Why is our deployment of caretakers to Taiwan only 24,000 OFWs compared to Indonesia’s 180,000 and slowly going down with the annual demand for caretakers in Taiwan set at 10,000 yearly?
Taiwan a highly developed economy and our nearest neighbor has an aging population of 530,000 senior citizens over 80 years old and increasing yearly that would necessitate the demand for more caregivers in the next five years.
Taiwan offers a monthly salary for caregivers $ 550-600 USD equivalent to P 35,000 thousand pesos compared to $ 400 USD monthly salary for domestic workers set by the DMW.
The Philippines was the pioneer in the caretakers deployment in the early 2000’s until 2010 when we had to reduce deployment as caretakers were re-classified by the POEA\DMW as unskilled and included in the domestic workers category prohibiting the collection of placement fees.
This move resulted in lower deployment of caretakers to Taiwan as many agencies sending workers did not want to violate the no placement rule that results in immediate cancellation of their license.
In meantime Indonesia moved into the caretaker market with the decline of Philippine deployment in the caretaker labor market.
At present there are 230,000 caretakers in Taiwan, 180,000 Indonesia, 25,000 Philippines, 15,000 Vietnam ad 300 from Thailand.
Meanwhile the group of agencies sending to Taiwan has continuously appealed to the Department of Migrant Workers to re-classify caretakers as semi-skilled workers as their work requires additional training and experience to be able to fully satisfy the work for senior citizens of Taiwan.
According to migrant expert Emmanuel Geslani Taiwan is a better alternative for women who want to work as caretakers\domestic workers for Taiwan with the higher salary and environment for senior citizen care compared to other countries in the East
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