Is "begpacking" legal? (not general discussion)

The information from the government says the income doesn’t need to be reported. It’s the law that foreigners with an ARC can apply, but also that they can only work for the company sponsoring their ARC, with volunteer and free (or by donation) work also prohibited. So it seems like a conflict. You can get a performance permit, but it doesn’t sponsor your ARC, so you can’t do the work (performance).

If your gaofei income doesn’t exceed $180k/year, it’s tax free and non-reportable.

Some foreign volunteer work is legal, but I would say that doesn’t cover “begpackers”.

It says the work must be “supportive”, so unless your busking for charity I think that interpretation doesn’t apply.

From a blanket they spread out. Okay, okay! Here’s a photo where you can read what the postcards are of (mostly SE Asia):

Yes, there are girls. You make the call:

https://medium.com/@MajSB/begpackers-seen-by-a-third-worldist-585d408db401

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21 posts were merged into an existing topic: Which species is the mangiest?

Uh-oh…looks like Westerners aren’t the only ones. I like the way she’s added bopomofo for the 謝謝, as if that would make it any more intelligible. WTF?

Another person from an internationally isolated (some uncontrolled and some self-imposed) country with no international exposure or common sense.

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The ones I saw asking for money at Maji were 2 Japanese guys “circling the globe”.

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No you must be wrong…It’s all western English speaking white people…

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Silly, off-topic, and waaayyy off-topic posts have been removed. Thanks for keeping it relevant and tasteful. :rainbow:

Isn’t that what she’s trying to remedy? :sweat_smile:

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A tasteful discussion about people reduced to begging? That’s a bit of a challenge.

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I don’t know, on the face of it, it seems charming.
As long as they’re not agressive.
Frankly, the Taiwanese youth are really in need of exposure to other cultures and to young people who are daring enough take a journey.
How any of us hear crickets in our cram school classes when we try to get our students excited about travel or different cultures.
Are there legal ways of recharging your funds when you’re here in Taiwan such as volunteering at a hostel.
Maybe the foreign representative offices of their own countries could hire as volunteers to promote tourism at certain activities.
maybe they could get paid a small stipend from their home country to avoid the appearance of working illegally.
I, myself, signed my soul over to work at a communal farm for 6 months and I met other travelers who earned cash by working on the farms in Italy and Greece.

One more question? I’ve known students who went overseas to work in the working Holiday Program but I haven’t seen many foreigners coming here to do it.
How many are here and what kind of work do they take? I’ve seen a few at various fairs and flea markets working for small food producers like honey producers and health drink producers but that’s about it.

So far I haven’t been able to find recent comprehensive statistics, and I haven’t found anything comprehensive about what kinds of work these visa holders do.

This seems to be a list of partner countries, with ROC government quotas as to each country, but that doesn’t seem to pertain to the question of how many actually come here from those countries:

Here are some jobs the government suggests might be available:

Here’s a little more along those lines:

Here are a couple of news articles from a few years back:

Couple of orts:

There’s been some discussion of it on the board:

One more link

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my little sister went travelling around asia recently, she saved the money, (and made sure she had enough for it) and planned everything. i don’t see why you should be begging locals for free holidays because you were too lazy or unorganized yourself. really not sure how you can conclude that this entitled behavior is charming.

and the Taiwanese youth do travel. according to instagram they are on holiday posing all the time. going on holiday and posing seems to be the national passtime of taiwanese girls…

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As much as I hate the term “white privilege,” begpackers are one of the few actual examples of this phenomenon. And the fact that most of them are probably entitled millennials that rail against white privilege makes them even more annoying.

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In a place where people in Taiwan are mostly all employed or doing some kind of work.

There are some foreigners hitchhiking around and sleeping in the park, looking for handouts, or just acting bizarre which they would never do at home. All appearing strange to Taiwanese and other foreigners.