scholarly journals Making Southeast Asian Migrant Workers Visible in Taiwanese Cinema: Pinoy Sunday and Ye-Zai

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 234-267
Author(s):  
Tzu-Chin Insky Chen
Author(s):  
Yu-Shan Tai ◽  
Hao-Jan Yang

Background: Southeast Asian countries have long been considered epidemic areas for mosquito-borne diseases (MBDs), and most imported cases of infectious diseases in Taiwan are from these areas. Taiwanese migrant workers are mainly of Southeast Asian nationality, and of these, 22% are Filipino. Migrant workers’ knowledge of MBDs and self-protection behaviors are beneficial to disease prevention and treatment. This study aims to understand the effectiveness of a health education intervention (HEI) for Filipino migrant workers in Taiwan and explores the factors affecting preventive practices. Methods: The study was conducted between May to September 2018. Participants were recruited from two Catholic churches in Taichung City. A professional delivered a 30 min HEI in person, and a structured questionnaire was used to acquire and assess participants’ knowledge, health beliefs, and preventive behaviors for MBDs before and after the intervention. Results: A total of 291 participants were recruited. The intervention program showed a positive impact on the migrant worker’s knowledge and the perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, and preventive practices. Knowledge, perceived severity, and perceived barriers were factors influencing preventive practices in Filipino migrant workers. Conclusions: The results of this study demonstrated that we can direct our efforts towards three areas: improving foreign migrant workers’ awareness of diseases, emphasizing the severity of the disease, and eliminating possible hindrances in the future. As one example, migrant workers could be proactively provided with routine medical examinations and multilingual health education lectures to improve knowledge and preventive practices to contain the spread MBDs.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Wen Chien ◽  
Tzu-Chuan Ho ◽  
Pei-Wen Huang ◽  
Nai-Ying Ko ◽  
Wen-Chien Ko ◽  
...  

Abstract Background We recently conducted a serosurvey of newly arrived workers in Taiwan from four Southeast Asian countries which revealed that 1% of the migrant workers had laboratory-confirmed recent Zika virus (ZIKV) infection. Taiwan, where Aedes mosquitoes are prevalent, has a close relationship with Southeast Asian countries. Up to now, 21 imported cases of ZIKV infection have been reported in Taiwan, but there has been no confirmed indigenous case. The aim of this serosurvey was to assess whether there was unrecognized ZIKV infections in Taiwan. Methods A total of 212 serum samples collected in a cross-sectional seroepidemiologic study conducted during the end of the 2015 dengue epidemic in Tainan, Taiwan, were analyzed. Anti-ZIKV IgM and IgG were tested using commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs). Plaque reduction neutralization tests (PRNTs) for ZIKV and four dengue virus (DENV) serotypes were performed for samples with positive anti-ZIKV antibodies. A confirmed case of ZIKV infection was defined by ZIKV PRNT90 titer ratio ≥ 4 compared to four DENV serotypes. Results The mean age of the 212 participants was 54.0 years (standard deviation 13.7 years), and female was predominant (67.0%). Anti-ZIKV IgM and IgG were detected in 0 (0%) and 9 (4.2%) of the 212 participants, respectively. For the 9 samples with anti-ZIKV IgG, only 1 sample had 4 times higher ZIKV PRNT90 titers compared to PRNT90 titers against four dengue virus serotypes; this individual denied having traveled abroad. Conclusions The results suggest that undetected indigenous ZIKV transmission might have occurred in Taiwan. The findings also suggest that the threat of epidemic transmission of ZIKV in Taiwan does exist due to extremely low-level of herd immunity. Our study also indicates that serological tests for ZIKV-specific IgG remain a big challenge due to cross-reactivity, even in dengue non-endemic countries.


