Or 緣木求魚
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The government doesn’t ignore foreigners because they’re ‘ill-informed,’ it ignores them because they can’t vote.
The truth is, most Taiwanese citizens don’t fully understand how useless the NDC is either… if they did, they’d be outraged at how much taxpayer money it wastes.
Ok… let’s break them down.
- “Talent Jumpstart”
Fancy name, but Taiwan’s labor issues are getting worse, not better. - “Trillion NT Investment”
Throwing money at infrastructure without fixing systemic economic issues. - “Net-Zero 2050”
Empty promises while Taiwan’s energy policy remains a disaster. - “Regional Revitalization”
More committees, no results, rural areas keep declining. - “Startup Ecosystem”
Billions spent, yet Taiwan still lags in global innovation. - “Real Estate Plan”
Prices still sky-high, nothing actually fixed.
Not very effective policies I see…
Oh, but the NDC had no issue pushing through the Gold Card when they actually wanted to get something done. They coordinated between agencies, drafted policies, and implemented a whole new visa scheme, without waiting for the Legislature to magically act on its own.
Oh, so the NDC’s job is to develop policies? Then why the hell haven’t they drafted and pushed a real policy to fix banking discrimination?
Oh right… because they’re useless, too busy burning taxpayer money on pointless reports and gimmicky visas while foreigners still can’t even get a damn mortgage without facing discrimination at nearly every turn.
Oh, so the Ministry of the Interior is the roadblock on immigration? Fine. then why hasn’t the NDC drafted real policies to increase birth rates instead?
Oh right… because as said earlier they’re a useless money pit focused on flashy gimmicks.
But as you said before… they’re supposed to draft and analyse policies, right? Why haven’t they drafted and analysed it?
The main problem isn’t immigration policies, it’s simply that Taiwan is not known as a country that wants to integrate foreigners into its industries, unless you have some really niche skill. Check the financial industry, not many foreigners if any there. Speaking generally, Taiwanese companies as a whole are not interested into having semi skilled foreigners among their ranks. Hong Kong used to be easy peasy for foreigners to work in finance and insurance but once China took over, they are like Taiwan in this aspect, closed off.
As far as the APRC 5 yr rule, Taiwan is smart as they know people need to leave at times for a different job overseas, family reasons, etc. And that person when they are done that will likely return to Taiwan due to the ease in reintegration. Otherwise in my case I wouldn’t chose Taiwan again as a destination seeing all the other choices out there. Taiwan knows this. People return and being money 
they didn’t do this to be altruistic
And whose fault is that? The government has done nothing to change Taiwan’s corporate culture.
Meanwhile, places like Singapore and South Korea are outcompeting Taiwan by making actual efforts to attract and retain skilled workers.
And yet, the NDC keeps pretending Taiwan is some global talent magnet. If companies won’t hire foreigners, what’s the point of all these elite visa programs? They dangle “Gold Cards” and “Global Elite Cards,” but once people arrive, they can’t find real jobs because the system isn’t built to include them.
(I know many gold card holders who are teaching English in kindergartens and cram schools.)
Taiwan didn’t design this rule out of some genius foresight, it’s just another bureaucratic band-aid for a system that still fails to retain talent long-term. If Taiwan were actually serious about integration, people wouldn’t need to leave in the first place.
And many don’t return because they realise that other countries offer a much easier, more welcoming environment. Taiwan loses out on talent because it refuses to fix core structural issues.
The truth? Taiwan isn’t ‘smart’ about any of this. It’s just stubborn, short-sighted, and bleeding talent. (While claiming to be a talent magnet.)
So where did all that displaced Hong Kong talent go? Anywhere but Taiwan. A once-in-a-generation chance to become a regional finance hub, completely wasted.
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I see your thought process here, thanks for clarifying. Mostly agree
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Opinions vary on whether the NDC’s policies have been effective. There are reasons that the NDC developed this policy or has not developed that policy but it is too tiresome to try to explain them to you.
I can assure anyone reading this that it was foreseen that some (many?) gold card holders would have trouble finding jobs in their field at the compensation levels they expected. Despite objections on precisely these grounds, the decision was taken to open up anyway.
It gives the people with skills who really want to be in Taiwan a much better way to do it. They will have to figure out what to do here on their own. Like I and many others have over the years.
In my opinion, the Gold Card problem has been a modest but solid success. Yes, it has shortcomings. But it has brought a cohort of around 4-5,000 skilled people to live and work here. It’s better than what we had before when they weren’t here. I’m sure those working in kindergartens have their reasons for wanting to be in Taiwan, and I’m confident that most of them will figure out other things to do in due course. May I suggest learning Chinese?
Financial talent from Hong Kong generally did not come to Taiwan because Taiwanese financial institutions specialize in and offer different kinds of services than Hong Kong did. This is because Taiwan is a manufacturing economy not a services economy.
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The whole ‘learn chinese’ and Taiwan will open up is not generally true at all.
But in a way I get it, a local laoban would rather hire a local with full fluency than a foreigner with janky Chinese compared to them, wants to leave at 5 instead of 9 like everyone else, and will want more money to be paid fairly, it goes against their whole concept of a model employee. Unless one has a skill that they just can’t find elsewhere (MRT engineering), it’s hard to get a decent paying job unless you either have connections, were sent here as an expat, or you figure out some kind of a business plan.
I can’t just rock up to Fubon bank for example with my few years of Chinese study and work there, even if I have the work experience and education.
This is where Japan has been taking a big edge in attracting foreigners in the past decade. As the song says ‘if I could turn back time’ I should have went to Japan and studied Japanese, it would have furthered my career (in Asia)
Knowing Chinese does not open up the entirety of the job market to you. Not even close. But it unquestionably expands your options.
