Migrant workers who find themselves pregnant in Taiwan face disrespect of their legal rights and often must make tough choices. Now, a band of organizations is working to offer them help -- and start a conversation in Taiwan's society.
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00:00Rini takes to the stage, her infant bundled against her chest.
00:06She is one of the more than 800,000 migrant workers in Taiwan hoping to make money to
00:10send to relatives back home.
00:13But her pregnancy cost her her job and left her adrift in an unfamiliar country.
00:27Her story isn't unique.
00:29Infant migrant workers have rights, including the health care and maternity leave, but awareness
00:34of these rights and employers' willingness to respect them can be spotty.
00:39In many cases, new mothers face tough choices with no good options.
00:44The heavy debts many workers take on just to get to Taiwan mean going home to give birth
00:49would be financially ruinous.
00:51And besides, family back home are counting on them.
00:55It's a story groups that work for these women have seen countless times.
00:59But legal or not, these women have been fired for being pregnant, and if they aren't going
01:21home, their only option is to disappear, taking illegal jobs under the table.
01:27That means not just dropping off the government's radar, but actively hiding from it.
01:32The risks are big, and migrant worker advocates say things do go wrong.
01:55This isn't a totally invisible problem.
01:58Occasional headline-grabbing cases, like a migrant caregiver's unexpected labor caught
02:03on security camera in November, do generate discussion.
02:06But there can also be backlash.
02:08Not because of questions of nationality – Taiwan does not have birthright citizenship – but
02:13because of the stretched state of Taiwan's medical resources.
02:18Advocates are hoping to change minds, though.
02:20This exhibit of photos and stories is one attempt at doing this.
02:24A highlight is a What Would You Do story printed on the display, in which visitors
02:29are put in the shoes of a fictional pregnant migrant worker.
02:32There are no happy endings here.
02:35Others are taking action.
02:37Organizations like the Garden of Hope Foundation have hotlines with multilingual staff, able
02:42to give expectant mothers an overview of their rights and other help.
02:51And there are groups helping get mothers and children temporary housing and care.
02:55The walls of the Harmony Home Association are lined with photos of the 1,100 children
03:00it's helped over the years, of whom around 500 are still somewhere in Taiwan.
03:05But for some rights advocates, not even this is enough.
03:09Some think Taiwan's society needs to do more to see these workers as humans.
03:39Migrant labor's place in Taiwanese society is a fact, and the need will only grow as
03:48the population shrinks and ages.
03:51The question for organizations trying to provide resources is how to make sure those like expectant
03:56mothers don't fall through the cracks.
03:59Patrick Chen and John Vantriest for Taiwan Plus.