The percentage of the population aged 65 and over is expected to exceed 20 percent in 2026, making Taiwan a “super-aged society.”
This got me thinking about the implications for Taiwan’s ethnic makeup. That amount of elderly people is going to require a lot of caregivers, who are usually from SE Asian countries (Indonesian, Malaysia, Philippines).
While they won’t be citizens or permanent residents, could the percentage of foreign workers in Taiwan reach five to ten percent of the total population in 10 to 20 years due to the need to take care of the elderly?
And those young indo and phil and whatever workers should be given citizenship after 10 years on the ROC so that there is an infusion of young uns. Otherwise TW society is headed for an inability to support it’s aged .
Actually, Taiwan’s existing citizens would be better off in general if they didn’t give the newcomers citizenship. That way they could have plenty of caregivers etc., but not have to take care of them in their old age. Citizens would effectively constitute an elite caste, as they do in several Middle Eastern countries (and as apartheid-era South Africa tried to arrange through its bantustans).
The newcomers might boycott Taiwan as a work destination then. Considering that Korea and Japan are opening up to foreigners from these countries to naturalize, and the salary is much better, what incentive would there be to go to Taiwan who doesn’t recognize them legally.
Taiwan is already an afterthought to most foreign workers, they all want to go to Canada, USA, Hong Kong, Singapore and Korea where they are treated better with more rights and better $
But they cannot all go to those places. So Taiwan may be last on the list, workers will still come here if they cannot get into other countries. Last I checked Taiwan currently has about 600,000+ foreign workers.
Umm south Korea has near 1,000,000 foreign workers .
Canada 90,000 temporary foreign workers
HK 320000
Singapore 870000
Japan is lagging too but they are importing more foreign workers too. And they get treated.much better there than Taiwan
China will suck in enormous number of caregivers over the next 10 to 20 years. I expect Taiwan will get the most unqualified if they don’t offer incentives.
Costs are going to increase that’s for certain.
Indonesia has been talking about stopping Indonesians working as caregivers overseas.
You know many caregivers in Taiwan don’t get one day a week off right?
One reason caregivers have it rough in HK is that it is so cramped they have even less personal space than Taiwan.
Not that I’m saying they are treated well here because they are not. And I support them getting citizenship.
Also a few months ago the Indonesian government took a U-turn and said they will continue to send them abroad.
They banned sending their people to certain countries in the ME and North Africa because the abuse they face there is even worse. It’s just an all around tragic situation.
Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh are all countries will a lot of poor people that sends citizens abroad to work. Combine the population that would work abroad and you have a huge labor pool.
As I stated, they cannot all go to the best place to work. So there are going to be enough people when Taiwan’s population reaches 20%+ elderly to work here, even with other countries taking workers. I doubt Taiwan would become like the UAE, but it is going to be interesting in Taiwan, when 5% to 10% of the population is not Taiwanese but foreign workers.
There must be an avenue to citizenship for those who have lived in Taiwan a good number of years. This is important for social stability. Otherwise it will lead to problems. Germany has problems with Turkish people living in Germany, having children and not giving them citizenship. I am not sure if this has been resolved.
Taiwan will have a problem if a good percentage of the people living on Taiwan are guest workers.
Human rights needs to be more of a focus for a strong society. Human rights will become more of a beacon and focus in the world of tomorrow.
I just simply cannot understand the attitude of the common people towards the South East Asian workers, especially the caregivers. Oh, the complaining! They say they are all thieves and useless and yet they give them the greatest resposnibility over their most valuable assets: their families, their babies, their elderly parents. If they steal, they foam at the mouth and look for heidao pals to teach them a lesson. They do not give them days off and complain when they break down, as if they were machines. Seems they most adhere to giving them the worst conditions to live, and repeat the mantra: if you treat them nicely, they will betray you. Then act surprised when the person that they kept in a tiepiu shed steals their tv and runs away.
Stability? Diversity is a weakness. People are tribal by nature. What evidence do you have that South East Asianers can compete at an intellectual leval with Taiwanese?
Increasing diversity = increasing ethnic tension and conflict.
Some of those countries like Pakistan and India probably are not the best fit for Taiwan. SE Asia people have similar lifestyle and background so the government is really missing a trick here not encouraging them to settle down here especially by year 10 of their residence.
The situation here in Taiwan is a peculiar mix of:
a) race/ethnicity based nationalism (example: citizenship historically granted through paternal bloodline) mobilized in state practice via the ROC; and
b) settler colonialism and its systematic disdain for and disparaging of Indigenous peoples in Taiwan–and by extension other brown-looking folks.
On the plus side, there are also significant groups of people here who don’t much agree with either of these things and do attempt–through activism, supporting labour rights, and other social movements–to get things changed.
The biggest problem, though, is the way industry runs this country–consistently trying to undermine labour solidarity by bringing in various groups of migrants workers at lower wages with little security, all the while damaging the land and poisoning the air and water and food supply with impunity.
Tsai has talked about proposing a long-term care program for the aged. What will come of this? If anyone is involved in these policy proposals, do let us know.
So in other words those south east asianers are only good for wiping amahs ass and getting screamed at and treated like a slave for 5 years, then renewing the contract for another 5 , but they are not intellectual enough to naturalize and fit in.
There are already a ton that have naturalized and blended in over the years married to local guys. They don’t look too unstable to me
Guess the USA would be better off to boot out all the Taiwanese too. You know, it would improve stability and all that.
I don’t think Taiwan is stupid enough to buy into the “diversity is strength” crap, even ostensibly left wing partys there don’t advocate for massive demographic change like western politicians have done for decades.
Yeah, it’s so crowded that the industralists/ruling class have brought in around 600,000 migrant workers at lower wages and with less security with no obvious route to citizenship. So much for being “crowded enough.” If you don’t see what’s happening here, it’s time to learn.