Private unis are starting to shut down left and right. Those that aren’t shutting down are eliminating language departments and laying off part-timers and full-time contract teachers. My own uni has basically warned contract teachers (who are mostly foreign) that they’re on borrowed time. Maybe not this year, but within the next year or two there will be restructuring, which is polite code for lay-offs. Yes, what you say about Taiwan’s bilingual goals is true, but that’s an idealistic goal that doesn’t take precedence over financial realism. Unis (especially private ones not subsidized by the government) are bleeding money and lot of them are just trying to save themselves and are willing to suffer collateral damage in the interest of self-preservation.
Fact is Taiwan has a shrinking youth population. The low wages aren’t helping and so couples are deciding not to have babies. It’s to the point that the government is offering financial incentives for couple to have more babies. Lots of public primary school is closing and merging as a result as well due to insufficient class size.
This. Local demand is dropping as the number of youth has fallen off a cliff. I think it’s about to hit unis really hard.
On the other side of the coin there should be a shit tonne of opportunities to teach in public schools, the problem is a) not great wages now b) they’ll probably hire in teachers from Phil etc , which I have absolutely no problem with as many are great and well qualified , but it means salaries won’t go up
For non education related jobs, I don’t think there’s any big drivers one way or the other. Taiwan just does it’s thing with the industries it already has, it’s not attracting new industries or businesses to setup here. Maybe the exception is wind power as local demand is huge ?
That’s difficult partly because of the lack of free trade pacts and the tax structure but mostly because lack of ambition and willingness to drive large changes.
It maybe Asia’s top company but opportunities for foreigners are going to be very limited. Hiring 4000, what percentage are local engineers ?
This is the issue with Taiwan in terms of the diversity of job opportunities available.
According to the article, these are low salary jobs anyway. Up to 45000 a month with some exceptions. TSMC gives nice bonuses but still.
They get like 30+ months of salary on average and they hire a shit ton of people every year. You don’t even have to be super good to get in.
The pay range listed is super low. 
For the a list engineers they get 80k starting off I think.
Anyway it’s not so much the pay, although it’s a factor, but that foreign professionals cannot really get those jobs or are not needed for the company to do it’s biz because they don’t really do services and they are an OEM mainly. Chinese language barrier is always a big one.
I mean a lot of companies are moving back and I expect a fallout from the coronavirus with foreign companies moving R&D here. The biggest difference I see if that the focus of Taiwanese companies that were China focused(which was a lot) is changing.
Oh yeah the trend is definitely somewhat positive for foreigners, for Taiwanese much more positive , but the issue is that they are 90% Taiwanese companies 
.
But yes Microsoft, Facebook, Google…They are all investing here too on the hardware, AI side, but not really services…Ah well. If they would put some regional HQ here would be much better but…
I used to want to emigrate then I realised that it’s really not worth the hassle. You’d give up so much and gain very little or even nothing because after the rent and the taxes you could very well be broke. I know too many who tried to stay in another country and still moved back home anyway because it’s too difficult, and their countries are in far worse position than Taiwan is.
I wouldn’t mind living in a country for a couple of years though. That’d be fun.
I know for a fact that Amazon are heavily focusing here.
I also heard that there are going to be changes in the laws here this year to make it easier for fintech companies to set up here. A lot of fintech startups in HK want to move because of the protests.
Taiwan has a lot of companies. A lot of them were heavily invested in China and a lot of them have a lot of cash. You are right, it still means working for Taiwanese but the situation looks bright. Once you start to have a more complete supply chain here for certain industries (AI, IOT etc) it makes sense for foreign companies to come here. Especially with China and HK in the situation they are in.
Yep I hope you understand our challenges a lot more and the reason for so much moaning and whining.
You give up a lot in many cases living overseas. Moving to different countries is pretty cool though, agreed.
…And yet try buying something from Amazon here. 
hahaha, you know its not that part of their business.
Also I think the way the government is handling the virus will be a sweetner for foreign companies who have lost big in China.
Let’s see what happens. I remember when Taiwan had tonnes of foreigners trying to setup different electronics businesses here twenty years ago.
I know foreigner owned businesses IOT that are doing very well here.
But they set up a long time ago in Taiwan and didn’t move here.
The real problem is the lack of trade agreements and lack of ‘brand Taiwan’ and the costs here are low but then the costs of staff aren’t always the major concern for companies.
That’s not the same thing. Most of you came for a couple of years at most then you stayed for other reasons (i.e. relationship/marriage). I’m talking about emigration for good.
I think a lot of real “talent” will look at moving back as well. My friend was saying that she has a Taiwanese friend who is really high in Microsoft in China. With everything as fucked as it has been the last five years there, he was given an ultimatum that he has to join the party to keep his job, which means giving up Taiwan citizenship.
He is back here starting a business.
There’s a heck of a lot of long term emigrants on this board.
Yeah that would be great for Taiwan actually if more of those senior people came back too. They have a more strategic mindset over there.
Party as in CCP?