Sexual Autonomy of Female Migrant Workers in Taiwan

Principle Investigator：Professor Lin, Chih-Chieh, Professor, School of Law, NYCU.

The thesis mainly focuses on the sexual autonomy of female migrant workers in Taiwan. Taiwan Government used to neglect the agency and subjectivity of migrant workers by calling them “foreign workers” due to sectionalism, bringing about discrimination. The related regulations enacted the guest-worker policy also intensify the ignorance about the dilemma faced by migrant workers. Most migrant workers in Taiwan are domestic workers facing difficulties leading to sexual autonomy violations. Female in-home caretakers and housemaids account for 34 percent of all migrant workers, but those who suffer sexual violence are rarely reported. According to the statistics from Control Yuan from 2012 to 2018, only 633 cases of sexual assault were reported, which is inconsistent with the doubled number of migrant workers in Taiwan, up to 690 thousand according to the report by the Ministry of Labor in 2021. As a result, migrant workers’ human rights should be considered a priority. The inconsistency between the number of increasing migrant workers and the declining reports is evidence of the following reasons: the language barriers, the properties of domestic working, and the remaining discrimination and victim-blaming culture against victims of sexual violence, both local and migrant workers. For starters, the language barriers not only raise questions about consent decision-making, but cause difficulties for migrant workers to seek help from supporting measures in Taiwan. Still, most of the sexual assaults happen in the employers’ private residency, so collecting evidence is harder than general sexual assault. Employers can easily take control of the working conditions, interpersonal relationships, and basic needs of migrant workers, even the possibility of deportation. Therefore, power inequality creates another obstacle to report. Last, the negative social reactions to sexual assaults force the victims to be silenced. Let alone the female migrant workers. Hence, the authorities responsible for policy making overlooks the psychological trauma and the lack of resettlement and asylums. The mentioned three reasons lead to the hidden figure of crime as a consequence, failing to eliminate the data errors or exploiting multiple vulnerabilities. Furthermore, the protection of domestic migrant workers’ rights is inadequate under the existing laws. Their rights are based on a contract of hire of services in “Civil Law” solely, excluded from the “Labor Standards Act.” Consequently, the Ministry of Labor has drafted the “Domestic Worker Labor Protection Law” to provide proper protection to the victims of sexual violence, prohibiting employers from sexually explicit, sexually connotative, or sexist words and actions creating a working environment that is hostile, intimidating and offensive to workers; or infringing, interfering with their personal dignity, personal liberty, or their performance at work. In addition to the legal system needing improvement, supporting measures are required. The study aims to look for a solution, whether the intervention of social welfare organizations and legal supporting measures, or to impose a restriction on intermediary fees, or even introducing migrant workers’ rights to the current regulation to prevent workplace sexual violence, in order to ensure the female migrant workers’ sexual autonomy as a human right.