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Striving for control over migrant labour and lives: Indonesian factory workers in Taiwan

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Abstract

This article explores how Indonesian factory workers in Taiwan strive to regain control over time, space, meaning, and dignity in the face of their exploitation, precarity, and racialisation. Drawing on ethnographic insight, I investigate migrant workers’ subjective practices both inside and outside their workplaces. The major contribution to labour mobility regime analysis lies in conceptualising how migrant workers exert agency on an everyday level, beyond formal labour organising. The focus on the everyday brings me, on the one hand, to labour processes at different Taiwanese workplaces that employ migrant workers. On the other, it brings me to the sphere of daily reproduction, that is, time outside waged labour. The article speaks to the central concern of this themed issue, namely theorising the role of social reproduction within labour mobility regimes, as I address the inseparable spheres of production and reproduction as sites of control and agency. I show that, on the shopfloor, Indonesian migrant workers’ practices of regaining control often remain individualised. It is in the sphere of daily reproduction where Indonesian factory workers organise collectively. The workers’ practices are rich and creative, but at the same time they are ambiguous and can result in consent, compliance, or conflict with capital’s attempt to seek profit from migrant labour. Nevertheless, they reveal migrant workers’ interests and desires as well as a (subtle) refusal of their conditions and of the control over their work and lives. This refusal defies victimising representations of migrant labour and paternalistic approaches to migrant workers’ protection.

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... Indonesian migrant workers form a vital part of Taiwan's labor market, contributing significantly to various sectors such as domestic work, manufacturing, and construction (Dinkelaker, 2024;Komarudin et al., 2023). Despite their crucial role, these workers often face numerous challenges, including language barriers, cultural differences, and a lack of essential soft skills, which hinder their ability to perform effectively and achieve personal growth. ...
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Introduction Indonesian migrant workers in Taiwan play a crucial role in the labor market but often encounter challenges related to skill deficiencies and dependence on their employers. Addressing these issues through the development of soft skills and preparation for self-reliance. States benefit economically from the remittances sent by Indonesian migrant workers, but these workers often face vulnerability, especially when their contracts expire, and they return to their home countries. Purpose This study aims to explore the enhancement of Indonesian migrant workers’ capabilities by focusing on the development of soft skills and fostering self-reliance. It seeks to understand how targeted training programs can bridge skill gaps and empower workers. Methodology A mixed-methods approach was employed, incorporating both quantitative and qualitative data collection. Surveys were distributed to a sample of Indonesian migrant workers to assess their current skill levels and training needs. Findings The study found that Indonesian migrant workers possess varying levels of soft skills, with significant room for improvement in areas such as communication, problem-solving, and adaptability. Training programs tailored to these needs were shown to enhance workers’ job performance, confidence, and readiness for independent living. Implications Integrating digital marketing into the enhancement of soft skills and self-sufficiency training for Indonesian migrant workers in Taiwan offers a substantial chance to empower them and promote their economic progress. Proficiency in digital marketing can augment one’s capacity to communicate proficiently, devise innovative solutions to challenges, and adjust to the ever-changing digital environment.
... However, this is still difficult for temporary migrant workers who, in the context of their employment situation, find it difficult to organise (ILO, 2023). To include subjectivity and cultural practices in policy design is not easy, and this is well reflected in the themed issue article that describes the situation of Indonesian migrant workers in Taiwan (Dinkelaker, 2024), which points to another dimension of agency, through creativity and immediate experience of the labour process, also at the centre of social reproduction and production structures. Resorting to ethnographic techniques, it evidences agency as crucial to the survival of migrant workers, but at the micro level. ...
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The racial or ethnic division between aborigines and the predominant Han Chinese had seldom been considered a significant factor in shaping Taiwan's labour forces before the late 1970s. Even though the aboriginal urban migrants felt isolated or discriminated against in the urban neighbourhood and the workplace, most grievances remained at the individual level. The discontent did not become a public issue until the introduction of foreign workers was made a legal measure to relieve labour shortages. This article is concerned with the way urban aborigines have been first incorporated into and then excluded from the employment structure of Taiwanese society in the process of industrialization. A brief look at the two waves of aboriginal urban migration is accompanied by a description of the characteristics of the jobs to which most urban aborigines were recruited. The article then examines one of the major effects of globalization on the sub-proletariatization of urban aborigines through the medium of the 1989 foreign imported labour policy. Urban aboriginal opposition to the importation of foreign workers started with the deprivation of their job opportunities and then developed into a feeling of xenophobia which encouraged the formation of a pan-aboriginal consciousness in pursuit of political rectification of their long-ignored subordinate and disadvantageous position in terms of citizenship.
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Birke, P. (2022) Grenzen aus Glas: Arbeit, Rassismus und Kämpfe der Migration in Deutschland, Wien: Mandelbaum.
Debt bondage in space, and Taiwan
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Indonesian migrants in Taiwan’s factories: potentials and limits of workers’ power and local support, Manuscript submitted for publication.
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