Vietnamese Migrant Workers on The Move - Case Study of Vietnamese Migrant Workers in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Mai, Thi Thu, 梅氏秋
• Other Authors: Lin, Shu-Fen
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/682495

碩士 === 國立交通大學 === 社會與文化研究所 === 102 === This thesis is tracing the historical narration of the Vietnamese migration from colonial time to the recent times. This work provides a comprehensive picture of the recent migration of workers from Vietnam and demonstrates that this current phenomenon of Vietnamese migrant workers leaving Viet Nam is only a continuation of Vietnamese migration that started from colonial times when many Vietnamese were seeking education and working opportunities in different regions or abroad. After the American war, in order to pay its war debt, Vietnam started to export the labor force to former Socialist countries. Besides that, some emigrant waves were triggered by national purges after the reunification of Vietnam. This, together with the poor economic situation after the fall of the State’s attempt at a centrally planed economy and the population, explosion, cause additional emigrant waves when a set of labor export policies to industrialized countries, especially in the East Asian, was introduced to the people. This work also provides a comprehensive picture of Vietnamese migrant workers in Taiwan. Through personal stories of workers and their family histories, the work is showing that in the era of globalization, an individual’s decision to move is actually made under the will of a whole family that will collectively run the risk of a loss a family possession. But, at the same time, the solution is also a result of outstanding historical, political and economic conditions of those workers at home in correlation with the situation of the receiving countries. In reality, these outstanding conditions are leaving just a limited opportunity for the people’s decision making in the contemporary economic world system. In Taiwan, the migrant workers not only have a supplementary role but also a substitution effect in the labor intensive industries and 3D Jobs. In the country, there are distinctions in working conditions, wages and living condition of migrant workers and local workers. Migrant workers have to live and work in a much worse condition than the local workers and, at the same time, they are separated from the mainstream of society. In the reaction to the separation, the migrant workers close themselves within their national communities. As a result, places with a high concentration of the Southeast Asia migrants are appearing all over Taiwan. In this thesis, these places are called the Third Spaces of Taiwan. Due to the lack of effective promotion of multi-cultural ideas, the Third Spaces of Taiwan cannot overcome the stigma associated with the local community’s view of these “Third Spaces”– this creates the perception of us and others which leads to misunderstandings and to conflicts. In this sense, the Third Space of Taiwan may become an others space, places where differences and distinctions are produced.