Filipinos in Taiwan

Filipinos in Taiwan consist mainly of immigrants and workers from the Philippines. Filipinos form the third largest national contingent of migrant workers and account for about one-fifth of foreign workers in Taiwan as of April 2011. There are about 77,933 Filipino workers in Taiwan, with 53,868 of them working in the manufacturing sector and 22,994 people working as caregivers.^[1]

Overview

The strong Taiwanese economy, particularly in the manufacturing industries, attracts cheap manual labor from the Philippines.^[2] Most Filipinos working in Taiwan work as factory workers, domestic workers, construction workers, fishermen and professionals and they would send a large part of their earnings to their families in the Philippines.^[3] Many Taiwanese men have also chosen Filipino women as brides through arranged marriages. An estimated 7,000 Filipino women now live there with their Taiwanese husbands.

Philippine holidays such as Independence day and José Rizal's birthday are also celebrated by the Filipino community in Taiwan.^[4][5]

Social Issues

Filipino laborers in Taiwan are usually vulnerable to exploitation by their employers, a situation common to unskilled migrant workers all over the world. The Taiwanese government has been receptive to the cases involving mistreatment of Filipino workers in Taiwan.

Filipino migrant caretakers in Taiwan have to go through a broker system that collects most of their monthly earnings, demands long work hours without overtime pay, and offers no days off.^[6] Some caretakers have to work for 24 hours a day. Home caretakers typically receive monthly salaries much lower than the standard set by the government because they are not covered by Taiwan's Labor Standards Act. Also 99 percent of the workers' passports are seized by their employers or brokerage agencies so they would not be able to leave Taiwan.

See Also

• Filipinos in Hong Kong

References