Author(s):  
CHANG Cheng ◽  
Yun Chan Liao

In this chapter, Taiwanese reporters CHANG Cheng and LIAO Yun-chang consider the status of writings by Southeast Asian migrant workers and marriage migrants residing in Taiwan—including writings appearing in multilingual newspaper and book series that solicit and print personal essays written by Southeast Asian migrants in Taiwan, as well as works submitted for literature prizes that specifically target writings by migrants in Taiwan. This chapters argues that these texts—despite being written mostly by nonprofessional authors who are not Taiwan citizens and furthermore are often not writing in Chinese—should be included within the category of “Taiwan literature”; essays by migrant authors permit these lower-class foreign workers to recount their feelings and experiences and share them with Taiwan’s other residents.


2019 ◽  
pp. 56-63
Author(s):  
Eni Lestari ◽  
Promise Li

The precarious state of migrant workers has become a major area of concern for the contemporary global economy. In Southeast Asian regions in particular, the number of migrant workers has spiked since the 1990s. In the city of Hong Kong, domestic migrant workers, predominantly Filipino and Indonesian women, now make up around a tenth of the total working population. Since the beginning of Southeast Asia's labor diaspora, activists have been fiercely organizing against the rampant exploitation and abuse of migrant workers.


2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 161
Author(s):  
Hong-Ming Huang ◽  
Jenn-Jaw Soong

Taiwan is home to a rapidly growing aging population as life expectancy rates increase and birth rates go down in this island. The government of Taiwan opted to bring in migrant workers to care for the elderly following a shortage in adequate domestic manpower who were willing to take on the positions of caregivers for the elderly. In time, eldercare in Taiwan switched hands: from the actual families of the elderly to migrant workers coming in from across the Southeast Asian region. Questions have arisen in light of this development. Is the government policy that allows for Southeast Asian migrants to care for the elderly in Taiwan a good one, or a bad one? Who benefits most from this deal: the elderly, their families or the migrant care workers? Is providing care for the elderly in their own homes by just one caregiver the only option? And can such a policy help both ends: the elderly person who requires safer care, and the migrant care worker whose labor rights require full protection? This paper, drafted out following the review of relevant literature and the conducting of interviews by Hong-Ming Huang and Jenn-Jaw Soon, analyzes the political-economic aspects of this policy and offers certain recommendations and conclusions. One conclusion is the fact that Southeast Asian workers take better care of the elderly in Taiwan when eldercare is provided through institutions, rather than if the care was provided by just one foreign caregiver engaged directly by families of the elderly. The positive effects of ‘institution-style’ workers are reflected in the work performance, life quality and management as well as labor rights protection. 


2021 ◽  
pp. 445-460
Author(s):  
Helen Lansdowne ◽  
James Lawson

This chapter looks at the modern just-in-time (JIT) economy, a novel economic context for producing goods—and facilitating pandemics. It examines points where the global economy, Covid-19, and Southeast Asian labour interact. These intersections reveal some important truths both about the JIT economy and about more general consequences of the mobility of humans and their “fellow-travellers.” Southeast Asian workers, whether labouring as migrant workers in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand or labouring at home, supply relatively cheap wares for the world. Many experience confined living and working conditions, where disease transmission can accelerate. The chapter then considers some Southeast Asian workers’ experiences in production, care, and transport. It concludes with the often-forgotten material connectedness of humans to other plants and animals. Either inter-species disruption and sudden new interconnections will diminish, or they will pose ongoing challenges to this just-in-time world.


2020 ◽  
pp. 136843022093116
Author(s):  
Youngju Kim ◽  
Jinkyung Na

The Olympics aim to promote peace and unity across the globe through sports. Ironically, however, we predicted that the Olympics could be associated with intergroup biases because the Olympics not only activate social/national identity as a citizen, but also highlight intense competition between countries. In support of this prediction, attitudes toward outgroups were negatively associated with international sporting events like the Olympics (Studies 1–2). Moreover, both behavioral intentions (Study 3) and actual behaviors (Study 4) toward outgroups were more negative during the Olympics than before the Olympics. During the Olympics, Koreans were less willing to donate money to help migrant workers and showed a tendency to discriminate against Southeast Asian job applicants. Interestingly, the association was observed for negatively stereotyped outgroups (e.g., Southeast Asians and Chinese), but not for favorably stereotyped outgroups (e.g., Canadians).


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