**5. Research methods**

#### **5.1 Fieldwork**

In Taiwan, live-in care workers suffering abuse from employers cannot seek help via existing channels designed to prevent domestic violence. Help mostly comes from churchaffiliated NGOs providing shelter for battered migrant women workers. Most of these battered migrant women living in shelters submit arbitrations and wait to be transferred to other employers. Few file to sue for physical harm, sexual assault, or rape committed by their previous employers. Therefore, it was impossible for researchers to reach sexually abused migrant women workers directly, and all study participants were referred by church-affiliated NGO personnel throughout Taiwan.

#### **5.2 Data collection**

This study conducted fieldworks, including participant observation and in-depth interviews, between Sept. 2006 and Nov. 2007. Initially, this study performed participant observation at St. Christopher Catholic Church in Taipei as well as shelters for migrant workers organized by church-affiliated NGOs. Subsequently, this study performed indepth interviews with 16 migrant women workers. Five of the 16 migrant women workers interviewed had experienced sexual abuse at the hands of their employers or their families, and three had experienced both sexual and physical abuse. The discussion in the following section is thus derived mainly from these five sexually abused migrant women workers.

Each interview lasted approximately 1.5-3.5 hours, and were mostly conducted either in English, in Chinese, or in the native language of the interviewees (with the assistance of translator). All participants were asked questions regarding their employers, their reasons for working in Taiwan, their living and working conditions, the process and pattern of abuse, and their efforts to seek help. All participants were fully informed of the study objectives, and in-depth interviews were conducted after obtaining written or verbal informed consent. Each study participant was provided with a US\$ 20~\$25 gift. All interviews were audio-recorded and transcripts are analyzed.

### **5.3 Participants**

228 Sexual Abuse – Breaking the Silence

In sum, patrilineal kinship reinforces the power disparities between migrant women workers and their employers. However, the institutions of both immigration and labor system support this exploitation by patriarchal culture. Global migration can transform the traditional patriarchy faced by live-in care workers in their natal families, but the living and working conditions they face during their employment tie them to a multifaceted

One might expect that globalization lead to global migration, which would then attract the attention of scholars in different academic disciplines to study the different aspects of the global migration. There are indeed many such studies but very few of them are related to sexual abuse against migrant care workers. Furthermore, due to feminist advocacy, research on sexual violence against women has become important. Yet the sexual violence against migrant women is still ignored. So this chapter uses data drawn from in-depth interviews and documents from newspaper reports to examine the situations faced by live-in care

In Taiwan, live-in care workers suffering abuse from employers cannot seek help via existing channels designed to prevent domestic violence. Help mostly comes from churchaffiliated NGOs providing shelter for battered migrant women workers. Most of these battered migrant women living in shelters submit arbitrations and wait to be transferred to other employers. Few file to sue for physical harm, sexual assault, or rape committed by their previous employers. Therefore, it was impossible for researchers to reach sexually abused migrant women workers directly, and all study participants were referred by

This study conducted fieldworks, including participant observation and in-depth interviews, between Sept. 2006 and Nov. 2007. Initially, this study performed participant observation at St. Christopher Catholic Church in Taipei as well as shelters for migrant workers organized by church-affiliated NGOs. Subsequently, this study performed indepth interviews with 16 migrant women workers. Five of the 16 migrant women workers interviewed had experienced sexual abuse at the hands of their employers or their families, and three had experienced both sexual and physical abuse. The discussion in the following section is thus derived mainly from these five sexually abused migrant women workers.

Each interview lasted approximately 1.5-3.5 hours, and were mostly conducted either in English, in Chinese, or in the native language of the interviewees (with the assistance of translator). All participants were asked questions regarding their employers, their reasons for working in Taiwan, their living and working conditions, the process and pattern of abuse, and their efforts to seek help. All participants were fully informed of the study objectives, and in-depth interviews were conducted after obtaining written or verbal informed consent. Each study participant was provided with a US\$ 20~\$25 gift. All

workers in Taiwanese households within the context of transnational migration.

oppression.

**5. Research methods** 

church-affiliated NGO personnel throughout Taiwan.

interviews were audio-recorded and transcripts are analyzed.

**5.1 Fieldwork** 

**5.2 Data collection** 

Table 1 lists the characteristics of the five migrant domestic workers who experienced sexual abuse by their employers (all identified by pseudonyms). Three of the five are from Vietnam, and two are from Indonesia and they are in their thirties and early forties. All but one was married and had children. All had experienced overwork, and some also had experienced inadequate rest and food. Additionally, they were frequently prevented from contacting friends, threatened with deportation, and subject to withholding of salary and documentation.


