**6. The family secret of multiple abuse**

Taiwan currently hosts an estimated 190,000 live-in care workers, mainly from Indonesia and Vietnam. Restricted by onerous regulations associated with the foreign labor system, migrant women workers often experience workplace exploitation and abuse. Despite the high risk of sexual abuse at the hands of employers, few official complaints are made and few stories of abuse become public. Such incidents of sexual abuse frequently remain secret because of the isolated nature of workplaces and the deep social stigma associated with sexual assault.

As Radford & Tsutsumi (2004) observed, globalization increased opportunities for violence by men in rich countries against poor women from the Third World. However, the abusers include both female and male employers. According to the fieldwork of Pan and Yang (2011), physical abuse against live-in care workers tends to occur following sexual abuse within individual households. Domestic workers suffering sexual abuse at the hands of family members not living in the same household as their employer do not generally also suffer physical abuse. In the case of sexual assaults of domestic workers by perpetrators living in the same household as the employer, victims are frequently also suffering physical abuse at the hands of the wife.

The following cases illustrate the circumstances of three of five study participants who endured sexual abuse during their employment as domestic workers in Taiwan.

#### **6.1 Case 1**

Beauty is a 39 year old married Vietnamese woman and a mother of three children. To improve the living conditions of her family, Beauty decided to work in Taiwan as live-in care worker. The broker told Beauty that she would only be responsible for caring for the brother of her employer, who was suffering from a mental illness. However, after her arrival Beauty was instead sent to care for the father of her employer, who was staying in a hospital. The father died after two months, and Beauty was then sent back to the home of her employer to care for the mother of her employer and his newborn daughter.

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

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

Taiwan currently hosts an estimated 190,000 live-in care workers, mainly from Indonesia and Vietnam. Restricted by onerous regulations associated with the foreign labor system, migrant women workers often experience workplace exploitation and abuse. Despite the high risk of sexual abuse at the hands of employers, few official complaints are made and few stories of abuse become public. Such incidents of sexual abuse frequently remain secret because of the isolated nature of workplaces and the deep social stigma associated with

As Radford & Tsutsumi (2004) observed, globalization increased opportunities for violence by men in rich countries against poor women from the Third World. However, the abusers include both female and male employers. According to the fieldwork of Pan and Yang (2011), physical abuse against live-in care workers tends to occur following sexual abuse within individual households. Domestic workers suffering sexual abuse at the hands of family members not living in the same household as their employer do not generally also suffer physical abuse. In the case of sexual assaults of domestic workers by perpetrators living in the same household as the employer, victims are frequently also suffering physical

The following cases illustrate the circumstances of three of five study participants who

Beauty is a 39 year old married Vietnamese woman and a mother of three children. To improve the living conditions of her family, Beauty decided to work in Taiwan as live-in care worker. The broker told Beauty that she would only be responsible for caring for the brother of her employer, who was suffering from a mental illness. However, after her arrival Beauty was instead sent to care for the father of her employer, who was staying in a hospital. The father died after two months, and Beauty was then sent back to the home of

endured sexual abuse during their employment as domestic workers in Taiwan.

her employer to care for the mother of her employer and his newborn daughter.

while one incident occurred in outside of the employer's household.

represented in the court records owing to no sentence being handed down.

**6. The family secret of multiple abuse** 

sexual assault.

**6.1 Case 1** 

abuse at the hands of the wife.

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 eat she felt it was okay.

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 dismissed without reason.

