ISSUE: Protest against declining living standards in Taipei

Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to protest against declining living standards in Taipei last Saturday. Currently, media reports claimed the government was planning to cut the number of foreign workers in response to the protests. I redeem it is a serious problem.

My house is in Taoyuan. There are many foreign workers living in Taoyuan’s countryside. Because there are many small factories and progressing constructions there, all of them need workers. In a society that is oriented toward “diploma principle”, one takes every opportunity to acquire higher education degrees; therefore, few young people are interesting in hard and rough work. Taiwan needs many foreign workers from Southeast Asia to do these jobs. However, many people believe that more and more foreign workers may have impacted Taiwanese salaries and job opportunities because they can tolerate longer work time and lower pay.

I don’t think the foreign workers need to take all responsibilities for Taiwan’s unemployment problem. It is unfair. I believe that learning to be competitive is the best response for everyone for its living standards and future job.