Title: Interethnic Relations and Reactive Ethnicity: The

Development of Filipino Guest Workers' In-group Identity

in Taiwan.
Submission Type: Paper
Authors: Sills, Stephen J. (University of North Carolina Greensboro)
Chowthi, Natassaja (University of North Carolina
Greensboro)

Abstract: In the Export Processing Zones (EPZs) of Taiwan, Filipino guest

workers experience a high degree of exclusion and segregation.
Governmental policies reinforce the public sentiments of
ethnocentrism, nationalism, and xenophobia by intentionally
restricting migrant incorporation and integration into the broader
society. As a result, Filipino factory workers, already spatially,
culturally, and linguistically removed from Taiwanese, become
even more socially removed. The workers reinforce their own co-
ethnic ties and reject Taiwanese culture. In this setting they
develop a “reactive” ethnic identity, despite the typically fragment,
regionalistic nature of the Philippines. Moreover, ethnic enclaves
have formed around the EPZs reinforcing Filipino migrant workers’
in-group identity by providing a social structure separate from
Taiwanese society. This research explores the work issues,
emotional well-being, and experiences of exploitation of Filipino
Overseas Factory Workers (OFWS) employed in the South of
Taiwan in the NanTze Export Processing Zone (NEPZ). The mixed-
method analysis includes data from two surveys of OFWs (in 2003,
N=389 and 2006, N=526) as well as interview transcripts from
nearly fifty workers, government officials, NGO personnel and
Taiwanese academicians. Findings focus on interethnic relations,
conflicts with Taiwanese bosses, and “reactive” ethnic identity.

Keywords: Race/Ethnic/Minority Relations

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