Dr. Bonny Ling Discusses the Challenges Taiwan Faces Dealing with Migrant Workers

Dr. Bonny Ling is a scholar and practitioner who works on international human rights and development. She is Executive Director of Work Better Innovations, a research consultancy with a community service mission working on new ideas for a responsible economy. We spoke about her work with migrant workers, the challenges that Taiwan has faced in dealing with migrant workers, why it is important for Taiwan to address the wider challenges of combatting human trafficking and modern slavery. She also spoke about her forced labor project that is going to take her back to Taiwan to work with SMEs (small medium enterprises) in December. In Taiwan 98 percent of all businesses are small medium enterprises and they employ close to 80 percent of the total domestic workforce. The European Union (EU) defines a small enterprise as one with less than 50 employees and a medium enterprise as one with less than 250 employees.

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Dr. Bonny Ling has worked in the UN system and in international civil society. Bonny is a Senior Non-Resident Fellow with the University of Nottingham Taiwan Studies Programme; Research Fellow with the Institute for Human Rights and Business; and Advisory Board Member of the INGO Human Rights at Sea. Bonny wrote her PhD in Law on human trafficking and China at the Irish Centre of Human Rights and is an expert on human trafficking and modern slavery. She graduated from Cambridge University (criminology) and the Fletcher School, Tufts University (law and diplomacy). Bonny has served as an international election observer in East Timor and for the OSCE. Previously at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, she writes on human rights, migrants, business responsibilities and international development and is a contributing writer for Ketagalan Media, New Bloom, Taipei Times, Taiwan Insight and The News Lens.

This episode of Talking Taiwan has been sponsored by NATWA, the North America Taiwanese Women’s Association.

NATWA was founded in 1988, and its mission is:

to evoke a sense of self-esteem and enhance women’s dignity,
to oppose gender discrimination and promote gender equality,
to fully develop women’s potential and encourage their participation in public affairs,
to contribute to the advancement of human rights and democratic development in Taiwan,
to reach out and work with women’s organizations worldwide to promote peace for all.

To learn more about NATWA visit their website: www.natwa.com

Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

Bonny’s connection to Taiwan
What constitutes a migrant worker
The importance of addressing and speaking about hate and discrimination toward migrants
The mistreatment of migrant workers who worked on construction for the 2022 Qatar World Cup
The terms forced labor, human trafficking and modern slavery
The Modern Slavery Act in the U.K. and Australia
The definition of forced labor
The indicators of forced labor
The media coverage on how migrant factory workers in Taiwan were mistreated during COVID
How movement restrictions on migrant workers in Miaoli initially applied to domestic workers and factory workers
How the movement restrictions did not make scientific sense from a public health point of view
How Taiwan is under scrutiny regarding the treatment of its migrant workers
How everyone has a connection to Taiwan if you consider the statistic that Taiwan makes 90% of the world’s high-end chips
What happened when Indonesia introduced a zero (pre-employment) fee policy for its migrant workers in 2020
The international legal definition of a migrant worker
Fees that low wage migrant workers are expected to pay
How migrant workers are often indebted (due to the fees they owe) before their first day of work
In private industry some brands have exerted pressure on their suppliers telling them that they cannot charge workers fees
Bilateral discussions between Indonesia and Taiwan in August that led to the increase in the wage for domestic care workers, and the wage for all domestic care workers has been raised in Taiwan but there are some caveats
The wage or domestic care workers hadn’t been raised in seven years in Taiwan
How Taiwan needs to hire and retain skilled workers for its manufacturing industry due to its declining birthrate and aging population
How Taiwan’s treatment of migrant workers is related to its image as a responsible global citizen
How Taiwan’s economy largely consists of (98–99%) SME (small medium enterprises)
How better wages and working conditions are related to attracting and retaining workers/employees
How there needs to be more dialogue and open communication between employers and workers
The importance of creating awareness of forced labor indicators amongst employers
How to deal with the infrastructure involved with hiring and bringing over migrant workers
Bonny’s forced labor project which will bring her to Taiwan in December to educate SMEs in Hsinchu, Taichung and Kaohsiung about the 11 indicators of forced labor
SMEs employ 80% of Taiwan’s domestic workforce
The case of Taiwanese who lured and trafficked to Cambodia
How Taiwan was the first country in Asia to legalize same sex marriage
When Taiwan lost representation in the United Nations in 1971, it was Taiwan’s SMEs that drove the economy

Dr. Bonny Ling Discusses the Challenges Taiwan Faces Dealing with Migrant Workers

Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

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