她們為什麼逃跑?從外籍勞工逃跑現象檢視我國看護類移工政策

Abstract

我國自1992年起正式引進外籍勞工後，其在臺人數即逐年遞增，截至2012年6月底止，外籍勞工在臺總人數已高達約44萬人，其中於過去10年人數成長最快的即是外籍看護工，政府透過引進看護移工以解決我國在高齡化趨勢下，所面臨長期照護人力不足的問題。而隨著外籍勞工在臺人數節節攀升，復鑑於我國的移工政策未盡完善，逃跑外籍勞工人數亦屢創新高，目前已高達約3.7萬人，其中以看護業移工的逃跑人數2.2萬人為最多約占60％，其逃跑率更高達11％，不論是逃跑人數或逃跑率皆居各產業之冠。 本研究旨在探討為何看護業移工的逃跑率及逃跑人數高居各產業之冠的潛在因素及其結構性問題，並從個人面、管理面、制度面等三面向進行討論。首先在個人面部分，本研究透過深度訪談多名逃跑的外籍家庭看護工，從居家照護的工作條件、工作性質及工作空間進行分析，發現她們逃跑的前兩大因素為「照顧負荷龐大且欠缺合理勞動條件致心力交瘁」及「欠缺社會支持」。外籍家庭看護工在欠缺基本勞動條件之保障下，復因其工作空間侷限在封閉的家庭私領域內，加諸其幾近24小時無休的照護工作，造成其身心產生極大的照顧負荷及孤立感，一旦欠缺外在的社會支持，更導致她們求助無門，進而提高其逃跑的動機與念頭。 除從個人面的角度進行探究外，本研究更從制度面及管理面角度分析外籍家庭看護工逃跑之因素，發現其逃跑因素尚包含因高齡化現象、國內照護人力短缺及申請外籍看護門檻過高所引發之非法外籍照護勞動力的龐大需求，跨國仲介制度剝削，家事勞動者基本勞動條件未受保障等。 為改善家庭看護業外勞之弱勢處境以降低其逃跑動機及人數，本研究經分析上述文獻及訪談資料後，爰提出下列政策改善之建議：加速將外籍家事類勞工納入家事勞工保障法保障範圍、強化外籍看護工之照顧技術及語文能力、提升外籍照顧者之社會支持程度、將外籍看護工納入長期照護人力資料庫及允許申請永久居留、強化機構式或社區式照護機制，分階段減少外籍家庭看護工人數。

Our government has approved foreign workers to work in Taiwan since 1992 and the number of them has been increasing. So far, the number of the foreign workers in Taiwan is up to about 440,000. Over the past 10 years, the number of the foreign care workers has been growing fastest, which help our government address the problem of the care manpower shortage when our society is faced with the trend of aging population. With the growth of the foreign workers in Taiwan and the lack of well-found policy, the number of foreign workers running away is also increasing. Among them, the number of foreign care workers running away is 22,000 which accounts for about 60％ of all foreign workers running away. This study is to explore the reasons and the structural problems of their running away from the dimesions of individual, management and institution. In terms of the individual dimension, this study reveals that the main reasons are that they feel tired and pressured physically and mentally under the burdens of taking care of patients through the means of in-depth interview. The second reason is their lack of social support. The foreign care workers are lack of the protection of basic work rights, and most of them have to work 24 hours a day under the closed and lonely working fields, which make them suffer plenty of care burdens and pressures. Once they have few social support, it is easier for them to feel isolated and reinforce their motives to run away to regain the freedom. Besides exploring the running away factors of foreign workers from the individual dimension, this study also analyzes those factors from the management and institution dimension. The factors include the big demand of illegal foreign care workers resulting from the aging society, the domestic care manpower shortage as well as the strict crieteria, transnational broker exploitation system, and the lack of protection of domestic workers’s basic work rights. With a view to improving their disadvantaged situations in Taiwan to weaken their motives of running away, this study thereby suggests that our government enact the related laws and regulations to protect the basic working rights of the foreign care workers, better the foreign care workers’ care skill and language capability, offer sufficient and immediate social supports, corporate them into our long-term care human resources and permit them to be the alien permanent residents in Taiwan, and reinforce the mechanism of institution or community care and gradually reduce the number of foreign domestic care workers.