‘Tai-Lao’ in Australia and ‘Losers’ in Taiwan: the stigma of working holidaymakers in neoliberal Taiwan

Abstract

ABSTRACT ‘Tai-Lao’ is a Chinese term which literally means low-skilled migrant workers from the lower class in Taiwan. In current Taiwanese society, this phrase is used to criticise those young Taiwanese who encounter difficulties in the competition for white-collar jobs in Taiwan and travel to Australia for a working holiday. Based on 31 in-depth interviews with Taiwanese working holidaymakers conducted in Taiwan, this paper argues that, surprisingly, a working holiday is regarded as downward mobility in Taiwan although it is a type of temporary migration to the West. Therefore, ‘Tai-Lao’ is a stigma that works as a classed form of symbolic violence in Taiwanese society. This violence, which stems from neoliberal ideology, further reproduces this stigma through middle-class expectations of global perspectives in Taiwan. In order to avoid being labelled as ‘Tai-Lao’, Taiwanese working holidaymakers try to redefine the Tai-Lao identity from a Western perspective. However, it is still difficult to reduce this stigma due to their lack of personal achievements in the Taiwanese labour market. Only those returnees who successfully commodify their own Western experience and increase their personal market value are able to destigmatise themselves and regard ‘being Tai-Lao’ as a process of being successful within Taiwan’s neoliberal system.