In 2019 the Federation of International Human Rights Museums established their Asia‡Pacific branch (FIHRM‡AP) at Taiwan’s National Human Rights Museum (NHRM), making Taiwan an important platform for promoting respect for human rights. With thoughts focused on current human rights issues in the Asia‡Pacific region, the NHRM plans to bring together ­domestic and foreign museums, NGOs, and human rights advocates in building a cultural landscape for human rights through exhibitions and arts activities.

In response to the theme for International Museum Day 2020, “Museums for Equality: Diversity and Inclusion,” the topic of migrants’ human rights is the first to be addressed by the NHRM within the FIHRM‡AP framework. In this exhibit the NHRM will focus on migrant workers, who are intimately involved in Taiwanese society yet are often overlooked, and will guide the public to discover and overcome their own prejudices.

At workshops, NGOs described the difficulties facing foreign migrant workers in Taiwan. The curators used these observations to devise exhibits that ordinary people can understand, in the hope that more people can help find solutions to migrant workers’ issues. (courtesy of National Human Rights Museum)

Collectively depicting migrant workers

In 2020 the NHRM invited 15 domestic museums and 15 NGOs with established track records of advocacy on behalf of migrant workers (such as the Taiwan International Workers Association) to share the various aspects of migrant workers’ lives on which they focus, and to join with the NHRM in curating the Special Exhibition on the Human Rights of Migrants, to enable more people to hear the voices of migrant workers.

In a spirit of mutual learning, the NHRM set aside the usual practice of having researchers or curators do field research, after which a production team implements the project, with the informational content and presentation all being decided by curators. Instead, the exhibition is being planned through “curatorial workshops” that empower NGOs to express their views. Hide and Seek Audiovisual Art, which is tasked with designing the exhibi­tion, first visited each NGO, then compiled a list of over 100 keywords and arranged a series of brainstorming workshops with the NGOs, out of which curator Lin Chen Wei and the Hide and Seek team drew together the NGOs’ opinions. After numerous such workshop discussions, plans were finalized for an exhibition that will depict the difficulties faced by migrant workers through themes such as the needs of Taiwanese citizens in their daily lives, the nature of migrant workers’ workplaces, migrant workers’ basic needs as human beings, the migrant labor employment and management system, and the complementary role of NGOs.

Hide and Seek states that their initial idea for the exhibition’s design was to piece together scenes from migrant workers’ lives, with content such as wheelchairs and fishing boats. But as discussions progressed, the perspective of the exhibition shifted increasingly toward “letting Taiwanese see the presence of migrant workers in their daily lives.” In homes, in factories, on distant-­water fishing vessels… everywhere in Taiwan there are migrant workers. From fresh seafood to mobile phone chips to metro systems, in so many areas of life Taiwanese are able to enjoy convenience only thanks to the dedicated efforts of foreign laborers.

However, for the majority of Taiwan’s people, migrant workers are simply outsiders, and no one pays attention to their daily needs and work environments. Therefore, in the exhibition Hide and Seek plans to use large-scale graphics to draw attention to the countless ways in which migrant workers make an impact in the lives of Taiwanese. Walking through the exhibition space, the content will depict the lives of migrant workers in ­Taiwan in broad strokes and in detail, in categories ranging from daily needs and work environments to government policies and systems, to achieve the exhibition’s goal of “bringing our previously blurred image of migrant workers into sharp focus,” says Lin Chen Wei.

Special Exhibition on the Human Rights of Migrants

Unrecognized prejudices in daily life

In a free and democratic country like Taiwan, which emphasizes human rights, no one will see themselves as disregarding these rights. But there are many occasions in daily life when unintentional biases appear. Shih Yi-hsiang, secretary general of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, who has long been involved in the issue of migrant workers’ human rights, shares the example of a local news report that stated that migrant workers were adversely affecting local residents’ use of a park by using it as a space to customize their electric bi­cycles. In the report the neighborhood chief emphasized that there was no legislation to regulate such activities, and a bike parts shop proprietor said that the migrant workers were frivolously spending large sums of money remodeling these machines. The whole orientation of the report was based on preconceived notions, portraying the migrant workers as a source of trouble. In his media literacy class in university Shih reminds students that the report lacks any comments from the migrant workers themselves, and adds that by customizing and upgrading the bikes they may acquire technical skills that are of benefit to indus­try. In short, there are different angles from which to look at the same situation.

