國立臺灣大學政治科學論叢

Abstract / Chinese PDF Download

Southeast Asian marriage migrants and labor migrants from the same regional origins began entering Taiwan at almost at the same time and occupy similar marginal positions in the international division of labor. What explains the attitudinal differences among native Taiwanese toward these two groups? Labor migrants are short-term residents serving productive functions which might lead to interest conflicts with existing groups. However, marriage migrants are regarded as a permanent ethnic minority serving reproductive functions. Therefore, these migrants pose challenges to the preexisting collective identity and culture. Such distinctions are reflected in the divergences of public attitudes toward these two groups. This study hypothesizes that the exclusion of migrant workers in Taiwan is mainly caused by the inter-group interest conflict; in comparison, cultural identity accounts for the social exclusion of marriage migrants. We apply the “Taiwan Social Change Survey (TSCS) 2008: Globalization” dataset to examine the attitudinal differences toward these two types of migrants. The data show that public attitudes toward different types of migrants are complex and varied. Inter-group interest concerns account for exclusionary attitudes toward migrant workers, but not for those toward marriage migrants. With respect to cultural identity, cultural discrimination or racism as constructed in this study is related to the rejection of increasing marriage migrants but not to that of labor migrants. In addition, attitudes toward marriage and labor migrants are both affected by multicultural and nationalist orientations, with multiculturalism conducive to and nationalism detrimental to inclusiveness toward migrants. Through distinguishing the migrants by their status, we can further our understandings of public attitudes towards different types of migrants, and help future policy making on relationships between migrants and the native population.