Filipina Factory Workers in Taiwan
Filipina Factory Workers in Taiwan
This project was
supported in part by a
Linda Arnold Carlisle
Faculty Research Grant, a UISFL Title VI(A) Asian Studies grant, and the College Advancement Council.
Data sources:
- Interviews and focus groups with migrants 2003, 2006, 2009, and 2010
- Interviews and correspondences with officials and NGO workers in Taiwan and Philippines
- Government reports and statistical datasets
A few key terms and concepts...
1. international labor migration
simply put... the movement of persons from one country to another for the purpose of work.
- may be temporary or permanent
- may be authorized or unauthorized by a government
- may be high paying technical fields or as low wage laborers
2. feminization of migration
- Women are no longer migrating as the "trailing spouse" but in search of work themselves.
- Migration theories and research now must look at the phenomenon through a gendered lens...
3. OFs & OFWs
Overseas Filipinos (OFs) include all migrants from the Phillipines living abroad.
Currently 11% of the population (about 10 million people) reside outside of the country.
In 2009, $17 billion was sent home from abroad. This is over 10 times the amount of last year's direct foreign investment.
Who then is an OFW?
An Overseas Filipino Worker is a temporary labor migrant from the Phillipines.
Why are there so many OFWs?
Philippines
Since the 1990s, the policy of the Philippines government has been to promote overseas employment with the goal of a million new deployments annually.
Why do OFWs go to Taiwan?
Taiwan
demographic, economic, and political reasons
The Placement - Broker System
Potential employees in Philippines pay up to 100,000 pesos ($2,193 US) to placement agencies (legal limit for this fee is 21,300 pesos)
Workers are require to provide a background check or “certificate of good conduct” from their homeland
- Placement agencies often collaborate with lenders to provide funds for placement fees borrowed against future earnings and payable at high interest rates
- Philippines agencies arrange with Taiwanese labor brokers to screen applicants and fill orders for new laborers
What is it like for them living there?
Workers may not change employers
Workers may not gather or form unions, they may not participate in collective action
Until 2002, they also included mandatory pregnancy tests to limit births to foreign mothers while in Taiwan (de facto women found to be pregnant are still sent home immediately)
They must submit a medical exam including tests for HIV and other STDs, parasites, tuberculosis, pneumonia, and other communicable diseases.
medical checks are required before departure to Taiwan, as well as bi-annually while residing there
Labor brokers receive 1,800 NT ($55 US) monthly to maintain status and papers, plus workers pay for lodging and food out of their salaries.
The butterfly effect of global interdependencies.
Why did the "global economic downturn" impact Taiwan so much?
What happened to the OFWs working there?
How has this in turn impacted their families back home?
Global Recession
Impact of downturn
Loss of jobs
"The main bulk of the laid-off workers worldwide as of June last year who returned to the Philippines were from Taiwan (4,300) and the UAE (1,400)."
Early on in the recession, many Filipino workers were laid off and returned home from Taiwan, casualties of the electronics industry's slump.
Over 5,000 sent home before end of contract
Since 2006, 30,000 fewer positions for Filipino workers in Taiwan (some employers opting for "cheaper" SE Asian laborers).
Fewer of the high(er) paying factory jobs;
while lower paying domestic worker positions have increased resulting in further 'feminization' and downscaling.
Those left in factories have had little or no overtime and have had regular hours cut...
"...before the schedule of our work is 5-2, five days, working days, 2 days holiday...we have, uh, overtimes work on Sunday, but uh, if the productions no orders so, uh, the overtime only one day but then global crisis makes happen!...the schedule is 2-5, 2 days working day, 5 days holiday..."
Remittances from Taiwan dropped by 46.1 percent for January to September 2009.
"Belt tightening"
Cannot afford tuition for the better schools for children...
Can no longer afford to support extended family...
Delaying marriage or other life events (starting a business, going to college)...
