Abstract
This study reveals that Taiwan Manpower
Agencies have a beneficial impact on Taiwan's "Long-term Retention of
Skilled Foreign Workers Program". Since the introduction of migrant
workers in 1989, Taiwan's migrant worker population has surpassed 730,000.
Initiated on April 30, 2022, the program has progressively relaxed its
eligibility criteria to align with Taiwan's permanent residency system and
future immigration policies. While around 208,000 individuals meet the criteria
for the program, only 6,643 approvals have been granted as of April 30, 2023,
resulting in a success rate of 3.2% only.
The results demonstrate that the
willingness of migrant workers to participate in the program correlates with
factors such as their possession of professional licenses and their awareness
of policy channels. The acquisition of professional licenses also correlates
with their age and familiarity with policy channels. Over 40% of them rely on
manpower agencies as their primary source of policy information, confirming
that most eligible migrant workers prefer manpower agencies assisted for
smoother application procedures.
Taiwan's government can entrust manpower
agencies to handle the promotion of the program. This approach is likely to
yield more substantial results than the current practice of independent
applications by employers and migrant workers.
JEL classification numbers: F22, J61.
Keywords: Skilled, Immigration, Foreign workers, Human resources, Retaining talent,
Long-term use, Intermediate migrant workers.