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

#### **6.2 Case 2**

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

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

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

except when disposing of the garbage in the evening. One day while Snow was waiting for the garbage car, a fellow Vietnamese female worker asked why she had bruises. Snow told this woman her horrible situation and the woman gave her the Vietnamese pastor's cellular

Taiwanese society has low tolerance for sexual violence against women, but migrant women workers are often an exception. The exploitation of migrant women workers as sexual objects is sometimes taken as a way of protecting marital relations by reducing the probability of affairs involving male family members. Consequently, families typically prefer to treat this issue as a family secret, creating a conspiracy of silence. The story of Beauty, described above, reflects this family conspiracy to hide sexual violence against migrant women workers. When Beauty refused to have sex with her employer's brother, her employer immediately sent her to the office of the Department of Labor. In the stories of Omar and Snow, the wives of the perpetrators avoided dealing with the behavior of their husbands, and instead expressed their negative emotions such as anger and jealousy

The most common threat made to migrant women workers was being sent back to their home countries. This threat was frequently made by employers subjecting workers to unreasonable work expectations, including working for multiple employers and providing sexual services. For example, Snow was forced to have sexual relations with her employer under threat of being sent back to Vietnam. Her employer's wife knew of this incident but offered no sympathy, instead yelling: 'why don't you leave my house?' contradicting this on

The reasons behind the prevalence of sexual harassment and assault of migrant women workers in households are unclear. Some attribute the phenomena to a lack of personal space, as occurs in the cases of Omar and Snow, while others attribute it to the patriarchal culture of Taiwan. This study has demonstrated that employers frequently utilize strategies such as threats of dismissal and being sent back to their home countries, as well as coarse language, to discipline female migrant workers and ensure their compliance, obedience and subordination. However, the PGFDW reinforced exploitation in everyday household

The informal and personalized nature of domestic work increases the risk of live-in domestic workers being abused, yet such abuse is rarely reported to the authorities. The results of this study have also revealed the discrepancies of number between abused and reported. For example, since 2001 there were approximately 100 newspaper reports on sexual assaults against migrant women workers in Taiwan, but there were only nine cases presented in Court Proceedings. Besides, according to one advocator of a famous NGO for migrant workers in North Taiwan, the organization provided helps for 400 abused migrant women workers every year, but she believed that the number of being abused migrant women workers should be

Reasons for not reporting to the authorities or not escaping from the workplace are threats by perpetrators to 'terminate the contract' (Min Sheng Daily News, Dec. 3, 2004, A4) and 'send

phone number. Snow phoned the pastor, and then fled the house by taxi.

other occasions by saying 'If you dare to leave, I would not let you back again.'

**7. The media, the law and abused live-in care workers** 

higher than 400 hundred cases (The United Daily News, Oct. 17,2007, C2).

through physically abusing the victims of that behavior.

relationships.

nobody cared about what she was going through. Omar eventually decided not to tolerate her situation any longer and phoned the Department of Labor, which gave her the telephone number of a church-affiliated NGO. She then ran away.

#### **6.3 Case 3**

Snow is a 48 year old married Vietnamese woman and a mother of two sons. To support her poor family, Snow came to Taiwan two years ago to work as a live-in care worker. While she knew that she would have to work for a family with multiple households, she had no idea how harsh the work would turn out to be. Following sexual and physical abuse at the hands of her employers, she eventually underwent psychotherapy at a shelter established by a Vietnamese pastor. The father described his impression of Snow as follows: 'as a human being her dignity was totally destroyed by this family. Recently her smile has returned and she has also gained some weight.'

For the past two years, Snow worked for a middle-aged couple. Her employer was a busy businessman, with a wife who stayed at home. The wife demanded Snow cover her mouth with a surgical mask while in the house. Failure to comply was punished with a US\$3.5 deduction from her salary. Every day Snow had to perform housework for three relatives, including two sisters of her employer, in addition to preparing dinner for the employer and his wife. Consequently, Snow only had time for one meal per day herself. Whether Snow ate lunch depended on her employer's wife. If the wife ate lunch, she might give the leftover rice or noodles to Snow. But if the wife did not eat lunch, Snow also went without lunch. Sometimes Snow was allowed to cook, but only plain noodle soup, without even salt or oil. Consequently Snow was perpetually starving. Facing food deprivation and an excessive burden of housework, Snow lost significant body weight. Snow's employer and his sisters all knew what Snow was experiencing, but nobody was willing to intervene against the wife. The sisters of Snow's employer secretly fed Snow when she worked at their houses.

