settle already. Now, I working, I can settle. Now cannot, working, right? That’s why cannot settle now. Interest also one lakh coming already. Totally three lakh coming already.

(I have repaid half of my loan. I have repaid 200,000 Indian Rupees. If I am able to work, I can repay the rest, but now, I am unable to work. That’s why I cannot repay the loan. There’s also interest of 100,000 Rupees, so the total I still owe is 300,000 Rupees.)

09:57 – Gena is from North India. He is a devout Sikh*. Now he has to walk more than ten minutes every day to eat at a temple. His job in Singapore was vegetable packaging.

(*Not correct. Gena Hulash Ram is Hindu, not Sikh)

10:09 – [Gena Hulash Ram, Indian migrant worker] [Hindi]
At the beginning, there were no problems with the company and no disputes. As I worked longer, the company did not pay. I didn’t get my full salary. The company did not extend my work permit. The company wants me to return to India. But I believe I deserve to receive my salary. I know that Taiwan is geographically very close to China. I heard that there are also Indians working in Taiwan. I have a very open attitude if there is a chance to make more money, experience different countries and cultures. Now my priority is to resolve this issue and go home. I will consider going to Taiwan (for work) in the future.

Taiwan has been introducing migrant workers for 35 years. As at the end of 2023, the migrant workers’ retention and long-term employment service centre was officially launched.

10:56 – [Liu Huang Lijjuan, Associate Professor of Labour Relations, National Chung Cheng University]
You have to officially admit that migrant workers are already, especially the labour of these foreign workers, is already a problem that Taiwan cannot ignore. And it may be possible that they have become a permanent existence. This social group now presents an opportunity to learn about India. I think this is a good start. But we need to be prepared. That is, our policies. Are we prepared to explain to the Taiwanese? The migrant workers coming to this country now, what culture does he come from? What kind of preparation should the Taiwanese people make?

11:29 – Next, the governments of Taiwan and India will be discussing the plan of bringing in migrant workers. Is India becoming a new source of migrant workers? Can it effectively supplement the labour force? What kind of impact will it have on society? This requires everyone’s continued attention and observation.