The long-awaited pact between Taiwan and India on the movement of migrant workers will be a "win-win" for Indian workers, says Indian academic Nikita Audichya.
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00:00 Taiwan has received criticism internationally for the way that it's treated some of its
00:04 migrant workers, those migrant workers currently coming from Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines
00:10 and Thailand.
00:12 Won't Indian workers see those reports and think, "Why should I be going to Taiwan?"
00:18 So the fact remains that the minimum wage that you have in Taiwan is still significantly
00:23 higher than what it is in India.
00:26 India needs to produce a large number of non-agricultural jobs in order to take care of the unemployment
00:34 rate in the country.
00:35 So it is a win-win situation for the Indian worker.
00:41 So I think it's also a very effective way for India, you know, diplomatically, to resolve
00:48 what could become a big domestic issue of unemployment.
00:53 Is this good for Taiwan's existing workers or is this just a way for employers to keep
00:59 wages which are already relatively low here, as low as they are?
01:04 The Indian workers are going to be used in, their services are going to be used in very
01:09 specific sectors.
01:10 So we're looking at agriculture, for instance, we're looking at construction firms where
01:14 there is actually a shortage of supply of local Taiwanese labour.
01:18 So I don't think that they're taking away something because it doesn't exist to begin
01:25 with.
01:26 There is a shortage of supply of Taiwanese labour in very specific industries.
01:29 Taiwan also, I think we're looking at a population that is going to be super old, a country that's
01:35 going to be perhaps super aged.
01:37 So you need workers then.
01:40 You know, it's just not a question of the local workers getting an unfair deal because
01:46 there is a shortage and there will be further shortage of local workers.
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