Key facts
- Philippine migrant workers in Taiwan's tech industry face job loss and difficult decisions upon pregnancy.
- Many workers must send their babies to the Philippines or return home themselves after childbirth.
- Marian Duhapa, a migrant worker, lost her job due to pregnancy and had to stay in a shelter.
- Advocates call for improved protections and the right for migrant workers to bring family members to Taiwan.
- Taiwan's Labour Ministry asserts that guidelines ensure equal treatment for female migrant workers and their children.
Philippine women working in Taiwan's technology factories are reportedly forced to make impossible choices regarding motherhood, often facing dismissal after becoming pregnant. Migrant workers interviewed by Nikkei Asia stated they must either send their newborns back to the Philippines or return home with them, as affording to keep their families together in Taiwan is financially unfeasible.
Marian Duhapa, a 32-year-old migrant worker and the primary breadwinner for her extended family of 11 in the Philippines, lost her job in Taiwan after becoming pregnant. She stayed in a shelter until giving birth and plans to send her baby to the Philippines while she continues working. Duhapa earns approximately $900 a month in Taiwan, triple what she could earn in her home country, where poverty makes survival difficult.
Taiwan is home to over 150,000 Filipino migrant workers, many employed in factories and as domestic helpers. While some find Taiwan preferable to the Middle East, where mistreatment is reported, campaigners argue that Taiwan must improve protections for these workers, including granting them the right to bring family members. Lennon Wang from the Serve the People Association criticized Taiwan for treating migrant workers as "second-class people" and failing to recognize them as "fully human beings."
Taiwan's Labour Ministry official Su Yu-kuo stated that the government has issued guidelines to protect the rights of female migrant workers and their children, ensuring "national treatment." He acknowledged that some workers may choose to return home to give birth or raise their children due to differing environments, language, and cultural differences, describing these as personal family decisions.