I agree that it not easy to navigate Taiwan without a high in-demand skill, connections, or an expat/remote deal. You have to find, or better yet, create your own niche. That takes resourcefulness, intelligence, and patience. No money falling off trees here.
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Not everyone is or can be to run a business unfortunately. That’s why most Western foreigners are in teaching.
I feel that’s where Taiwan needs to improve to integrate semi skilled foreigners into their business industries better.
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I strongly agree with this. The labor shortage is causing some companies to think about this for the very first time. I’m slightly optimistic we might see some positive change on this by 2030 or so.
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That’s a nice way of saying they’ve largely failed.
Translation: There’s no good explanation. If there were, you’d have given one instead of waving your hand and hoping people stop asking why the NDC is so useless.
Then why roll out the program without fixing the deeper issues? The fact that skilled professionals can’t find decent jobs in Taiwan isn’t a ‘whoopsie’ it’s a sign that the entire system is broken.
A ‘better way’ that leads to underemployment and kindergarten jobs? What a waste of “talent”.
A modest but solid success’? Oh please 4,000 to 5,000 people over several years is an absolute joke.
For context, South Korea brings in over 20,000 skilled workers annually, Japan has hundreds of thousands on specialized work visas, and Singapore has attracted tens of thousands of high-level professionals in finance, tech, and biotech alone.
Taiwan? A few thousand Gold Card holders, many of whom are underemployed or stuck teaching English.
It’s a pitiful failure.
Oh yes, because learning Chinese magically fixes Taiwan’s broken hiring culture, banking barriers, and lack of integration.
What a lazy excuse.
It’s not that difficult to build new financial products quickly, the UAE, Abu Dhabi, and even Kazakhstan’s AIFC have proven this. All it takes is political will and competent leadership. But instead of seizing the opportunity, Taiwan did nothing, letting other countries rake in the talent from Hong Kong while it sat on its hands.
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Nolo contendere.
Here are some figures and facts that support my cautious optimism and also my view that learning Chinese can enhance a foreign national’s chances of getting a job.
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The NDC is projecting 480,000 unfilled jobs by 2030 due to demographic change.
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In turn, this is causing a fair number of Taiwanese businesses to be more open to hiring foreign nationals.
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In 2024, 40% of employers on 104.com said they are open to hiring foreign nationals. These are 26,000 employers offer 250,000 jobs.
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The number of jobs open to foreigners increased 9% in 2024.
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The top five industries were hospitality, retailing, IT, semiconductors, traditional manufacturing, and the service industry.
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In 2024, foreign job candidates received one interview invitation for every two that a Taiwanese candidate did.
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The primary consideration for employers was language skills. Secondary considerations were minimum capital and salary requirements.
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Employer language proficiency requirements remain crucial. If job seekers can demonstrate their Chinese language skills on their resume or provide relevant certificates, their chances of getting an interview can increase by 1.4 times.
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It is also pretty clear from these statistics that most foreign job seekers in Taiwan are young and from Southeast Asia. Malaysians and Vietnamese dominate. This is reflected in work permit statistics too.
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In my view, this trend is signficant for Gold Card holders and people from Europe and North America who expect higher compensation. Younger employees from Southeast Asia are opening up the door for others. They are normalizing the hiring of international employees and getting employers used to the idea. As they become more comfortable with these foreign employees, it is reasonable to be somewhat optimistic that they might give other international talent a chance.
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But this process will take time. Which is why I think there might be some improvement by 2030.
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When go back to Japan to visit family, I do feel each visit there are more and more immigrants.
And most learn Japanese before they arrived in Japan. I can speak to them in Japanese, many work in retail speaking Japanese.
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Japan’s population started declining 20 years ago so it has been dealing with problem of not enough workers for some time now. It is remarkable how many immigrants you see even in smaller cities and towns. I believe the same thing will/is happening in Taiwan.
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I can hope that, but if Taiwan wants follow Japan’s path they need have speak/learn Chinese before they come I think as you mentioned. it is path to Japan has now. Also Taiwan needs get better trained or educated people to come , I feel Taiwan attracts low wage and I might say better people choose other places they they feel is better . Taiwan needs make itself more attractive, better soft power, so it can get better people Korea and Japan does this with soft power, even in our second Euro offices I notice a lot of interest in Japan and Korea culture related to soft power which makes a lot easier get talent (and lots of tourists, too much in fact).
As of now, I feel Taiwan wants low level, low wage workers or domestic workers and not immigrants. If this remains the incentive to learn Chinese will be low as will long term ties to Taiwan. Many of non natives in Japan plan to stay for life on the other hand which is big incentive to learn Japanese (The ones I talk to at least)
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Are they really immigrants, or just temporary migrant workers?
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To be fair, it’s been happening in Taiwan for 20 years as well. But the strategy perhaps is/was different. Even today, 2025, Taiwan isn’t that welcoming for non joining family and/or rich immigration. Say what you will, but this is hurting Taiwan. Automation in an illiterate country is going to suck by 2030 in my opinion.
No idea how Japan is handling it. But Taiwan is failing HARD on nearly every single possible metric in my opinion. Root issue: needs to open up culturally. Secondly, open up on long term immigration reforms (albeit carefully due to China’s constant world domination plans here).
I’m fully invested here. Since a teen, married, fa.ily, child, business the whole works. And there is at least 1 day a week I get the feeling of “why bother” here. It’s a sad stare of affairs. The gov needs to garnish more loyalty…Just a fact. How to do it is up for debate, but not that it needs doing.
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Blind faith.
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