Indigenous Social Policy and Social Inclusion in Taiwan

Jiun-Hao Wang,Szu-Yung Wang

doi:10.3390/su11123458

Abstract

Social exclusion problems are inevitable in achieving social sustainability. Minorities or indigenous people encounter social exclusion from mainstream society in many countries. However, relatively little is known about the multiple disadvantages in different social welfare domains experienced by these indigenes. The objective of this study is to address indigenous social exclusion by focusing on their access to social welfare benefits. Data used in this study were drawn from the Social Change and Policy of Taiwanese Indigenous Peoples Survey, which included 2040 respondents. Logistic regression results revealed that, compared with their counterparts, the likelihood of being excluded from social welfare payments is higher for those who are plains indigenes, live outside of designated indigenous areas and participate less in local organizations. Besides varying the effects of ordinary explanatory variables on social exclusion across different exclusion models, this study further provides empirical evidence of the multidimensional disadvantages of indigenous peoples in receiving needed social welfare benefits.

Highlights

Elimination of inequalities and social exclusion plays a critical role in achieving social sustainability
Inasmuch as our study focuses on the accessibility of social welfare delivery for indigenous peoples rather than general social exclusion issues, our empirical analysis might point towards divergences resulting from indigenous ethnic background and remote traditional residence in influencing social welfare exclusion
For the community or regional characteristics, on average, 4.46 local organizations exist in the community, respondents seldom participated in community organizations and over half of the sample reported that they live in an indigenous traditional territory

Summary

Introduction

Elimination of inequalities and social exclusion plays a critical role in achieving social sustainability. Implementing and achieving SDGs are meaningful for indigenous peoples to preserve a sustainable way of life, in which socio-ecological lifestyle is deeply tied with their territories, livelihoods and natural environment [1]. Despite social policy appearing to function as a redistributing instrument for reducing inequalities between the general population and vulnerable groups such as persons with disabilities and minorities, indigenous peoples suffer from lower income growth, educational attainment, medical expenses and even shorter life expectancy compared with non-indigenous people [2,3,4]. Several factors may underlie the differences between the ethnic group and its counterpart, such as lower educational attainment and higher unemployment rate (please refer to the Table A1 for detailed information) and lack of access to public assistance and medical care because of geographic remoteness, insufficient information and communication [2]. Relatively little is known about the social exclusion of ethnic minorities, in the field of the social welfare system itself

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion