Taiwan, Japan Compete for Vietnamese Workers as Populations Age

TaiwanPlus News

Attracting Vietnamese migrant workers to Taiwan is becoming harder as other rapidly aging East Asian countries ramp up their efforts to bring in foreign labor.

Transcript

00:00Getting trained to work overseas, these students in Hanoi are studying for a shot at a better salary and better life outside of Vietnam.

00:09Since the late 1990s, when the Southeast Asian country began exporting its labor to East Asia,

00:15Taiwan was the top destination for Vietnamese workers.

00:19It's a strong relationship that makes Vietnam Taiwan's second largest source of migrant labor behind Indonesia.

00:27But now another competitor is trying to attract Vietnamese workers.

00:47Like Taiwan, Japan also faces a rapidly aging population,

00:52and Japanese human resources firms have rolled out new incentives like this technical training program to attract prospective Vietnamese workers.

01:01South Korea, another country with an aging population, has also been tapping Vietnam's labor market, increasing visa quotas for migrant workers.

01:11But for those who want to find work abroad quickly, Taiwan is still a preferred option.

01:23They have to train for a long time, four to six months.

01:28In Taiwan, it's faster, one to two months.

01:33And Taiwan would like to keep migrant workers coming, particularly those from Vietnam,

01:39since they make up over 45 percent of the migrant manufacturing workforce

01:44and have the second largest share in the social welfare and caregiving sector.

01:49Last year, Taiwan launched its first one-stop service center for migrant workers,

01:54converting this three-star hotel into a 500-bed training facility to help new arrivals settle in.

02:02The three-day program only takes caregiving workers for now

02:06and teaches classes in multiple languages, including Vietnamese,

02:10on Taiwan's culture and legal system, with tips on what to do if they run into trouble.

02:16The center is also staffed with fellow workers from Vietnam who've already been living in Taiwan.

02:30But Taiwan and Vietnam's partnership in labor hasn't always been smooth.

02:35In the early 2000s, Taiwan suspended working permits for Vietnamese caregivers because of a high rate of runaways.

02:43A decade since that ban was lifted, there's been a marked improvement in relations.

02:55With a serious manpower shortage looming over most of East Asia and the region's aging society,

03:01in the face of more competition from Tokyo and Seoul,

03:04Taipei is doing what it can to ensure Vietnamese workers continue to choose Taiwan.

03:10Chris Ma, Yixin Chen, and Joyce Zen for Taiwan Plus.

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