Snow did not have a room of her own despite the house having numerous empty rooms. Instead, Snow was forced to sleep outside on the balcony. Snow used to put an umbrella up if it was raining, and paid a heavy price if the umbrella did not work. Snow's telephone card was held by her employer's wife, who prevented her from making phone calls. One day when Snow forgot to put her mouth mask on, her employer's wife cursed her hysterically and hit her around the head. Snow was beaten by the wife almost daily, depending on her mood swings.

One day, when her employer was not at home, his wife hit Snow's head against the wall. Snow pleaded for the beating to stop, but the wife continued. Snow eventually fainted and the wife dashed water on her face. Snow asked her broker to come and arrange a change of employer but her broker refused to get involved. The sisters of her employer then cared for Snow and asked her to see the doctor, but Snow was unwilling.

Snow suffered abuse not only from the wife of her employer but also from the employer himself. She recounted that her employer had asked her to have sexual relations with him when his wife was not at home on three or four occasions. When Snow refused, her employer threatened to send her back to Vietnam, and so Snow consented under duress. One day Snow told her employer's wife about this situation, and the wife responded by beating her more frequently than ever. Snow could not talk to anyone outside the family

nobody cared about what she was going through. Omar eventually decided not to tolerate her situation any longer and phoned the Department of Labor, which gave her the telephone

Snow is a 48 year old married Vietnamese woman and a mother of two sons. To support her poor family, Snow came to Taiwan two years ago to work as a live-in care worker. While she knew that she would have to work for a family with multiple households, she had no idea how harsh the work would turn out to be. Following sexual and physical abuse at the hands of her employers, she eventually underwent psychotherapy at a shelter established by a Vietnamese pastor. The father described his impression of Snow as follows: 'as a human being her dignity was totally destroyed by this family. Recently her smile has returned and

For the past two years, Snow worked for a middle-aged couple. Her employer was a busy businessman, with a wife who stayed at home. The wife demanded Snow cover her mouth with a surgical mask while in the house. Failure to comply was punished with a US\$3.5 deduction from her salary. Every day Snow had to perform housework for three relatives, including two sisters of her employer, in addition to preparing dinner for the employer and his wife. Consequently, Snow only had time for one meal per day herself. Whether Snow ate lunch depended on her employer's wife. If the wife ate lunch, she might give the leftover rice or noodles to Snow. But if the wife did not eat lunch, Snow also went without lunch. Sometimes Snow was allowed to cook, but only plain noodle soup, without even salt or oil. Consequently Snow was perpetually starving. Facing food deprivation and an excessive burden of housework, Snow lost significant body weight. Snow's employer and his sisters all knew what Snow was experiencing, but nobody was willing to intervene against the wife. The sisters of Snow's employer secretly fed Snow when she worked at their houses.

Snow did not have a room of her own despite the house having numerous empty rooms. Instead, Snow was forced to sleep outside on the balcony. Snow used to put an umbrella up if it was raining, and paid a heavy price if the umbrella did not work. Snow's telephone card was held by her employer's wife, who prevented her from making phone calls. One day when Snow forgot to put her mouth mask on, her employer's wife cursed her hysterically and hit her around the head. Snow was beaten by the wife almost daily, depending on her

One day, when her employer was not at home, his wife hit Snow's head against the wall. Snow pleaded for the beating to stop, but the wife continued. Snow eventually fainted and the wife dashed water on her face. Snow asked her broker to come and arrange a change of employer but her broker refused to get involved. The sisters of her employer then cared for

Snow suffered abuse not only from the wife of her employer but also from the employer himself. She recounted that her employer had asked her to have sexual relations with him when his wife was not at home on three or four occasions. When Snow refused, her employer threatened to send her back to Vietnam, and so Snow consented under duress. One day Snow told her employer's wife about this situation, and the wife responded by beating her more frequently than ever. Snow could not talk to anyone outside the family

Snow and asked her to see the doctor, but Snow was unwilling.

number of a church-affiliated NGO. She then ran away.

