9 January 2024. One month after WBI published the policy brief “Recruitment Fees and Related Costs in Taiwan: Dictionary of English-Chinese Terms” on International Migrants Day on 18 December 2023, we share findings that highlight the impact generated by its release.
The ‘Dictionary Brief’, authored by our Executive Director, Dr Bonny Ling, with the assistance of our Project Officer, Shuhan Lin, is the first of its kind to better align recruitment-related terms across English and Chinese for Taiwan.
We released the Brief on International Migrants Day to recognise the valuable contributions made by migrants worldwide in alignment to this day’s special significance.
Its objective centres on the removal of linguistic misunderstanding as a barrier to responsible recruitment in the migration corridors to Taiwan.
“We often talk about different things across the English-Chinese language divide. International terms sometimes do not translate well. Colloquial terms can be confusing because they have no basis in law. It can be a linguistic challenge.” – Dr Ling
Even though the Brief was released in the run up to Christmas, we hoped, nonetheless, that it would make a significant impact in its target jurisdiction: Taiwan. The statistics found since confirm this.
Nearly half of the total readership came from Taiwan. Since its release, we have had conversations with practitioners in Taiwan (academics, journalists and many others) who reached out to discuss the bilingual tables of the dictionary of terms.
The prominent think tank, Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation (TAEF), announced our ‘Dictionary Brief’ as their first post in 2024 on their Facebook to their audience of 8,000 followers.
TAEF is the first policy-oriented think tank in Taiwan focusing on Southeast Asian and South Asian affairs. TAEF also hosts Taiwan’s annual Yushan Forum to strengthen ties with South and Southeast Asia.
We are pleased to see that the ‘Dictionary’ is increasing access to education on recruitment fees and recruitment-related costs for our intended audiences and beyond.
We hope that, by engaging with this brief, readers will acquire a better, clearer understanding of the terminology used across the CHINESE-ENGLISH divide, to consequently build more robust advocacy for responsible recruitment.
This “Dictionary Brief,” we hope, does exactly what it says — helping all who advocate for responsible recruitment to navigate across the language divide. We need to have conceptual clarity on the terms of cross-border recruitment.” – Dr Bonny Ling
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to, read and supported this Policy Brief! We will release a complete Chinese version shortly. In the meantime, the tables are already bilingual to assist readers and practitioners in the conversion of terms in both languages.
Last, but not least, our strong subject matter expertise in international labour standards and human rights with specialisation on Asia and Taiwan can advise your business in fair recruitment and decent work for all. Get in touch!
