Yes, and exactly. 
Always at the bar the poster is just clearing. 
Call it whatever helps you cope.
?? Huh? Cope with what?
I also agree 100K is a good number for middle-class life. Some things cost more here, like a house (2X or more than a big Texan house), schools (really expensive compared other countries I’ve been in), and so on, so 100K is not as much as it sounds.
Even for a lot of European countries a 100k back home is still a lot. So I’m not sure what is the definition of expat here.
A guy who is so out of touch with the place where he’s living that he thinks the average local salary is more than double reality. And when it is pointed out, he can’t take it and just goes off on tangents and posting walls of text from AI.
Expat is someone to me is not an immigrant/migrant, will return to their home. As far 100,000$/€, well 25-40K to international school 15,000€ tax, 15K year rent, 10€ car/transport, €12K year food, 5-10K airport home for family, 100,000€ is gone.
Not all traditional ‘expats’ get the international school fees covered, in fact most don’t now. Also there’s all kinds of different levels of schools. Top International school fees are very expensive in Taiwan and in Asia it’s true. Maybe you would say an expat that doesn’t get the schooling and housing fees covered is not a true expat .eh…eh.??
IMHO the term expat doesn’t really cover the diversity of foreign residents in Taiwan well. Many people I know in Taiwan have been settled here and in Asia for a very long time. Some have high paid jobs, many don’t. Some are entrepreneurs, some teach English, many fo a ox of things. Then there’s a bunch of ppl on gold visas.
Are you just going to choose a small arbitrary group and call them expats by your definitions ?
You’re kind of proving my point without realising it.
The issue isn’t just definitions; it’s that the overall quality of the “expat” pool in Taiwan has never really been that strong to begin with. When a place attracts mostly lower-bar entry roles, that becomes the baseline.
The Gold Card was supposed to change that… bring in high-level talent, professionals, people with serious earning power or global experience. Instead, what actually happened? It largely became another pathway for the same crowd already here, especially English teachers looking for an easier pathway to Taiwan.
And let’s be honest, even in fields like engineering, you’re not exactly seeing top-tier global talent relocating in large numbers. It’s often lower-paid foreign engineers who couldn’t secure competitive roles in their home countries, so they end up in Taiwan instead.
So yes, there’s diversity, but not necessarily in a way that lifts the overall standard. Expanding the definition of “expat” doesn’t magically improve the calibre. It just dilutes the term further.
Seems like the strongest expats can stick it out though. 
The whole thing is silly, for instance massive numbers of ‘expats’ have left China and HK over the last ten years…it’s not a pissing contest.
Just proves ny point that those that can make a decent living here in Taiwan are resourceful.
For some, it’s less about strength and more about having an alpha wife calling the shots and keeping them exactly where they are.
Those expats left China and HK because they could. Their skills are in demand globally, so they can pick up and go wherever the opportunities are better. (Like true ‘expats’)
And why was that? Making it easier for professionals to come over doesn’t help when companies don’t want to hire them in the first place.
Japan for example has tons of foreigners doing professional and semi professional jobs. How often do you see those types of posts about Taiwan?
Big fail on the part of businesses here, and on the government for not doing a good job of promoting skilled workers to businesses here. They figured just offering a legal pathway would magically get them skilled workers while doing nothing else.
China and HK straight up don’t want foreigners working there anymore. They were all replaced by locals and mainlanders (HK).
I was looking at job options there and they all say that you must speak fluent Cantonese, Mandarin, and English which punts out most expats.
So called expat roles have been disappearing all over the world at a fairly rapid pace. Interestingly there’s been a bump up of 'Taiwanese expats ’ moving to the US and Japan to setup factories, but you know they won’t be getting the best deals but they’ll be sprouting babies everywhere.
The reason why we never saw many so called expats in Taiwan is because most industries in Taiwan are dominated by local conglomerates. There was a brief wave of them for the HSR project that’s already done 20 years ago almost. Crazy how time flies.
In HK, yeah times have changed then. I visit it for work and the number of mainlanders is pretty obvious on the streets.
While others have an alpha wife that forces them to move to a better country!
They just need low cost labor, because the high end work is already done offshore.
Are they still spitting everywhere? That’s a habit that was blessedly rare on the RoC
And some leave Taiwan after complaining on forums about not being able to find a partner.
Recent years has seen a wave for the offshore wind industry, I guess?