For Thai workers in Taiwan, life can be hard, but one radio station in Taipei gives them hope, and an outlet for their anger
'I heard that you can strike it rich working in Taiwan. So I mortgaged my farmland to come here. The job broker took most of the money and I arrived here with little money in my pocket.
"I work so hard every day, but there is almost nothing left at the end of the month. I am heart-broken. Please help me."
Asoke Srichantr, the host of Radio Taiwan International's (RTI) Thai Service for the past 11 years, vividly recalled these words from one of his Thai listeners in Taipei.
"I remember he told me that he was from the northern Thai province of Phayao. He was very happy to have tuned into my programme and he hoped that other Thai workers would share their stories," said Mr Asoke.
With more than 61,000 workers and 5,700 spouses from Thailand working and living in Taiwan, the RTI's Thai Service is an important outlet for them.
Each month, the Thai Service receives between 700 and 800 similar letters from listeners in Taiwan and Thailand. Some are written on lined school paper and others on old wrapping paper or calendar pages. From these letters emerge portraits of unique - yet representative - lives.
May, a female Thai caregiver in Taipei, says many of the Thai male workers only have themselves to blame for being unable to send money home to their families. "Had they stopped drinking, gambling and buying lottery tickets, they would have saved a lot of money for their wives and children," she wrote.
Three years ago, May was toiling with her husband in the fields of her home village, but their income was not even enough to pay the monthly interest to the loan shark. Then one day a job broker arrived and told the villagers they could make 360,000 baht a year working in Taiwan as domestic caregivers. After talking it over with her husband, she decided to apply. They borrowed 75,000 baht from relatives for the agent's fee. The application procedure went smoothly, and she was chosen for employment.
"My mind was filled with fear and anxiety as I stepped onto the plane in Bangkok. I feared that I would not be able to do the job. Yet, the fate that brought me to Taiwan was the key to changing my life," she wrote.
According to the Taiwanese Ministry of the Interior, the number of Southeast Asians in Taiwan as foreign workers and as spouses has increased 30 fold during the past 16 years. Until recently, there had been relatively few media outlets that targeted these new immigrants. Critics say that government policies and measures aimed at helping foreign workers to adapt to life in a new land had been inadequate.
In August 2005, many Taiwanese were shocked when Thais working to build the Kaohsiung mass rapid transit system went on strike to protest against the poor living conditions and human rights abuses. Media investigations found that more than 1,700 workers were living in corrugated metal buildings with poor ventilation. Strict controls were put on their bathing, use of phones and purchases, and their wages were largely being withheld.
The protest was on every news channel, talk-back radio programme and in every newspaper in Taiwan for almost one month. The RTI Thai Service was used to release some of the protesters' anger and also to placate them. Many Thai workers called to report what they had suffered, and Mr Asoke and his team worked hard to provide information and channels of assistance.
For Thais and many other foreign workers in Taiwan, there are always cultural differences and misunderstandings within the workplace to overcome. Most of the Thai workers in Taiwan hail from poor villages in the Northeast, and they tend to be reserved in character. Those lacking Chinese and English language skills find themselves cut off from information.
"When they first arrive, most of them feel lonely and homesick," said Mr Asoke. Adding to this is the burden of having to repay the loans they took to pay the commission fee.
"They are often heavily indebted before even arriving in Taiwan," said Mr Asoke, whose Thai-language radio programme was nominated in 2006 for a Golden Bell Award for social service contribution.
After they start working, their wages are collected by the broker in Taiwan to pay back the placement fees and other debts incurred back home. In fact, it is the wage collection by the Taiwanese broker that often is the source of disputes.
To prevent foreign workers from falling into debt bondage, the Council of Labour Affairs (CLA) established a Direct Employment Service Centre in December 2007 to help Taiwanese employers rehire a particular foreign worker without a broker. The direct hiring process foregoes the fees that the foreign worker would have to pay the brokers in Taiwan and their home country.
In 2008, this programme was only available to household employers rehiring the same foreign care-giver, benefiting 4,712 people employed in that field. In 2009, it was extended to the rehiring of a particular foreign worker for other types of employment, such as manufacturing, fisheries, construction and domestic helpers, according to Anliko Jaw, a senior executive officer of the CLA's Foreign Worker Administration.
Between January and June in 2009, fines were imposed on unlawful employers in 603 cases, on unlawful manpower agencies in 80 cases, and on illegal individual brokers in 16 cases. In addition, 54 employers had their permits revoked, and 14 related businesses were forced to suspend operations.
With strict enforcement of the law, it is hoped that foreign workers will enjoy better living conditions and greater financial benefits. "Foreign and Taiwanese workers enjoy the same rights," said Anliko Jaw. "It is our policy to promote freedom and good environment in the workplace."
A SUCCESS STORY
At High Frame Industrial Co Ltd in Taipei, 21 Thai workers operate plating and stemming machines alongside 11 co-workers from Vietnam.
Echoing a common theme, Santi Boonsit explained why he left his home and family in Udon Thani to work abroad.
"My reason for working here is so that my parents would not have to work as hard as I do," said the 29-year-old bachelor.
Mr Santi did several odd jobs after completing school in his hometown. Three years ago, a job broker came to his home and offered to find him a well-paid job in Taipei for a commission fee of 80,000 baht.
"He said that if I am willing to work hard, I can make more than 30,000 baht a month," recalled Mr Santi.
After nearly three years with High Frame, he has been able to send 500,000 baht to his parents, who are building a new home with his hard-earned money.
All 32 workers at the factory get the same minimum wage of 17,280 New Taiwanese Dollars, or about 14,400 baht, a month. The company provides free food and accommodation, but there are deductions from their salaries for an interpreter, a commission fee for the job broker and health insurance.