Table 1. Portraits of Sexual Violence against Migrant Women Workers

#### **5.4 Data analysis**

All of the interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. Each transcript was checked and read by two persons, the researcher and research assistant, to maximize familiarity with the phenomenon of abuse and ensure consistent interpretation. Thematic analysis was adopted for the data analysis. Data were interpreted based on categories related to socio-cultural contexts, family care and housework arrangements in everyday situations, and the concept of micro disciplinary technology was adopted to describe physical and sexual abuse. This study also probed scenarios and activities that can be identified and assigned to thematic interpretations of the problems of sexual abuse faced by these five migrant domestic workers in the Taiwanese households in which they worked.

#### **5.5 Documentary analysis**

This study conducted a documentary analysis of the newspaper reports and court transcripts to understand the situation faced by sexually abused migrant women workers. Since 1992, there were approximately 104 cases of sexual violence against live-in care workers reported by the newspapers. Perpetrators of fifty-five cases (approximately 53%) reported by the newspapers were sentenced while 49 cases were not guilty.

Beauty was employed by a typical Taiwanese family composed of multiple households and enormous numbers of relatives. Beauty had to do housework for these family relatives everyday. Rising at 4:30 am, Beauty began cleaning and washing up, then took 'A-Ma' (the mother of her employer) to the nearby park to exercise. Beauty then had to return home sufficiently early to prepare breakfasts for the family. In the daytime, all family members went to school or work. Alone with only 'A-Ma' and a young baby girl, Beauty was responsible for taking care of them. While the baby was sleeping after lunch, she had to do housework for nearby relatives and then returned to prepare dinner. By the time she had completed all of her work, it was typically almost 11 pm. Usually Beauty took her meals only after everyone else had finished, but she said that since the family gave her enough to

An incident occurred when Beauty was cleaning the house of the older brother of her employer. Beauty and the older brother of her employer were the only persons at home, and the brother, lying on the bed dressed only in his underpants, asked her for a massage. As Beauty later said, 'that was really embarrassing'. Beauty gently refused and complained to 'A-Ma' when she returned home. Unfortunately, the situation did not improve, and on a subsequent occasion the older brother touched her inappropriately while she was working at his home. She ran back home and complained to 'A-Ma' again, and in response was

During the interview, Beauty had already spent several months living in a shelter operated by the church-affiliated NOG, and was waiting for a new assignment to another household. After suffering an incident of sexual harassment, Beauty preferred not to complain because,

Omar is a 36 year old Indonesian woman who is married and a mother of two sons. Omar was working in Taiwan for the first time, after having previously worked for six years in Malaysia and Brunei. The household of her employer comprised eight family members, including the couple employing her, their parents, their three young children, and one adult brother. Besides caring for this large household, Omar also had to do housework for another

Omar had to get up at 6 am every day and begin the daily work of cleaning the five-story house, washing clothes, and preparing breakfast for the parents of the employer, 'A-Ma' and

Omar suffered sexual harassment from 'A-koun', the 77 year old father of her employer, who had limited mental function. Despite working in a big house, Omar had no private space of her own, instead sharing a room with the parents of her employer where she slept on the floor beside their bed. At night, 'A-koun' frequently touched her. She complained about this situation to 'A-Ma' (his wife) who did nothing to help but did become jealous.

One afternoon when Omar was bathing 'A'Koun', he asked her for sexual services. Subsequently, 'A-koun' played with himself in front of Omar, and continued to do this regularly. When Omar complained to her broker, the employer, and 'A-Ma', their response was simply 'it is okay, he is just an old man. It doesn't matter'. Omar felt sad and angry that

in her words: "every member of this family was good to me".

brother of her employer, who was married and lived nearby.

'A-koun.' She also prepared lunch and dinner for the whole family.

eat she felt it was okay.

dismissed without reason.

**6.2 Case 2** 

Furthermore, this study also used data from court transcripts. Between 2001 and 2010, there were nine cases from judicial court. Seven perpetrators of nine cases were sentenced while two perpetrators were not guilty. Six victims of nine cases are Indonesian and the other three victims are from Filipina, Vietnam, and China. Eight victims of nine cases were sexually abused by their employers and relatives. One victim was sexually abused by her agent. The incident of sexual abuse occurred mainly in the household of their employer while one incident occurred in outside of the employer's household.

The numerical discrepancy between cases reported by newspapers and cases reported by judicial courts is primarily due to the lengthy nature of Criminal Law procedures. Almost no employers are willing to hire abused migrant care workers, and particularly when they are involved in lawsuits. Consequently, most sexually abused migrant care workers choose not to press charges. The cases of some sexually abused migrant care workers are simply not represented in the court records owing to no sentence being handed down.
