I don’t think you and some others in this thread get where I am coming from. I don’t have a dog in this fight because I figured out how to make a living in Taiwan quite some time ago.
And before that, I taught English and later bounced around various jobs that I was unhappy about because the pay was inadequate and the work unfufilling. I too waved my ignorant fist in the air and complained bitterly about how stupid the Taiwanese goverment was because they weren’t doing things that I wanted them to do right now that seemed like obvious no-brainers to me.
In the meantime, Taiwan became vastly more wealthy, brilliant infrastructure like the MRT systems and the high speed rail were built, Taiwan became a world leader in technology and a democracy, rule of law improved, blatant corruption was greatly reduced, the number of executions declined dramatically, a world-famous healthcare system was implemented, and immigration options for foreign nationals expanded among many other improvements.
If I were a betting man, I would wager that I have seen far more foreigners come and go over the decades than anyone posting in this thread. I heard variations of the complaints and ideas voiced in this thread all through the 1990s and even earlier. I might add that the restrictions on us back then were far more onerous and the our prospects much more limited.
My interest now is largely sociological tinged with a bit of historical perspective. I have shared some facts and figures (and quite a bit of hard-won experience and knowledge) and explained my reasoning about some very tentative conclusions about trends I am seeing now after having studied and having been closely involved in efforts to improve the lot of foreigners in Taiwan for more than a decade.
I have blind faith in very few things about Taiwan. Predictions about the future are fool’s game anywhere but even more so in Taiwan. We can however try to reason together about some possibilities and perhaps identify others as being less likely. But only the willing can collaborate this way.
This is simply untrue. Of course we want more, better, improved. It’d be a hell of a lot easier to see this coming if there were a unified government—currently the executive and legislative branches are split which is not helping to unfold brilliant speedy progress. But there are very capable people in government including Cheng Li-chun whom I’d trust, policy wise, far more than your average politician.
Put otherwise: yes things could be better, but they could also be far worse!
They dont even know where to start when it comes to improving taiwans epidemic of traffic violations.
Yet some people in this thread think we should just believe that Taiwan is going to magically figure out how to reverse population decline, something no other nation has even figured out yet. Yea right.
I don’t think anyone has said that. Quite the contrary. As I have somewhat carefully explained, I do not have ‘blind faith’ that changing demographics or anything else is going to produce a lot of good jobs tailored to the needs of foreign professonals from wealthy countries.
Now we are sliding from traffic light timing to traffic violations. No one wants to focus the discussion on discrete issues so that we can review the policies and their results together.
I’m not entirely sure what the problem is. Is it an inability to engage in focused policy discussions? A lack of interest? Or something else. I’m not sure, but I don’t have the patience to try to figure it out.
Finding a job in taiwan as a foreigner is very easy but u need to have requirements. Have fleunt chinese and be willing to accept local work culture and have skills that really matters. I mean so many south asian work here so clearly there are jobs.
Problem is westeners cant adapt to this work culture so they are the ones often having trouble with jobs. I dont blame them either.
Coming from a developed country(Mostly) to taiwan is certainly a downgrade for them but upgrade for SAE so they can suck up more without their egos coming in the way
The uno reverse is govt. focus more on having the white people here while discrimating againt the SAE who are actually working here.
You have proposed that the government has “done nothing”. Here are a few policies that the central government has implemented:
Partially paid parental leave. Since 2009, parents have been able to take partially paid parental leave for up to six months. Through July 2023, 1.01 million parents have done so. There have been frequent incremental adjustments especially in recent years. For example, both parents have been able to take parental leave at the same time since Jan. 1 2022.
Child subsidies. NT$5,000/month until age 6. Since July 2018
Childcare subsidies NT$7,000/month for public daycare or NT$13,000/month for quasi-public daycare up to age 2.
IVF subsidies. 83,000 couples have received susidized treatment through June 2024. Almost 20,000 children born.
Rental subsidies–600,000 cases approved as of July 2024. College students are one of the most frequent type of beneficiaries. Enhanced subsidies for people with minor children.
Construction of social housing. 33,781 units completed as of February 2025. 54,134 under construction as of same date. Yunlin County offered enhanced bonuses for Dragon Year. Every township saw annualized increases in births unlike elsewhere in Taiwan.
There are also local government programs (mainly subsidies/bonuses). For example, Yunlin County pays each mother NT$30,00 per birth for first three children and NT$100,000 for the fourth.
We can certainly debate the heavy emphasis on subsidies and efficacy. But I don’t see how you can say the government has “done nothing” in good faith.
Surely the situation would be worse if, for example, 1 million+ parents had not benefited from paid parental leave or if 10,000 less children had been born due to lack of IVF subsidies.
Money isn’t the only reason people aren’t having children
One of the reason most people overlook is that it’s just where the society is heading because that’s how the young generation thinks now. Having children means sacrificing your life to a certain extent and make adjustments and give up on things u could do before having children.it’s just the prevalence of the idea compromise is a wrong thing to do that’s also a factor
I remember meeting few couples who told me they don’t want children because children are hindrance to their active social life.
I think you are right about that. Indeed, my personal view is that that is much more important than money. We see China trying to social engineer/coerce women into playing traditional social roles and having children.
Taiwan used to do this when the government thought people were having too many children. There were ‘three is enough’ slogans and the the like.
But I don’t think the Taiwanese government today can or would do this. It would likely provoke a backlash and it seem inconsistent with life in a liberal democracy. Way too much government intrusion into private life.