**6.3 Case 3** 

mood swings.

she has also gained some weight.'

except when disposing of the garbage in the evening. One day while Snow was waiting for the garbage car, a fellow Vietnamese female worker asked why she had bruises. Snow told this woman her horrible situation and the woman gave her the Vietnamese pastor's cellular phone number. Snow phoned the pastor, and then fled the house by taxi.

Taiwanese society has low tolerance for sexual violence against women, but migrant women workers are often an exception. The exploitation of migrant women workers as sexual objects is sometimes taken as a way of protecting marital relations by reducing the probability of affairs involving male family members. Consequently, families typically prefer to treat this issue as a family secret, creating a conspiracy of silence. The story of Beauty, described above, reflects this family conspiracy to hide sexual violence against migrant women workers. When Beauty refused to have sex with her employer's brother, her employer immediately sent her to the office of the Department of Labor. In the stories of Omar and Snow, the wives of the perpetrators avoided dealing with the behavior of their husbands, and instead expressed their negative emotions such as anger and jealousy through physically abusing the victims of that behavior.

The most common threat made to migrant women workers was being sent back to their home countries. This threat was frequently made by employers subjecting workers to unreasonable work expectations, including working for multiple employers and providing sexual services. For example, Snow was forced to have sexual relations with her employer under threat of being sent back to Vietnam. Her employer's wife knew of this incident but offered no sympathy, instead yelling: 'why don't you leave my house?' contradicting this on other occasions by saying 'If you dare to leave, I would not let you back again.'

The reasons behind the prevalence of sexual harassment and assault of migrant women workers in households are unclear. Some attribute the phenomena to a lack of personal space, as occurs in the cases of Omar and Snow, while others attribute it to the patriarchal culture of Taiwan. This study has demonstrated that employers frequently utilize strategies such as threats of dismissal and being sent back to their home countries, as well as coarse language, to discipline female migrant workers and ensure their compliance, obedience and subordination. However, the PGFDW reinforced exploitation in everyday household relationships.

#### **7. The media, the law and abused live-in care workers**

The informal and personalized nature of domestic work increases the risk of live-in domestic workers being abused, yet such abuse is rarely reported to the authorities. The results of this study have also revealed the discrepancies of number between abused and reported. For example, since 2001 there were approximately 100 newspaper reports on sexual assaults against migrant women workers in Taiwan, but there were only nine cases presented in Court Proceedings. Besides, according to one advocator of a famous NGO for migrant workers in North Taiwan, the organization provided helps for 400 abused migrant women workers every year, but she believed that the number of being abused migrant women workers should be higher than 400 hundred cases (The United Daily News, Oct. 17,2007, C2).

Reasons for not reporting to the authorities or not escaping from the workplace are threats by perpetrators to 'terminate the contract' (Min Sheng Daily News, Dec. 3, 2004, A4) and 'send

care workers were forced to have sex with their employers, but their employers claimed that the migrant women worker agreed to have sex with him because he gave money to her (see

No. Nationality Perpetrators Place of incident Help-seeking Sentence

Report to the Police office

Police office

broker

workplace

broker and the authority

for prevention of domestic violence and sexual abuse)

Employer's home Report to her

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Perpetrator's home

G4 Indonesia Broker Motel Run away Yes G5 China Employer Employer's home Call her friend Yes

G2 Indonesia Employer Employer's home Report to the

G6 Indonesia Employer Employer's home Report to her

G7 Indonesia Employer Employer's home Call 113 (hotline

N1 Filipinos Employer Employer's home Escape from the

Table 2. Bio-data of Victims from Court Proceedings (2001~2010)

N2 Indonesia Employer Employer's home Cal 113 No

The above discussions revealed that most perpetrators of sexual assaults against migrant women workers are neither recidivists nor persons with criminal records. Many of them are from middle class with highly educated background (The United Daily News, Aug. 20, 2003, A8). Why did they dare to do this and did not care about how the family would react to this incident? It is not easy to explain this. It seems that this is related to many factors. Pan and Yang (2012) called this prevailing phenomenon of sexual violence against migrant women workers in Taiwan 'conspiracy of silence.' And, Anderson (2001) attributed this phenomenon to the multifaceted oppression embedded in the dynamics of race, gender, and class. Feminist scholars such as Mantouvalou (2006) and Pyle (2006) characterized the living circumstances faced by migrant domestic workers in industrial countries as 'domestic

