Latest Events
Global Production Networks, the State, and Migrant Workers: Governing Labour in the Semiconductor Industry
Time May 4, 2026 (Monday), 13:30– 16:00(GMT+8, Taiwan Time) Venue Onsite and online synchronous session, conducted entirely in Mandarin with English simultaneous interpretation. Onsite： A401, Assembly Building I, Guangfu Campus, […]
Taiwan’s Leading Bicycle Manufacturer Sanctioned for Forced Labor: Control Yuan Report Exposes Regulatory Gaps and Oversight Failures
Taiwan’s Leading Bicycle Manufacturer Sanctioned for Forced Labor: Control Yuan Report Exposes Regulatory Gaps and Oversight Failures The Control Yuan’s Investigation Report No. 115, Social Investigation 0015, states that Taiwan’s […]
The “Yu Fu” Forced Labor Civil Case – Third Hearing Court Observation
April 1, 2026 In September 2024, eight Indonesian fishers who had previously been employed on the Taiwanese distant-water fishing vessel Yu Fu filed a civil lawsuit before the Pingtung District […]
Latest Publication, Book & Podcast
Mei-Lin Pan & Dolma Tsering | The Lived Experience of Tibetan Refugees in Taiwan: Contesting Rights to Work, Residence, and Citizenship
The study highlights how the political situation in Taiwan played a central role in determining the rights and status of Tibetan refugees in Taiwan. During Taiwan’s authoritarian phase, Tibetan refugees gained citizenship by serving the state’s purpose of advancing Chinese nationalist ideology, while in the democratic phase they were considered stateless and unable to obtain a residence visa due to national security concerns.
Bonny Ling & Mariko Hayashi | Refugee Protection in Japan and Taiwan: Common Challenges and Ways Forward for Human Security
This chapter explores the current situation of refugee protection in both Japan and Taiwan. For both, refugee assistance serves a diplomatic purpose by promoting the country’s contribution to external refugee issues, rather than implementing the norms and spirit of the Refugee Convention domestically. This chapter examines the gaps between international standards in the protection of asylum seekers and refugees, and Japan’s implementation of those standards. It also looks at how these challenges are manifested for Taiwan, which lacks an asylum law.
Understanding the International Labour Organization Indicators of Forced Labour: Practical Guide for Taiwan’s SMEs
This is an SME-friendly policy guide in Chinese (traditional) on the International Labour Organization Indicators of Forced Labour. It covers all the indicators and aims to improve SME awareness on international standards concerning these indicators in Taiwan. The guide is a source of authoritative reference materials of continuous learning on forced labour risks in the Taiwanese supply chain. While the guidebook specifically addresses the SMEs, the materials on international standards and Taiwan-specific analyses are relevant for all stakeholders.
Joyce C.H. Liu | Cyber Slavery, Port Cities and Systemic Cruelty
This article presents a theoretical analysis of the logistics of neoliberal slavery in the 21st century, focusing on the role of the port cities as the hinge in the supply chain through the case of the cyber scam industry of the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone. The hinge, in a metonymic and metaphorical way, connects a complex mobile networking system with a multi-dimensional and topological dynamism. The overlaid networks consist of a tripartite operation—the production, the market, and the law—and explains the persistence of human interest in profiting from surplus values through human labor extraction, and the violence and cruelty inherent in this. The logic of circulation no longer follows Marx’s analysis of M-C-M or M-M+, but the formula of V-M+. Through void with no cost, and violence with no law, there is no limit to the multiplication of capital.
Jonathan S. Parhusip | The Making of Freedom and Common Forms of Struggle of Runaways in Taiwan
Local labor laws in Taiwan push migrant workers to run away from contracted employment arrangements and become undocumented. This article examines the common forms of struggle pursued by runaway Indonesian migrant workers with a focus on the informal organizational structures that support their daily survival. To open space for maneuver within nation-state borders, runaway migrant workers utilize their agency and negotiate state and nonstate structures such as recruitment companies, NGOs and civil society organizations, migrant communities, illegal agency services, and taxi drivers.
Joyce C. H. Liu & Brett Neilson | Introduction: Migration Struggles, Colonial Legacies, and Pandemic Shifts
We title this Against the Day section “Migrant Struggles in East and Southeast Asia” with appreciation of this predicament. Our intention is not to enclose experiences of migrant life and struggle within a strict regional frame. Rather, in bringing together contributions that engage with migrant struggles across locations in contemporary Asia, we seek to mark a dissonance and resonance with migrant projects in other parts of the world.
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