Taiwan
Foreign migrant workers give their prime working years to low-wage income and long working hours in what Taiwanese called the ‘3D’ industries, which stands for ‘dirty, dangerous and difficult’. In 1989, Taiwan introduced the first group of migrant workers from Southeast Asia, and it has steadily grown since the passing of the Employment Services Act in 1992. Today the migrant worker population in Taiwan exceeds 710,000, about one-fortieth of Taiwan’s total population. Despite being an important driver of the economy, they are either invisible to the general public or simply treated as work-horses who when they are no longer fit to work, run away rather than being repatriated to resort to a life of crime or become victims of violence. Through the oral histories of four migrant workers and their life stories, this exhibit contests that popular narrative.
Mobile
The National Human Rights Museum in Taiwan, shares the real-life stories of four migrant workers to contest the cultural representation of migrants, which occupies a peculiar space. Their existence is considered a market-driven inevitability, always ubiquitous yet invisible in Taiwanese society. They are simultaneously an ‘addiction’ that Taiwanese society relies upon, yet they are viewed with suspicion as a potential threat or danger to be kept under control. The importance of Taiwan’s migrant laborers cannot be overstated. Yet, Taiwan’s treatment of its migrant workers, 90% of who are Southeast Asian, has long been a black mark on its own narrative of freedom and democratic success. Negligence from employers and government agencies appears to run deep. Whether at sea or on land, migrant workers face the same problems: exorbitant commissions taken out of their salaries by brokers; contracts that have been forged or not enforced unless in favour of employers; broken promises about human rights from authorities; and under-reported, yet prevalent physical or sexual abuse. Yet in Taiwanese cultural representations, concerns about migration largely focus on the perception that criminalise migrant workers or deem them problematic. Within this pervasive narrative, it is rare to see positive images of foreign workers. Here, four migrant workers share their own experiences: a day at work filmed on their own mobile phones. Juxtaposing the meagre, sub-human depiction of migrant workers in public consciousness, they share photos of themselves that highlight their resilience in the face of such harsh conditions, their dignity and their humanness.