Saturday, January 25, 2020

Week 4_Melanie Manuel_ASA 114


Melanie Manuel
ASA 114 001
25 January 2020

One thing that struck me about Pei-Chia Lan’s “Legal Servitude and Free Illegality: Migrant ‘Guest’ Works in Taiwan” was how undocumented workers seemed to have more freedom than workers coming from agencies. Despite not having government support, undocumented workers garner more popularity and autonomy than those contracted, because there is such a huge obstacle for the ones following the law. I find this rather ironic, because you would think that those following the law would have more benefits; however, from this article, it clearly does not appear to be the case. It makes me wonder about the United States and how it seems like the reverse occurs; so, undocumented workers are not necessarily allotted the same kind of respect and autonomy like in the case study of Taiwan, while workers backed by the government have a little more leeway. However, I’m not all too familiar with how the United States treats their overseas workers, so I can’t say for certain if it is entirely different since I heard that teachers who come from other countries are sometimes mistreated in their pay and amount of hours worked. 

I’ve included an image of what the projected population of the United States is looking like, because it seems to suggest that more folks of color will be coming in, which depicts a shift in population demographics. Unfortunately, it does not say whether they are overseas workers, but one might infer that they play a part in the shift. 



Works Cited
Lan, Pei-Chia. “Legal Servitude and Free Illegality: Migrant ‘Guest’ Workers in Taiwan.” Asian Diasporas, Stanford University Press, 2007, pp. 253-277.

Image Used
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/reports/2012/07/06/11888/the-facts-on-immigration-today/

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