Migration and Diversity in Asian Contexts

5. The Tug of War over Multiculturalism: Contestation between Governing and Empowering Immigrants in Taiwan

5 THE TUG OF WAR OVER MULTICULTURALISM Contestation between Governing and Empowering Immigrants in Taiwan Hsia Hsiao-Chuan MULTICULTURALISM: TOUCHING ON THE NERVES OF NATIONAL ANXIETY? shortly after the world was shocked by the attacks in Norway on 22 July 2011, the Taiwanese public was upset to learn that the self-confessed perpetrator and right-wing extremist, anders Behring Breivik, made and posted a video on the internet before going on his killing spree, in which he expresses his admiration for Taiwan, along with Japan and south Korea, as a “modern country that never adopted multiculturalism”. When this news spread across the internet, many Taiwanese posted Web comments expressing their resentment and saying that Taiwan was not at all like how the Norwegian murderer had described it. Government information Office Minister Philip Yang quickly issued a statement to the media stressing that Taiwanese society had always respected a plurality The Tug of War over Multiculturalism 131 of cultures. Yang said that a democratic society should be a tolerant one in which different groups respect and appreciate one another, and that this was the kind of society that the international community generally took Taiwan to be. National immigration agency officials were also quick to assure the public that Breivik had never been to Taiwan. all this was supposedly to prove that Breivik’s remarks about Taiwan were a baseless misinterpretation. i expressed my opinions on this subject in an article published on 29 July in the Chinese-language China Times,1 which had invited me to write biweekly commentaries for almost a year. in this article, i pointed out that although Taiwan has never seen a massacre of people of an ethnic minority or migrants by right-wing extremists, our laws, policies and systems are full of discrimination against immigrants and migrant workers. i pointed out that discriminatory attitudes are often seen in the words and actions of bureaucrats, while prejudice is pervasive in society at large. The article called upon Taiwanese who really want to refute Breivik’s description of Taiwan as a monocultural society to say a resounding “no” to all words and actions that discriminate against immigrants and migrant workers. On 4 august, i subsequently received an anonymous letter containing a photocopy of a full-page report about Breivik that appeared on the Chinese-language Apple Daily on 25 July. The report includes a photograph of Breivik wearing a special forces diving suit and aiming a rifle at some imaginary adversary. in the blank space alongside the photograph, the anonymous letter-writer had scribbled the following shocking and hatefilled message: When will Taiwan get a brave man like this to kill all the mangy foreign workers and trashy foreign spouses who have crawled over from southeast asia and other backward regions to hang around in Taiwan, along with the shameless hypocrites who wave banners and yell slogans on their behalf in the bogus name of brotherly love — people like that bloody sow Hsia Hsiao-chuan? Because of this trash and because of you, our descendants will have to live in a trash heap! This letter is not just an isolated, random incident. i have received several threatening letters over the past year, while other people and organizations that speak up for the rights of immigrants (particularly marriage migrants) and migrant workers have also received similar letters or have been harassed in various ways. i continue to receive threatening letters whenever 132 Hsia Hsiao-Chuan the subjects of my commentaries are about issues of marriage migrants and migrant workers. This anecdote reveals that the concept of “multiculturalism” in Taiwan is contested by many forces: non-Taiwanese (especially international communities whose perceptions about Taiwan that Taiwanese politicians and general public presume would affect Taiwan’s status in international politics); the Taiwanese government; actors in the immigrant movement; and the Taiwanese people. On the one hand, both Taiwanese government and the general public consider “multiculturalism” as the norm, which is why they immediately denied Breivik’s characterization of Taiwan and reassured the “international community” that Taiwan respects multiculturalism. On the other hand, there are those who resent the existence of immigrants and migrants, particularly those from the less developed countries, and consequently are against advocacy and rhetoric promoting their rights. The fact that these people feel the need to send anonymous letters to threaten activists working for im/migrant rights reveals that the immigrant movement has had social impact...