自由的條件：從越傭殺人案看台灣家務移工的處境

Abstract

2006年11月14日台北南港，發生震驚台灣社會的越傭殺人案。來台擔任看護工二年的越南籍馮氏梅，清晨手持菜刀砍殺雇主婆媳，造成一死一重傷，凶手隨即跳樓自殺導致下半身重殘癱瘓。 馮氏梅的殺人事件，牽引了社運組織間協力前進、互引資源的合作過程，本論文中主要的資料來源與觀點形成，都來自移工組織的實踐場域，是台灣工人運動集體創造的條件與成果。研究關注的核心問題，一是聚焦在結構與歷史脈絡中，越南移工來台的政策推力與現實處境，分析台灣移工政策的重重壁壘，揭露其「以自由化之名」引進移工、卻陷勞動者於高度「不自由」的困境。二是回到家務移工的主體，視他們為有力量的行動者，肯認其如何盤算利害、訴說並詮釋自己的遷移動能及作用，並進一步追問家務勞動的自主性、集體反抗的可能。 全球化的浪潮下，窮人根本沒有安全而平等的遷移自由。台灣移工政策中壓迫移工的三大禁錮：不得自由轉換雇主、嚴格的居留期限、私人仲介制度，形成跛腳的「半自由市場」，開放聘用的「自由」是雇主的專利，「不自由」的限制只束縛移工。而家務勞動被排除在勞動法令之外，更加深其階級、性別、種族剝削的相互糾結。本論文探究個別家務移工的服從、自保、捉狂、逃逸、與反抗，視其為弱勢處境中的行動者，而移工運動長期爭取休假權作為組織化的基礎，朝向「運動主體」的形成，得以翻轉社會條件，撐開階級自由的空間。

The central questions of this thesis are firstly, the political forces that give rise to the government policies, which oversee the migration of Vietnamese as domestic workers into Taiwan and their working conditions. This research aims to reveal that despite the pretext of ‘liberalization’ under which migrant workers are imported into Taiwan, the workers tend to become ‘indentured’ while in Taiwan due to Taiwanese government’s policies. Many migrant workers live in tightly-controlled, highly restricted and exploitative conditions. Secondly, this research regards the migrant workers as subject; seeing them as autonomous agents of change in their own right; respecting their subjectivity and agency and refusing to stereotype them as passive victims or objects of others’ benevolence and charity. They are recognized as actors , thus the thesis also reflects upon the myriad of possibilities for collective resistance and actions by migrant workers. Under the waves of globalization, the poor does not have any safe, secure and fair opportunities or means to migrate freely for work. Migrant workers in Taiwan are oppressed and repressed by three critical points of control imposed by the government: no freedom to transfer, strict limitation of residence, and private agent system. This has led to the existence of a distorted “semi-liberal market of migrant labour’ in Taiwan. The employers have the prerogative and right to hire or fire migrant workers whilst the migrant workers have no freedom in deciding to whom and how they will sell their labour. The exclusion of domestic labour from the standard labour law in Taiwan further aggravates the class, gender and racial divide within the Taiwanese society; reinforcing the discrimination and exploitation that is based on class, gender and race inherent in such a lop-sided system. This thesis attempts to show that: given the necessary understanding and conditions, the migrant workers in Taiwan are more than capable of breaking out of their restrictions, opening up space and attaining freedom for themselves as a class.