Immigrants in Taiwan feel welcomed, but face discrimination

移民台灣感到受歡迎，但面臨歧視

Long-term immigrants to Taiwan reflect on their experiences and the obstacles they continue to face


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan is famous for its friendliness — it ranked as the No.1 destination for expats in a 2021 "InterNations" survey, with 96% of respondents saying the Taiwanese population is friendly to foreign residents.

However, once you get past the surface level, the picture becomes more complicated.

As of 2021, over 800,000 foreigners were living in Taiwan, making up 3.5% of the total population. Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines are the biggest drivers of immigration, with Southeast Asian immigrants making up the overwhelming majority of the total immigrant population.

Through conversations with six of these long-term immigrants to Taiwan and dozens of international students, a few clear trends emerge. Although immigrants tend to value the convenience, safety, and freedom they experience in Taiwan, the country still has some to overcome in terms of race, language, and societal integration.

Convenience, safety, and freedom

Whether it's the Family Mart on every corner, the availability of public restrooms, or the vicinity of travel destinations, nearly everyone we spoke to cited the convenience of day-to-day life as one of the key benefits of living in Taiwan.

“Recreation is really close; I drive to Yilan once or twice a week to surf,” Andrew Otto, an American small-business owner who has lived in Taiwan for over eight years, said. “I have friends that have places on the beach or right next to the beach on a teacher’s salary, which is unheard of in the States. The quality of life is quite high here if you know how to do it, and it doesn’t take long to get into the swing of things.”

Convenience was trumped only by safety in terms of value — multiple interviewees mentioned losing their wallet and having it returned, while others said that they never fear robbery or violent crime.

These perceptions are based largely on fact: a 2020 survey by global database Numbeo ranked Taiwan as the second safest country to live in, with over 85% of Taiwanese respondents saying they feel safe walking alone at night and less than 12% expressing concerns about being the victim of a violent crime.

To many immigrants, especially those who come from less democratic countries, this safety is tied to another critical draw of Taiwan: freedom. People feel free to say what they want, wear what they want, and express themselves how they want without fear of legal retribution.

“I've seen that people in their [home] countries, they cannot find that opportunity to truly be themselves, but when they come here, they get out of their cocoon and become a beautiful butterfly,” Mayra Torres, who immigrated from democratic Belize 10 years ago, said. “They’re their full selves. And they can be because this society allows them to be.”

Language Barrier

However, language is a major obstacle many immigrants face when trying to integrate into Taiwan. Despite the Bilingual by 2030 policy of the Taiwanese government, an inability to speak Chinese remains a significant barrier to foreigners living in Taiwan, especially outside of Taipei.

Although data on the extent to which English is spoken in Taiwan can be difficult to find, HowWidelySpoken.com estimates that roughly 25% of Taiwan’s population can speak some English, with higher concentrations in the Taipei area. Fluency is less common.

The language barrier is especially acute in terms of healthcare and housing. Although one can most likely find a doctor who speaks English, navigating how to make an appointment and check-in at the hospital can be challenging for foreigners. Likewise, finding an apartment and negotiating rent can be particularly difficult, since many landlords do not speak English.

Of course, if you do not speak Chinese or English, the language barrier is even more pronounced.

Some interviewees encouraged Taiwan to make more systemic changes to minimize these barriers and support the Bilingual by 2030 policy. Torres shared a recent experience in which she needed to have her English-language documents translated into Chinese in order to apply for her Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) — a policy that she felt conflicted with Taiwan's upcoming bilingual goal.

Others shared that, although Bilingual by 2030 is an admirable initiative, they feel that Taiwan must also implement more systemic policies and establish systems to better aid immigrants in order to truly become an international country.

“I think language is just one thing,” Nikhil Pathak, an Indian biomedical researcher who moved to Taiwan in 2013 to pursue his Ph.D., said. “Even if Taiwan becomes bilingual, what about the culture? What about the ethnic problems here? What about the integration of migrant workers here? How will these problems change?”

“More welcomed than others”

Most interviewees feel that Taiwanese people, on the whole, are welcoming to foreigners. However, a variety of sources echoed the belief that white immigrants receive preferential treatment in opportunities, hiring, and language expectations. Although immigrants of color far outnumber their white counterparts, they seem to be underprioritized and under-represented in the workplace, especially in the white-collar setting.

Furthermore, virtually everyone of non-white descent with whom I spoke described encounters with bias not experienced by their white counterparts. Pathak said that he has seen immigrants of color be passed over to present at conferences because when the team wants to show that they are diverse, they opt for a white person as the public face.

Ricky Christanto, an Indonesian Ph.D. student who came to Taiwan in 2009, feels that there is a greater expectation for him to be fluent in Chinese than his white classmates, as well as less tolerance for blunders. Torres, who emphasizes that she still loves Taiwan and encourages other people to move here, shared an experience she had while volunteering as an English tutor in graduate school, in which all the students chose to work with white tutors over tutors of color.

“At that point, I realized there was a preference, I can say, for a certain group of foreigners,” Torres said “… It just became something that opened my eyes. No longer did those perfect heart eyes exist.”

These issues of bias and discrimination are often more severe for migrant workers, who comprise the majority of immigrants with over 680,000 living in Taiwan as of October 2021. Because of the precarity of their working conditions and their tenuous visa statuses, all the benefits of living in Taiwan as an immigrant — the freedom, the safety, the convenience — don’t necessarily apply to migrant workers.

“I think there’s kind of some bias in everything, especially in getting a job, being treated well at the job, or even in terms of salary and flexible working hours,” Pathak said. “This kind of ethnic bias, to put it in a mild way, is actually still there. I think the government and even the society here need to recognize the talent of the people who are coming here, rather than their ethnicity.”

Need for resources

Ultimately, the immigration and integration process varies for every individual, but the key overlapping factor is the need for resources and support while living abroad, whether that be from your family or from the government.

Some interviewees discussed feelings of isolation and the importance of building a support network to provide assistance in lieu of family back home. Others were focused on more structural needs, like easier access to banking systems and a clearer path toward obtaining long-term residency.

While there is still much that can be done to minimize these challenges and the many other challenges immigrants face in Taiwan, not a single person we interviewed said they regretted coming here.

“Whenever you need anything, you ask anybody, even a stranger, and they’ll be more than willing and happy to help you in whatever you need,” Pathak said. “I think this kind of compassion, or helping nature, of the local people, is very important in making foreign people [feel] like home. I think I feel more at home here.”