National Immigration Agency Research Articles

Perceived organizational support and organizational citizenship behavior-A study of the moderating effect of volunteer participation motivation, and cross-level effect of transformational leadership and organizational climate.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between perceived organizational support and organizational citizenship behavior, and to explore the moderating effect of volunteer participation motivation on the relationship between the variables, as well as the cross-level effect of transformational leadership and organizational climate. In this study, the front-liners of Taiwan's National Immigration Agency were the study subjects. A total of 289 employee questionnaires were filled out and returned. It was found that employees' POS had a positive effect on OCB, while volunteer participation motivation had a moderating effect on the relationships between the variables. Furthermore, transformational leadership and organizational climate were found to have a cross-level effect on enhancing employees' POS, boosting their motivation to volunteer, and triggering more OCB in employees. The results of this study provide the organization with development measures to encourage its employees to convey more OCB, and improve their service performance. Moreover, based on research evidence that an organization encourages employees to actively participate in voluntary work, and should promote cooperation between the employees and the public by enhancing their sense of public responsibility, improving their services to the public, creating a harmonious work climate for the employees, and offering more opportunities for the public to engage with the employees.

OUTLAWS ON THE JADE ISLAND: RUNAWAY VIETNAMESE MIGRANT WORKERS IN TAIWAN

The phenomenon of ‘runaway’ migrant contract workers in Taiwan has attracted the attention of both the Taiwanese and Vietnamese governments. According to the National Immigration Agency in Taiwan, by 31 October 2017, the total number of runaway foreign workers was 52,891. Of these, Vietnamese workers were the largest subgroup, at 25,626 people. This research draws on data from in-depth interviews with 49 ‘runaway’ Vietnamese migrant workers in Taiwan. This research study not only explores the factors that force some Vietnamese migrant workers to give up their legal status and become outlaws in Taiwan, but it also provides a detailed understanding of the daily lives and working conditions of illegal Vietnamese workers. This research study reveals that migrant social networks play an important role in the lives of Vietnamese workers, offering a vital source of material and psychological support. Moreover, the research also shows how huge debt and guest-worker policies force Vietnamese migrant workers to run away. Keywords: Vietnam, foreign worker, illegal working, runaway migrant workers/escaping migrant workers, social network, Taiwan

The relationship between work characteristics and change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior

PurposeImproving employees’ change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is important because of the work content and service nature of the National Immigration Agency (NIA). The purpose of this paper, which targeted immigration workers using the work design model (knowledge oriented), leadership types and organizational climate as perspectives, is to study immigration workers’ change-oriented OCB. Inspecting the knowledge-oriented work characteristics (KOWCs) of the NIA of Taiwan to find ways of stimulating change-oriented OCB through employees’ high self-efficacy is also critical. The investigators also explored how transformational leadership and organizational climate directly affect employees’ change-oriented OCB in a cross-level organization.Design/methodology/approachThe subject of this research is the frontline immigration workers of Taiwan’s NIA, with its entire staff on duty at the country’s airports and ports as targets of the research. This study used a total of 312 questionnaires.FindingsAt the group level, transformational leadership shows significant positive influence on organizational climate. KOWCs can positively influence self-efficacy and affect change-oriented OCB on an individual basis; similarly, self-efficacy can also positively impact the individual’s change-oriented OCB. In addition, transformational leadership and organizational climate have a contextual effect on the outcome variable on an individual basis.Originality/valueThis finding is helpful for researching and practicing implications of HRM, such as in further understanding how the motivation from work characteristics, organization’s environment and interpersonal networks can increase employees’ change-oriented OCB.

Task-oriented work characteristics, self-efficacy, and service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior

PurposeBorder management, barring illegal foreign workers, and immigrant counseling are three major functions of the National Immigration Agency (NIA) of Taiwan. These functions are composed of traditional “job” as well as social “work” characteristics. In other words, these functions have shifted from a “position”-based job design to an “overall operation”-based work design that incorporates environmental and situational factors. The purpose of this paper is to examine frontline immigration workers in Taiwan in order to determine how the motivational (task-oriented) and social work (social-oriented) characteristics (SWCs) of the immigration work design model influence immigration workers’ organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs).Design/methodology/approachThe authors collected 312 questionnaires, of which 304 were valid, with 230 completed by men and 74 by women.FindingsThe results revealed that SWCs and collective efficacy at the group level had significantly positive effects on collective efficacy and service-oriented OCB, respectively. Task-oriented work characteristics had positive effects on self-efficacy and thus on individual level service-oriented OCB, and self-efficacy also had positive effects on individual service-oriented OCB. Both SWCs and collective efficacy had a contextual effect on individual-level outcome variables. Furthermore, the combination of SWCs with self-efficacy had cross-level effects on individuals’ service-oriented OCB.Originality/valueThese findings can enhance people’s understanding of how the social and motivational power of work characteristics can encourage employees to exhibit service-oriented OCB. This implies that the NIA can stimulate individual self-motivation and affect group-level efficacy and service-oriented OCB through the environmental context and social relationship characteristics of border affairs brigades (branches).

