Migrant Workers and the Developmental Migration State in Taiwan

• In Event: Migration Interdependence in World Politics

Abstract

In April 2022, the Taiwanese government introduced the “Foreign mid-skilled workers program,” which allows blue-collar migrant workers who have worked in the “national development industries” (including agriculture, fishery, manufacture, construction, and elder care) for more than six years to apply for permeant residency. For many immigration scholars, this program is considered a policy breakthrough for the traditionally low-skilled migrant workers to have legal access to long-term settlements in Taiwan. It also begs the question: why, after more than 30 years of guest worker programs, Taiwan decided to offer membership rights to migrant workers?

Building on James F. Hollifield’s (2004) theory of the "migration state" and Erin Aeran Chung’s (2022) theory of the East Asian “developmental migration state,” this paper investigates the policy mechanisms and political debates of the “mid-skilled” migrant worker policies in Taiwan. Specifically, this paper highlights the institutional contexts that shape how a country designs and reforms its migrant worker policies. I argue that the institutional legacy of the “developmental state” in Taiwan provides an important foundation for policy reforms for migrant workers. I also demonstrate how the development of migrant worker policies reflects the legacies of earlier policy decisions by illuminating the political actors with access to the policymaking process. This paper is based on archival research and 22 personal interviews with government bureaucrats, policymakers, and migrant worker activists in Taiwan. The findings of this research contribute to the growing literature on the migration state and challenge conventional understandings of migrant care worker policy as formal and static. Instead, this paper suggests policies are an organic process, modified and contested as part of a political process.

Author

• Yi-Chun Chien, National Chengchi University