Many female migrant workers face contract terminations, forced repatriation, or broker demands for penalties upon pregnancy. Even if employers do not force termination, these women often lack the necessary resources to support their children in Taiwan while maintaining their jobs. Consequently, female migrant workers often conceal their pregnancies until the last moment or leave their jobs to become undocumented. As a result, those children—who lack household registration or legal residency—are denied access to healthcare, social services, and education.
Taiwan passed the Implementation Acts for the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) (2009), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) (2011), and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) (2014). These international human rights treaties now have the same legal authority as domestic law. However, the issues confronting pregnant migrant workers in Taiwan expose gaps in the government’s legal and policy efforts to fully meet these standards.
This study aims to assess the gap between Taiwan’s current legal and policy frameworks and the labor rights, pregnancy-related protections, and fundamental rights of migrant workers, as well as those of their children, in relation to international human rights standards. The research documents migrant workers' life stories and creates narrative reports to highlight their struggles and dilemmas related to work, pregnancy, and child-rearing abroad. This approach aims to raise public awareness, encourage dialogue, and promote societal understanding and acknowledgement.