Simulation method for dispatching national border security manpower to mitigate manpower shortage

Recently, a record number of passengers have entered and exited Taiwan from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TTIA). The number of passengers from Taiwan to mainland China has increased largely because of the improvement of cross-strait cultural interaction and other policies, as well as the opening of direct flights. Not only located in the transport hub of the East Asia Taoyuan International Airport is becoming more important and can provide 24 h Airport service, but also airport immigration officers must take 24 h shift to carry out the passenger document inspection requirement, Immigration officers can be fatigued by long shifts, thus negatively affecting border security clearance efficiency and work performance. Consequently, innovative management practices regarding immigration officers are necessary to strengthen international cooperation against terrorism. This study used system simulation Delphi interviews and a heuristic algorithm to determine the required number of airport immigration officers during a fixed passenger waiting time, for improving the efficiency and stability of airport immigration officers who work to consolidate the border security of the country. The results showed that the utilization of airport immigration officers at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is higher than 97.99%, and their work hours have been reduced by more than 54.68%. These results proved that using a system simulation can reduce long work shifts and negligence, which can lead improved border security and airport service quality. Additionally, the simulation results that when the National Immigration Agency and Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport implement the biometrics verification system for noncitizens, significant manpower shortages are expected. These shortages can cause complaints from customers and result in a negative image of the quality of airport service. Assigning priority to setting the E-GATE system to compensate for the lack of immigration officers would result in more efficient and effective border security.

The Effects of Person-Environment Fit and External Locus of Control on Organizational Affective Commitment: a Study of Immigrant Wives in Taiwan

The National Immigration Agency of Taiwan reported that, by 2014, more than 498,000 immigrant spouses were registered in Taiwanese households, 91 % of which was female. Immigrant wives are now a significant part of Taiwanese society, and they are an important aspect of the labor force in Taiwan’s economy. However, they face major challenges in the workplace, which influences their work outcomes, results in a reduced labor force for enterprises, and increases societal costs. This pioneering study employed the person-environment fit and locus of control concepts from the organizational behavior field to address this issue. A sample of 130 immigrant wives from Indonesia and Vietnam living in Taiwan was surveyed. The results of a hierarchical regression analysis found that immigrant wives’ person-job fit and person-supervisor fit significantly influenced their affective commitments to their workplaces. An external locus of control significantly weakened the relationship between person-environment fit and affective commitment. The contributions and implications of the study results were discussed.

The “Fake Marriage” Test in Taiwan: Gender, Sexuality, and Border Control

According to many reports, migrant sex workers often use marriages of convenience to cross national borders in order to avoid laws criminalizing commercial sex in many destination countries. Taiwan is one of the countries developing strategies to prevent this illicit migration, particularly through the application of a fake marriage test. Based on in-depth interviews with eighteen Chinese migrant sex workers and thirteen officers of Taiwan’s National Immigration Agency (NIA), this article argues, first, that the discourse of “national security” has been widely drawn on to justify Taiwan’s rigid border control at the expense of stigmatized Chinese prostitutes who have been scapegoated. Border control is therefore not only racialized or classed but also sexualized, to the extent that all Chinese migrant women are considered potential prostitutes. Second, this article reveals how the exclusion of and hostility toward Chinese sex workers are simultaneously linked with a gender regime that seeks to exclude Chinese spouses who deviate from Taiwanese gender and social norms. The border is therefore a contested site where gender, sexuality, and nationality are interwoven.

Modelling International Tourist Arrivals and Volatility: An Application to Taiwan

International tourism is a major source of export receipts for many countries worldwide. Although it is not yet one of the most important industries in Taiwan (or the Republic of China), an island in East Asia off the coast of mainland China (or the People's Republic of China), the leading tourism source countries for Taiwan are Japan, followed by USA, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, UK, Germany and Australia. These countries reflect short, medium and long haul tourist destinations. Although the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong are large sources of tourism to Taiwan, the political situation is such that tourists from these two sources to Taiwan are reported as domestic tourists. Daily data from 1 January 1990 to 30 June 2007 are obtained from the National Immigration Agency of Taiwan. The Heterogeneous Autoregressive (HAR) model is used to capture long memory properties in the data. In comparison with the HAR(1) model, the estimated asymmetry coefficients for GJR(1,1) are not statistically significant for the HAR(1,7) and HAR(1,7,28) models, so that their respective GARCH(1,1) counterparts are to be preferred. These empirical results show that the conditional volatility estimates are sensitive to the long memory nature of the conditional mean specifications. Although asymmetry is observed for the HAR(1) model, there is no evidence of leverage. The QMLE for the GARCH(1,1), GJR(1,1) and EGARCH(1,1) models for international tourist arrivals to Taiwan are statistically adequate and have sensible interpretations. However, asymmetry (though not leverage) was found only for the HAR(1) model, and not for the HAR(1,7) and HAR(1,7,28) models.