Why Do People Leave Taiwan?

What a recent death of an Eva Airlines flight attendant reveals

One of the saddest things about Taiwan is how terribly it treats workers.

It’s not just low salaries that cause a lot of the best and brightest to leave, work environments in Taiwan can be extremely poor, everything from bad management, abusive management, inefficient focus on presentee-ism over results, nepotism, shoddy facilities, and not responding effectively to the structural limitations small markets and countries face. As such, Taiwan continues to hemorrhage talent.

The recent Eva Airlines saga is a reflection of the awfulness of Taiwanese corporate culture. Refusing to pay workers living wages, overworking them, and rote incompetence. It’s not a surprise the birthrate is so low because of poor economic prospects and a culture of overwork.

Eva Air: Taiwan airline apologises for asking dead flight attendant for paperwork

Outrage after EVA Air asks dead flight attendant to justify leave｜Taiwan News

EVA Air Scandal: Heartless or Clueless? Company Asked ‘Dead’ Employee to Justify Leave During Own Funeral | IBTimes UK

I bring up this example because there is a certain foreigner class that lives in Taiwan because they can afford comforts they can’t in their home countries. They do what can be considered as a type of performative enthusiasm about how much they love Taiwan and take up disproportionate space in English language content about Taiwan for their own benefit. Given malaise in a lot of Western countries and lack of affordability, there are some niches they can still exploit and arbitrage to afford a comparatively better lifestyle in a different country.

The opposite is true for a certain globally talented and educated class. There’s a reason why so many ambitious people from smaller market countries, especially in finance, tech, and entertainment eventually end up in the US. If you’re a potential high earner in tech or have an elite education, you can access a great life in the West. A lot of the problems in North America that Asian social media tends to hype up are avoidable if you’re a high tech earner, and the schools or private service you can afford outstrips the quality in Taiwan. There are far more opportunities and entertainment options in places like New York and LA.

A lot of Taiwanese who don’t want to leave Asia end up in Singapore, where we have unique advantages due to Chinese competency language, favorable government policies, and can earn salaries several times over in better work environments. When things were more open and friendly, many Taiwanese found their fortunes in China.

What Taiwan and other East Asian countries have done well on is public spending and policy that results in a great quality of life for the mass public in terms of providing safe environments, healthcare for all, amazing public transit, etc., but lack opportunities for potential high earners and entrepreneurial class.

However, unlike other small rich countries that have better labor protections and moved up the value chain in the service economy, the Nordics and the Baltic States, for example, Taiwan’s economy is stagnant outside of tech and workers are treated poorly by comparison.

As such, many of Taiwan’s best and brightest look beyond. This is especially the case for those who are talented and don’t come from multi-generational family wealth.

There’s a lesson and opportunity here for companies in Taiwan struggling with employee retention and take the lessons of psychological safety and examples of more modern companies like PicCollege or ASE to move the needle in the right direction.