I’m sharing a very important opportunity here. All Hands Taiwan is conducting a survey of the living and working experiences of foreigners in Taiwan in order to better inform the government and positively impact lawmaking in the future. The results of the survey will be turned into a whitepaper that will be co-authored by the American Institute in Taiwan and delivered to the government with the intent to lobby for better visa and working regulations. We would greatly appreciate it if you could find 10 minutes to complete the survey and so much the better if you can also encourage a friend to take it, too.
WHAT IS THIS?
This is a survey of the living and working experiences of foreigners in Taiwan.
WHY TAKE IT?
The Taiwanese government is woefully uninformed about the experiences of foreigners living in Taiwan and the results are clunky paperwork processes, poorly marketed visa opportunities, and uninformed laws that prevent job seekers from getting jobs and companies from hiring the talent they need.
WHO DOES IT HELP/AFFECT?
This affects every foreigner living in Taiwan. Improvements can be made in visa regulations, working laws, student and intern opportunities, long-term living in Taiwan, and more.
HOW MANY PEOPLE SHOULD TAKE IT?
We need thousands of responses to have stable and reliable data. We need you to share with us 10 very valuable minutes and to encourage your foreign friends to do the same. Let’s make Taiwan an even better place to live and work!
I guess… If you consider an anonymous survey data mining. But really the goal is to inform a large and important group of politicians by sharing real information from a group of people they serve but do not understand in the least.
All Hands Taiwan has monthly networking events that average 100 attendees. In September All Hands first bi-annual job fair was attended by 1,000 people and 25 companies.
About 5 questions in, it was clear this survey was created for a specific set of foreigners in Taiwan, since I started to see that the only reasonable answer to many questions, for me, became ‘other’. Some questions I was not comfortable answering. I suggest this survey get re-designed or the data will be crap.
Giving some legislator data on working conditions of foreigners is good intentions, but likely it will fall on deaf ears. Also these data collection is focused on a minority of foreign workers, not the majority (which is not English teachers, but au pairs, factory workers, construction workers who are badly mistreated).
It may be better to make a Chinese survey and ask the Taiwanese how are their working conditions. That’s going to get legislators to want to take action.
If you truly want to change the working condition of Taiwan, and you’re in position to be an employer set an example and treat workers well.
There are a billion ways to circumvent discrimination laws, US employers/HR people are experts at this.
I like the intention and drive behind it, so I did the survey, but the realist in me knows it probably won’t make much of a difference. There’s a just a lot of practices which are ingrained deep into the work culture in Taiwan that simply doesn’t change despite the calls for it to over the years.
I think it’s wise not to expect dramatic change. But if we don’t make some noise and try to stand up for these things, then they certainly will never change.
You’re right, this data collection is focused on a minority of foreigners, which happens to be a community that we have built over the past year. We are working to become friendly with organizations that serve and support labor and in-home workers in Taiwan and we do hope to connect with those communities in the future, too. That being said, I’m sure you could appreciate that a survey that attempted to capture this kind of information from all foreigners would be either quite a beast or a complete nightmare to navigate.
