| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立清華大學 === 社會學研究所 === 104 === Indian professionals have a longstanding history of migration dating back to the 1960s, where they began to migrate towards English speaking countries. The second wave began in 1990s in the face of professional labor shortage due to the booming Information Technology industry, which led many countries to revise their immigration policies to allow skilled migrants, either permanently or temporarily. In Taiwan, most of the Indian professionals live in Taipei and Hsinchu. The number of Indian professionals grew rapidly since 2005 because the immigration policy opened to skilled migrants. The Taiwanese government and technology companies were actively recruiting skilled labor force from India.
This thesis uses in-depth interview and participant observation to study the daily lives of Indian engineers and their families outside of working environment. Focusing on Indian engineers employed by the Hsinchu Science Park, this research discusses the following questions: How are family activities and everyday lives among Indian families affected by gender and class differences in Taiwanese social context? How do the existing boundaries in Indian society affect their social life in Taiwan?
This research revealed that the main reason behind Indian engineers and their families to migrate overseas was the career aspiration. Male engineers often aimed for well-established companies in selected technology industries. The Indian workforce is highly male-dominant, therefore the husbands with higher paying jobs frequently single-handedly make the decision to migrate. The migration process is affected by gender norms, the restrictions of foreign immigration policies, and the long working-hour in Taiwanese technology industry. Their female spouses, who have been working in Indian, can apply for a dependent-visa to Taiwan. However, because of the professional and language barriers, female migrants rarely acquire new careers in Taiwan, experiencing of downward mobility in migration process.
Females who come from different socioeconomic classes and working backgrounds have different perceptions toward house-keeping activities; males and females migrants have drastic experiences in their daily lives due to various gender-dependent and class-dependent factors. Compared to male interviewees, all the female interviewees admitted to facing more difficulties in their everyday lives due to language barrier in the receiving society.
In their social lives, Indian families are able to establish ethnic connections and ties through males in public space. Interestingly, the virtual Indian community formed on the Internet, the interaction in virtual or real space not only preserved the existing regional, urban/rural, caste boundaries in India, but also became a tool for Indian migrants to do boundary work amongst themselves.
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