Unable to afford nicer home/ cannot make home improvements
"Making do"
"I explained them that it is not like before, I cannot send them so much each month... maybe they cut the extra curriculars... I tell them, this time they must control the extras. This time it is very hard in Taiwan, no overtime. "
Other destinations
“[Taiwan has] dried up and only the Middle East countries of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar and Libya where over two million Filipinos are concentrated are steadily increasing remittances flows,”
Overall depolyments of OFWs dropped in 2008
The deployment of newly hired land-based overseas Filipino workers fell by nearly 30 percent in 2008 compared to 2007...The decrease in the deployment of new hires in 2008, according to the POEA figures, is reflected in regional figures for Asia (-53.3 percent), the Americas (-49.6 percent), Europe (-48.6 percent) and the Middle East (-18.6 percent).
- Phililippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).
New hires in Asia down, but up in Middle East
"It's risky... I have many friends in Dubai. There is no placement agency there. You have to look for your own job. It's risky."
Outbound OFWs are even less likely to have funds for placemnet fees, resulting in more borrowing
Dire state of Philippines today
http://globalservants.wordpress.com/2009/10/24/servants-of-globalization/
Life in Taiwan
Maps
Proximity to the Philippines
Macro Data
Population
Questions
Fertility
Unemployment
Background
Why have so many women headed to Taiwan?
GDP Per capita (PPP)
The government of the Philippines, seeing the potential in remittances and reduction of unemployment, further encouraged labor migration as one of its official development strategies (Martin 1993; Aguilar 2000; Tan 2001). In 1982, the government established the POEA to promote and regularize a then mostly illegal labor migration.
GDP Per capita (PPP)
Exports (Billions US$)
Poverty
OFWs in Taiwan
Reasons for Migration
60% of Filipinos employed in manufacturing
30% in domestic work
Guest workers in Taiwan
new title
Filipino workers in Taiwan
Remittances from Taiwan
Title
Stephen J. Sills
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Video Clips
Introductions
Jaquileen & Novelette
Fr. Bruno Ciceri
IMF Outlook
OFW New Hires 2007-2008
Factory Life
Dr. Lan
U.S. Electronics Sales Since December 2007
World Trade Volumes
Images
more docile
cheaper
more careful
less likely to get in trouble
"manually dextrous"
compliant
Quotes
Scripts
Due to its proximity to other Southeast Asian countries, its comparatively robust economy, the low unemployment rate, and early development of ties in the global economy, Taiwan has come to be a destination for labor migrants. While it offers work which pays significantly more than positions in the Philippines, it also offers a difficult receiving context where work conditions are harsh and the opportunity for social integration is almost nonexistent.
The rationalized global system of production constantly searches for the most cost-effective ways to produce goods. This has meant moving production to locations where labor costs are the cheapest. Undeniably, this is how Taiwan’s economy was able to grow so rapidly during the late twentieth century. Today, however, Taiwan is faced with the dilemma of either moving companies to China, Vietnam, Malaysia, or other developing nation, or reducing their own domestic labor costs. Taiwan has opted to import laborers from other Southeast Asian countries in order to costs down. These workers, paid far less than their Taiwanese co-workers, are often given the longest shifts, assigned to the most difficult tasks, and are segregated from the society in factory -controlled dormitories. Migrant laborers are unlikely to quit (due to the high fees they have already paid to work).They are not allowed to form unions and have no bargaining position in labor negotiations (neither directly or indirectly through proxies). According to a survey of 389 workers that I conducted in NanTze, one-third had experienced some problem with their employer. The top three problems involved unpaid overtime, “unreasonable” workloads, and overtime paid as days off.
Rosie the Riviter has been used as an image of empowerment and marks the entrance of women into the labor market.
In the case of Filipinas working in Taiwan, they are highly skilled/ highly educated women commodified and essentialized by the placement system, forced to accept low-status positions with no advancement opportunities, and end up bearing the burdens that result from the globalized economy
The situation of Filipina workers in Taiwan is one of disempowerment of women. It is representative of the global labor market which in which nearly 63 million workers – 30 million in China alone – work in some 3,000 EPZs (ILO 2007) . Many manufacturers in these “free trade”zones prefer the “nimble hands,” low costs, and “docility” of women
Philippine women must not only support their families in the home country, keep afloat the economy and future development of the Philippines, but also produce cheap goods for mass consumption in the Global North while caring for sick and elderly, cleaning and cooking, and caring for the children of elites in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and North America.
Moreover they must pay for the privilege to work….