Under Taiwan's National Health Insurance Act, workers are required to join the national health insurance programme to receive healthcare coverage for disease, injury and childbirth. Workers may voluntarily join a labour insurance programme if their employers agree and will be eligible for benefit payments for injury, disease, medical care, dismemberment and death.
Tina Chou, the manager for general affairs and finance at High Frame, said workers with good performance records are entitled to special payments of up to NT$4,700 a month in addition to the mid-year bonus and a gift cheque for the Chinese New Year.
Mr Santi said he can earn up to NT$40,000 a month if he chooses to work from 8am to 11pm each day.
Tawan Prariwanta, who supervises the 21 Thai workers, has been with the company for nearly six years. He looks forward to a third three-year term in 2010.
When he first came to Taiwan, he paid 105,000 baht as a commission fee. The amount was reduced to 85,000 baht when he had his contract renewed by the company.
"On average, each Thai worker here is able to repay their debt in 20 months," said the 41-year-old from Chaiyaphum province.
When told that many migrant workers are charged high job placement and service fees, some of which are unlawful, the CLA suggested that source countries limit the job placement and service fees charged by brokers to one month of the basic wage stipulated under Taiwan's Labour Standard Act, which is now NT$17,280 a month.
"It is nearly impossible for Taiwan to verify the overcharging of fees by foreign brokers for that requires the cooperation of the source countries. Therefore, this problem is essentially beyond Taiwan's control due to the lack of jurisdiction over the brokerage fee policies of foreign countries," said the CLA, in response to comments made in The US Trafficking in Persons Report 2009.
Under present labour laws, foreign workers are allowed to work three three-year terms in Taiwan, and many do not return to their home countries during their stint.
Inspired by its Thai listeners who always say how much they miss their children in Thailand, the RTI and CLA have jointly sponsored trips for the children of Thai workers to visit their parents in Taiwan. The workers are selected based on several criteria, including employers' satisfaction with their job performance.
Tina of High Frame said she is very satisfied with the performance of her Thai workers because they are hard-working and eager to learn new things. "I can see that many of them want to move to higher positions," she added.
DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE
In addition to foreign workers, a large number of women have left their home countries to come to Taiwan to marry.
There are 124,560 spouses from Southeast Asia, along with another 168,110 from mainland China.
Interestingly, more than 80,300 of the Southeast Asian spouses, or 64%, are from Vietnam and remainder are from Indonesia, Cambodia, Burma, Thailand and the Philippines. This compares with 11,600 Taiwanese women now married to foreign men.
The number of Thai women married to Taiwanese men is 5,700. The figure may be small, but together with other Asian spouses they are changing the way Taiwanese society deals with a large number of outsiders.
For a number of foreign women, the principal reason for marrying a Taiwanese is to escape the poverty in their home countries. But according to Ke Yu-ling, executive director of the Pearl S Buck Foundation (PSBF), which has been providing assistance to foreign spouses for many years, part of the problem is simple demographics, as there are now more males than females over the age of 15 in Taiwan.
Amid this surplus of men, it is difficult for those at the bottom rung of the economic ladder to find partners locally, so they naturally look to other Asian countries for spouses.
"However," Ms Ke added, "in the past five years we have seen more and more well-educated Taiwanese men with foreign spouses."
Of all the problems faced by Southeast Asian spouses, the most important to overcome is the language barrier. This not only affects the relationship of the foreign woman with her new family or the wider community, but also her chances of finding work. The most pressing issue for her, therefore, is to learn Chinese.
Civil organisations such as the PSBF had been providing foreign spouses with free Chinese-language classes for years before the central government set up its own Foreign Spouse Care and Counselling Fund in 2005. Under this NT$300 million programme, the Ministry of Interior (MOI) provides medical subsidies, community services and legal aid for foreign spouses, as well as offering language classes and job-training sessions. To encourage foreign spouses to attend, the MOI also provides baby-sitter services when these mothers go to classes.
At the PSBF, a hotline has been set up to provide counselling in six languages to foreign spouses. One of the counsellors is Wararat Lin. The 44-year-old Thai woman met her husband, Sam Lin, in Bangkok. They moved to Germany soon after their marriage and stayed there for four years before returning to Taipei.
A mother of three young daughters, Mrs Wararat enjoys working for PSBF because it gives her the opportunity to help others cope with problems in their daily lives. Thanks to her own experience, she relates well to fellow Thai spouses, most of whom are handicapped by language problems.
Chinese language ability has been a requirement for naturalisation. And while naturalisation is not a requirement for being able to work - foreign spouses enjoy the right to work upon acquiring an Alien Resident Certificate after marriage - it is regarded by many spouses as essential for regularising their position, for example, guaranteeing they can stay in Taiwan even if their husband dies or their marriage fails.
"An Alien Resident Certificate does not grant them the right to vote either," said Anchan Songphut, who married a Taiwanese engineer in Taipei 20 years ago. They have an 18-year-old son.
As a programme host and reporter for the RTI Thai Service, Mrs Anchan thinks a number of Taiwanese are still unsure about how to respond to the influx of overseas spouses. While multiculturalism is promoted and emphasised by civil groups encouraging Taiwanese to enhance their knowledge and abandon prejudices about immigrants from Southeast Asia, it will take some time for people of different cultures to achieve mutual understanding.
"What can the Taiwanese government do in the face of a serious decrease in Taiwan's birth rate and an aging society?" asked Mrs Anchan.
Taiwan needs more children. As things now stand, new immigrant women seem far more enthusiastic than many Taiwanese women about raising families.
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