Another example is that recently some local govern­ments, as part of their epidemic control work, have proposed an “amnesty” for runaway migrant workers in order to encourage them to come forward for Covid-19 screening. Most people would find nothing odd about this, but Allison Lee, secretary-general of the Yilan Migrant Fishermen Union (YMFU), has a different take on the matter: “If they leave their workplaces, they shouldn’t be seen as ‘running away’ or as committing a crime, so they shouldn’t need any ‘amnesty.’” Lee explains that whereas Taiwanese who don’t like their work or their employer can freely change jobs, under Taiwan’s migrant worker policy laborers are tied to the employer to whom they are contracted, and cannot change jobs at will. The threat of reporting workers as “runaways” has become a weapon used by employers and labor brokers to intimidate employ­ees. If a migrant worker is faced with intolerable conditions in their workplace, their only avenue to express their dissatisfaction is to abscond. The public unwittingly accepts the label “runaway migrant workers,” but in fact there are more complex structural reasons behind their actions, and we need to put ourselves in migrant ­workers’ shoes to understand why they flee in the first place.

Allison Lee (second from right) has decided to devote her life to protecting migrant workers. She collects winter clothing for fishing boat crew and fights for their rights. She says that when she prioritizes migrant workers’ problems, she forgets her own difficulties and fears. (courtesy of Allison Lee)

Coming together to find hope

The goal of the exhibition is to awaken self-reflection and awareness among Taiwanese, with the curators adopting the approach of using emotional appeals to help people understand the somewhat arcane topic of migrants’ human rights. Chang Wen-hsin of the Exhibi­tion and Education Office of the NHRM says with a smile that all the NGOs involved have the ability to curate an exhibition, and they proposed many ideas to make things easier for the general public to understand. For example, a coffin will be used to display the living space of fishing boat crew, which is so narrow they can’t turn over or sit up. Also, a dramatization was created to illustrate the lack of privacy of home care workers, who are often told not to lock the doors of the bathroom or their bedrooms. In these ways the curators hope the exhibi­tion can forge links between migrant workers and the people of Taiwan, and show them that migrant workers are people too, and should enjoy the same human rights as Taiwanese.

Drawing attention to issues will perhaps spark action and bring opportunity for change. Allison Lee left her job at the Taipei City Department of Labor to take up an unpaid position at the YMFU simply because she saw how disadvantaged and helpless foreign workers are in labor‡management disputes. She formed Taiwan’s first union of foreign fishing boat crew, and, fearless of the local powers that be, helps migrant workers to secure their rights. Andi Kao, from Cornell University in the US, saw Lee’s story on the Internet, and took the initiative to come to Taiwan to do an internship. Besides helping out at the YMFU he went to Keelung, where he lived side by side with migrant workers and helped them form the Keelung Migrant Fishermen’s Union. With the second union established, the YMFU hopes to be able to join the International Transportation Workers’ Federation, to garner more international support on issues relating to migrant workers.

As for the Special Exhibition on the Human Rights of Migrants, which is due to open in the second half of 2021, the NHRM hopes that beyond the exhibition’s impact in Taiwan itself, through the FIHRM‡AP it can foster dialogue with foreign organizations. In the past, migrant workers have perhaps chosen to come to Taiwan because they saw how people from their home area had improved their economic situations by working here. But migrant workers tend to report only good news to people back home, and rarely speak of the difficulties they encounter. Thus much of the information that their compatriots receive is one-sided, and foreign workers may not be aware what kind of life awaits them in Taiwan. With this in mind, the NHRM hopes to bring the exhibition to the homelands of migrant workers and create opportunities for discussion, so that more people get involved in issues related to migrant workers and think about possibilities for change.

Migrant workers supplement the workforce in sectors where there is a shortfall of labor, such as long-term care and labor-intensive industries. Improving the living environment of migrant workers also improves the overall working environment for all. Only in this way can we work hand in hand for a better tomorrow.