Labor Minister Draws Fire for Indian Migrant Worker Remarks
Taiwan's labor minister is under fire for making racially charged comments about migrant workers Taiwan plans to bring from India. She pointed to the government's preference for Indian migrants coming from northeast India due to their skin color, diet, and religion. TaiwanPlus spoke with Dr. Priya Purswaney about how the Indian community in Taiwan is reacting.
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00:00 Taiwan's labor minister is under fire after making racially charged comments about migrant
00:05 workers Taiwan plans to bring from India.
00:08 In a recent televised appearance, labor minister Hsu Ming-chun discussed an agreement signed
00:13 earlier this month allowing Indian migrant workers to come to Taiwan.
00:17 She pointed to skin color and cultural characteristics as reasons for targeting workers from northeast
00:23 India.
00:24 "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has helped us assess.
00:27 We may target those from northeast India first.
00:32 First, regardless of skin color or eating habits, they are more similar to us.
00:37 Second, most of them are Christians.
00:39 And regardless of manufacturing, manufacturing or agriculture, they are good at it."
00:47 To learn more about how Taiwan's Indian community is responding to these comments, reporter
00:51 Chris Goran spoke with Dr. Priya Perswani, a translator and consultant based in Taipei.
00:58 So first of all, what has been the reaction to the labor minister's comments among the
01:03 Indian community in Taiwan?
01:04 "I'm a little bit surprised, slightly shocked.
01:11 It was not expected.
01:12 So we kind of knew that that might be the area where Taiwan would prefer to get workers
01:18 from, the migrant workers, but we didn't expect it to be said in such plain terms.
01:27 That's something that tends to happen in Taiwan.
01:29 I think people are not as sensitive to what is politically correct, to these kind of issues
01:37 that are internationally getting a lot of attention these days.
01:41 And because in the past few months, there have been some negative comments about the
01:47 whole migrant worker MOU that's happening between India and Taiwan.
01:53 And there have been some voices in Taiwan society saying that, oh, it's going to cause
01:58 problem because they look different and they eat different and because of language and
02:03 so on.
02:04 So I think her statement was kind of like in response to that line of questioning."
02:09 "You've been living in Taiwan for 37 years now, and it seems like you have a good sense
02:15 of what the mood is like in Taiwan.
02:18 From your perspective, have Taiwanese people also been reacting with the same kind of shock
02:23 to this story that the Indian community has?"
02:26 "Like I said, usually these kind of comments are fairly common in society here.
02:35 Like people are named Xiao Bai, Xiao Hei.
02:39 It's a common thing to casually refer to someone's skin color.
02:44 So it's not taken so much as a racist remark here, I feel.
02:50 So I think the response among the Taiwanese, like locals, hasn't been, it's no big deal.
02:56 Like she was just answering questions that she was asked.
03:01 But the response among foreigners in Taiwan is actually more at a higher level than among
03:09 the local Taiwanese."
03:10 "Is there some context that an international audience should understand that would make
03:14 the minister's comments seem less discriminatory than they appear to be on the surface?"
03:18 "I think it was an innocent remark from her.
03:22 I don't feel that she meant any harm or she meant to be racist or discriminatory.
03:29 It might be because of certain concerns that have been raised among the Taiwanese public
03:35 due to worries that they have about Indian migrant workers coming to Taiwan.
03:42 And that might be the reason why she brought this issue up.
03:46 On the Taiwanese side, I feel that generally Taiwanese society needs to be more inclusive
03:53 and open-minded about migrant workers in general, not just those from India, but wherever they
03:59 come from."