No matter what globalization means this term gains its tremendous popularity even outside the academic. Sometimes it means global migration, which brings up the optimistic argument but the pessimistic argument also play its role to show the old dark side recurrent in the new context of global migration. Yet by repeating old argument, many studies indicate the old but still important issues such as the exploitation of migrant care workers. This study demonstrates how the aging population and the low birth rate in Taiwan

Table 2).

G1 Indonesia Employer's

G3 Vietnam Employer's

slavery' or 'modern-day slavery.'

**8. Conclusion** 

relative

Son

you back to home country' (The United Daily News, Dec. 29, 2007, C2). In 2005, the newspaper revealed that more than fifty Vietnamese women workers were raped by a broker and his son (The United Daily News, May 27, 2005, C4). One Catholic father from a NGO for Vietnamese workers pointed out that the tragedy of these abused Vietnamese women workers is caused by the regulations governing foreign labor worker in which migrant workers are not allowed to change their employers and switch employment categories. The father called this 'the murder by the system' (The Min Sheng Daily News, May, 19, 2005, A2).

According to the Court Proceedings and newspaper reports, most perpetrators of sexual assault against migrant women workers are their employers, their employer's relatives and brokers. Few incidents are caused by the strangers. Most abused migrant women workers endured sexual abuse in their employment for a long period of time (The United Evening News, Dec. 16, 2000, No.5) and suffered from physical harms and psychological trauma (The United Evening News, Jan. 2, 2004, No. 6; The Liberty Times, Sept. 17, 2008, B2). Some even attempted to commit suicide (The United Evening News, Dec. 16, 2000, No. 5).

According to Pan and Yang's study (2012), the abuse against live-in care workers is prevalent in Taiwan, because families tend to treat this issue as a family secret. But a case drew much national attention. Rose, a Filipina live-in care worker, was raped by her employer who is a famous legislator in Taiwan. After the incident, Rose escaped from the workplace and seeked helps from the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) in Taipei. The MECO reported to the Taipei City Center for Prevention of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (TCCPDVSA). One NGO for migrant worker rights in Taipei tried to help Rose. Rose was sent back to the Philippines a week later. This legislator claimed that he is innocent while his wife made a compromise with Rose via the MECO. Rose was paid for US \$ 28,000 but she had to go back to her home country and never tells the truth of this incident again (The United Daily News, Feb. 16, 2004, A3). The week before Rose left Taiwan, there was nobody who could contact with her even the workers of this NGO. Rose told her friends that she was confined by the MECO and forced by administers of the MECO to sign a compromised contract with her employer's wife (The United Daily News, Feb. 17, 2004, A3).

According to Ong (1991), Asian families typically regard workers as children who should obey their 'parents' (i.e. supervisors). Taiwanese family dynamics and relations in everyday life are significantly influenced by the patriarchal family value and cultural norms, which maintain male dominance and female subordination within the family. This patrilineal culture and gender norm may put live-in care workers at a double disadvantage within Taiwanese household. Migrant women workers are expected to act as a daughter of this family but they do not have the same right as daughters.

Taiwanese often perceive migrant women workers as the property of the family. Some employers may assume that live-in care workers would like to do anything even sexual trade for money since they mostly come from poor families. Consequently, the employers who raped the live-in care workers did not feel guilty for their behaviors because they thought they paid for the trade. One guy raped the migrant women worker who takes care of his grandmother when his grandfather was not at home. He said, 'it's a loss not to do this when my grandfather was not at home' (The United Daily News, March 22, 2008, A19). Many perpetrators of sexual assault against live-in care workers have argued that the incident is a kind of 'sexual trade.' For example, as the Court Proceedings of N1 and N2 show, the live-in

