我們與他們: 台灣社會阻止移工剝削的角色

Abstract

在人口高齡化、漁業與工業缺乏勞工的情況下，引進移工對於臺灣經濟發展的重要性日益提升。到目前為止，臺灣已有五十萬名移工，而且數字還在持續增加。這些逐漸增加的臨時移工人口，使得臺灣社會逐漸需要面對所引起的社會、法律與整個移工結構的問題。為了解決前述的問題, 臺灣出現了幾個以幫助移工為目的的非政府組織。這些機構主要協助移工處理隱私受到侵犯或雇主歧視等人權問題。但由於非政府組織的主要著力於大方向價值觀的倡議，對於移工實質生活條件的改善仍然進步緩慢。本研究的主要關注於如何改變臺灣社會對於移工的觀念與態度，以停止虐待移工的惡性循環。研究方法為透過專家文獻論述與量化數據分析，探討臺灣人對於移工認知、移工權利、社會規範、法治態度等四方面的關係。研究結果顯示，人民對於移工的態度、對於社會規範的看法，以及法治觀念的具備程度，都與對移工的支持程度有顯著關聯，這些因素也都密切影響移工在臺灣的生活權益。

With a rising aging population and labor shortages across its key fishing and factory industries, the importation of migrant labor is more crucial than ever in keeping Taiwan’s small but impressive economy propelling forward. With over half a million migrant workers and rising, Taiwan is increasingly facing social, legal, and institutional issues that arise when a temporary labor force is mixed in with the status quo population. A small number of grassroots organizations (NGOs) have sprung up in helping these workers, especially when handling human rights violations such as invasions of privacy and discrimination from employers, but progress has been haltingly slow because change has only been enacted on the macro-level, and not within society where prejudice persists. This research argues that those involved must focus their efforts on changing society’s perceptions of these migrant workers in order to stop the cycle of labor abuse. Through quantitative data collection and literature analysis, this research explores Taiwanese attitudes towards migrant workers as people, migrant workers’ rights, social norms, rule of law, and the correlations between these variables. The results from this research show that attitudes towards migrant workers are associated with the support of social norms that inhibit migrant workers’ rights and found that these attitudes, social norms, and weakness of rule of law all contribute to the marginalization of the migrant worker population.