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TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Labor Minister Hsu Ming-chun (許銘春) said that Taiwan plans on recruiting migrant workers from northeast India because “their skin color and eating habits” are similar to Taiwanese, their Christian beliefs, and their skills in manufacturing, construction, and agriculture.
In an interview on the YouTube channel Taiwan Green All aired (台灣青一色) on Friday (March 1), Hsu fielded questions about a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between Taiwan and India on labor cooperation on Feb. 26. Hsu said the program could start in six months to a year because the MOU serves as a framework, and there is a need to convene working-level meetings for substantive discussions on the introduction of industries, quantities, language requirements, and source regions.
Hsu said that online rumors before the election that Taiwan would bring in over 100,000 workers from India were false, and the MOU had not been signed at that stage. Hsu said that Taiwan has struggled to find alternative sources of migrant workers to avoid depending on a few nations for labor.
She said that India contacted Taiwan about the possibility of a labor cooperation agreement. Hsu said, “The quality of India’s migrant workers is very good, and the stability of their workers is also very high.”
Hsu said that Taiwan will initially introduce a small number of workers from India. According to Hsu, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs helped the Ministry of Labor (MOL) evaluate the best regions to recruit workers, and northeast India was selected.
The labor minister said this region would initially be selected for recruiting because “Their skin color and eating habits are similar to ours. Furthermore, most of them believe in Christianity.” Hsu added that they are skilled in manufacturing, construction, and agriculture.
In the MOU, it is stipulated that the number of people to be recruited and the region of origin will be determined by Taiwan, said Hsu. Since both sides need to adapt, the number of initial workers will be fewer, she said.
She recalled that when they introduced Mongolian migrant workers, the number was small due to cultural and habitual differences. In the past 20 years, there have been no new source countries for migrant workers, with workers coming from only four countries: Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.
While there was bipartisan anticipation for an increase in source countries in 2020, the Taipei representative office in India expressed a strong interest in labor cooperation with Hsu, which she saw as a positive development.
Hsu said that expanding the source countries for migrant workers is not easy. She said the MOL has been looking for other source countries for labor over the past couple of decades.
She said Taiwan had discussions with Myanmar, Cambodia, and Bangladesh. However, the conditions were not suitable for both countries, or there were difficulties posed by China’s geopolitical influence, including obstruction or a lack of strong willingness from the other countries, she said.
Hsu said diversification helps mitigate and reduce the risks associated with overreliance on the original four countries.
In case of any disruption, employers now have an additional option. She assessed that this signing would have a catalytic effect, making the development of new source countries somewhat smoother.
The signing of the MOU on Feb. 16 prompted Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chair Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) to question whether absconded migrant workers could become a “national security issue.” Hsu addressed this concern by pointing out that the crime rate among migrant workers is only half of that among locals.
Hsu said that while there are cases of crimes committed by migrant workers, the majority of them are filling the gap in industries facing significant shortages. Their primary goal is to “earn a little more money,” she said.
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