Tech workers who flocked to Taiwan’s Covid-free haven are now fleeing

Interesting to see this comment because as an expat, I’ve never felt that TW was trying very hard to take advantage of the highly skilled people who became residents. It was sort of like congratulations, you jumped through our hoops to become a resident and now you can go back to whatever you were doing.

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It kinda shows how flighty people are, foreigners and locals. Running to one place to hide out from covid, running away at the first sight of trouble.

But yeah Taiwan really doesn’t really cater to foreign talent. Many companies only hire locals, no matter what talent and skillset one brings to the table. All this talk of looking to find foreign talent is window-dressing.

I’ll pick on the banks here as an example. They say we will be English language compliant by 2030. Why not now? Can’t a foreigner be hired at the bank? Nope.

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You’re describing far more than just the attitude to hiring foreign talent .

Or just one fluent English speaker, regardless of origin, per branch would suffice? To get balls rolling at least. Should be interesting to see the progress made closer to 2030…what an aspirational timeline. :rofl:

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I feel like there is a lot of entitlement coming from Catie Lilly and others. Just because your ancestors had a connection to Taiwan or ROC, doesn’t mean that you should have the government kissing your ass whenever you decide to come enrich Taiwan, expecting California salaries and eternal gratefulness.

Most foreigners I know here are set to stay for the long term, and no, they don’t come from the Taiwanese diaspora. Just random people from all over the world that fell in love with Taiwan or someone Taiwanese. They will never look like the locals, they have to deal with language barrier and labor/immigration restrictions, yet they don’t jump on the first flight home after there’s a few cases.

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I paid for flu and pneumonia shots this past winter and flew to the U.S. in late March to get the Pfizer vax as soon as it became available to the general public. Got my flight ticket to return on the 18th and do quarantine in a downtown hotel until July 3rd. May delay a bit until Taiwan gets back down to Level 2 because I don’t have anyone to help me out while I’m in quarantine and the hotel food looks pretty depressing.

Don’t know if that scenario makes me a traitor to the cause or just someone who doesn’t rely on government for his well-being if he has any other choice.

Just makes you sensible.

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I give you a double heart. Princess Lilly is laying the groundwork for when she goes back to San Jose or wherever and has to explain to her U.S. friends, “where you been, Catie?”.

Lol yeah basically. Sounded like they were mostly money hoops too from the people talking about it on here.

I read that article and i still don’t know what that girl on twitter is moaning about.

Wow. Sure you’re not projecting here?

She tweeted about scholarships for 2nd-gen diaspora to learn Chinese, the ability to get hired as English teachers (something the country says it desperately needs anyway) and English-language information related to obtaining citizenship.

Does that really sound entitled?

There’s a lot of overlap between her complaints and the common complaints of expats. Maybe Taiwan would attract more foreigners if it was more welcoming to foreigners and 2nd-gen diaspora.

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Book a quarantine hotel that allows you to opt out from the meals, and use Uber Eats and Foodpanda.

I wouldn’t consider it entitled to expect:

Free education.

Putting in legwork to find a job.

Benefit from all the hard work that people like Marco have been trying to get implemented since forever.

“…all the energy spent on people with no prior connection here?” Pfft She’ll go back to the U.S. and call people racist for honking at her for merging too slow, or some such.

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My hotel allows deliveries but from what I’ve been hearing Uber Eats is so busy it’s very slow and unreliable these days.

one fluent Vietnamese speaker per branch should be first.

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The most common jobs for foreigners are functionally closed to us.

The most common jobs for foreigners who have no special skills besides English are functionally closed to us.

Fifh

You might be waiting a while.

Guy

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LOL this is precisely the scarcity mindset, fearful, zero sum mentality that is one of the worst and most detrimental aspects of society in TW. Grade A example of Sanchong Syndrome.

TW has one of the lowest birthrates in the world, isn’t even considered a country by most of the world, is in the crosshairs of one of the world’s most powerful countries that’s only 100 odd miles away, and you’re upset that 2nd-gen diaspora who are interested in establishing ties with TW might get scholarships to learn Chinese or jobs teaching English if TW could deal with its self-hate and racism?

Compare your mentality to that of Israel, which gives all Jews the right of return. You can even get a free flight to Israel to make aliyah. Olim are given tax benefits, various subsidies and financial assistance, free Hebrew lessons, low mortgage rates, etc.

Think Israel is better or worse off for these things?

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Nah. She’s likely the child of one of those “patriots” with a history of GTFOD syndrome who saw Taiwan as a stepping stone. Israel attracts the Jewish diaspora to plant roots.

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4 posts were merged into an existing topic: From coronavirus

How many of us (beyond the very elite) did government and society reach out to help with residency, employment, education, & belonging vs. all the energy spent on people with no prior connection here?

I’ve tried reading this sentence a few times but still don’t get her point - is it just me, or are there some words missing? It seems a bit awkward anyway…

In any case, it seems a bit optimistic (/entitled) to me for an adult to expect so much government help with these things. In what countries do governments “reach out” to newcomers to help them find a job or course? (If a government employee did this to me, I’d be inclined to ask them to mind their own damn business and lose my number.)

I don’t get the comparison of “all the energy spent on people with no prior connection here”, either. Anyone know what this means? The only thing that springs to mind is several events organized by the Workforce Development Agency for gold card holders, which seemed like the exception rather than the rule. (I thought those were a nice idea, but nonetheless felt disinclined to attend.)

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Yeah I engaged (gently) with Catie about this on Twitter. The whole Taiwan diaspora thing can be a bit annoying. They seem to think the government should be bending over backwards for them and that they’re somehow being discriminated against. I don’t really see it.

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