you back to home country' (The United Daily News, Dec. 29, 2007, C2). In 2005, the newspaper revealed that more than fifty Vietnamese women workers were raped by a broker and his son (The United Daily News, May 27, 2005, C4). One Catholic father from a NGO for Vietnamese workers pointed out that the tragedy of these abused Vietnamese women workers is caused by the regulations governing foreign labor worker in which migrant workers are not allowed to change their employers and switch employment categories. The father called this 'the murder by the system' (The Min Sheng Daily News, May, 19, 2005, A2). According to the Court Proceedings and newspaper reports, most perpetrators of sexual assault against migrant women workers are their employers, their employer's relatives and brokers. Few incidents are caused by the strangers. Most abused migrant women workers endured sexual abuse in their employment for a long period of time (The United Evening News, Dec. 16, 2000, No.5) and suffered from physical harms and psychological trauma (The United Evening News, Jan. 2, 2004, No. 6; The Liberty Times, Sept. 17, 2008, B2). Some even

According to Pan and Yang's study (2012), the abuse against live-in care workers is prevalent in Taiwan, because families tend to treat this issue as a family secret. But a case drew much national attention. Rose, a Filipina live-in care worker, was raped by her employer who is a famous legislator in Taiwan. After the incident, Rose escaped from the workplace and seeked helps from the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) in Taipei. The MECO reported to the Taipei City Center for Prevention of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (TCCPDVSA). One NGO for migrant worker rights in Taipei tried to help Rose. Rose was sent back to the Philippines a week later. This legislator claimed that he is innocent while his wife made a compromise with Rose via the MECO. Rose was paid for US \$ 28,000 but she had to go back to her home country and never tells the truth of this incident again (The United Daily News, Feb. 16, 2004, A3). The week before Rose left Taiwan, there was nobody who could contact with her even the workers of this NGO. Rose told her friends that she was confined by the MECO and forced by administers of the MECO to sign a compromised contract with her employer's wife (The United Daily News, Feb. 17, 2004, A3). According to Ong (1991), Asian families typically regard workers as children who should obey their 'parents' (i.e. supervisors). Taiwanese family dynamics and relations in everyday life are significantly influenced by the patriarchal family value and cultural norms, which maintain male dominance and female subordination within the family. This patrilineal culture and gender norm may put live-in care workers at a double disadvantage within Taiwanese household. Migrant women workers are expected to act as a daughter of this

Taiwanese often perceive migrant women workers as the property of the family. Some employers may assume that live-in care workers would like to do anything even sexual trade for money since they mostly come from poor families. Consequently, the employers who raped the live-in care workers did not feel guilty for their behaviors because they thought they paid for the trade. One guy raped the migrant women worker who takes care of his grandmother when his grandfather was not at home. He said, 'it's a loss not to do this when my grandfather was not at home' (The United Daily News, March 22, 2008, A19). Many perpetrators of sexual assault against live-in care workers have argued that the incident is a kind of 'sexual trade.' For example, as the Court Proceedings of N1 and N2 show, the live-in

attempted to commit suicide (The United Evening News, Dec. 16, 2000, No. 5).

family but they do not have the same right as daughters.

care workers were forced to have sex with their employers, but their employers claimed that the migrant women worker agreed to have sex with him because he gave money to her (see Table 2).


The above discussions revealed that most perpetrators of sexual assaults against migrant women workers are neither recidivists nor persons with criminal records. Many of them are from middle class with highly educated background (The United Daily News, Aug. 20, 2003, A8). Why did they dare to do this and did not care about how the family would react to this incident? It is not easy to explain this. It seems that this is related to many factors. Pan and Yang (2012) called this prevailing phenomenon of sexual violence against migrant women workers in Taiwan 'conspiracy of silence.' And, Anderson (2001) attributed this phenomenon to the multifaceted oppression embedded in the dynamics of race, gender, and class. Feminist scholars such as Mantouvalou (2006) and Pyle (2006) characterized the living circumstances faced by migrant domestic workers in industrial countries as 'domestic slavery' or 'modern-day slavery.'
