COVID Success for Whom? Examining the Representation of Migrants in Taiwan

• In Event: COVID, Public Health, and the Welfare State

Abstract

Taiwan has been internationally praised for its success in tackling COVID-19, particularly in the early stages of the pandemic. The government reacted quickly to control the borders and disseminate information to the public about the virus in the beginning of the pandemic. Neglected, however, is how migrant workers, whose first languages are not Mandarin, experience the COVID-19 policies, measures, and restrictions. Examining the ways members of the parliament, as well as government officials communicate matters of COVID-19, we investigate the extent to which migrant workers are represented in the government’s detailed plan to tackle COVID-19. We conduct text and corpus-assisted discourse analyses of public announcements and speeches on the Legislature floor between March 2020 (when the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic) to March 2021 (shortly after the Omicron wave subsided) to analyze the extent to which migrant workers’ health and safety were taken into consideration and how migrant workers were discursively represented differently from Taiwanese citizens. Our study offers implications for how those with marginalized identities might be underrepresented and ignored as a country is confronted with a health crisis. It helps illuminate ways to create an inclusive society where non-citizens’ health is also prioritized.

Authors

• Shan-Jan Sarah Liu, University of Edinburgh

• Tsung-Lun Alan Wan, National Cheng Kung University