On 6-9 September, third year FILA students under the seminar of Dr. Johanna Zulueta (Sociology, Migration Studies) visited Taipei City for their seminar study trip. Located between Southeast and Northeast Asia, Taiwan is of historical significance to Japan, having been a former colony of the latter. The students learned more about Taiwan’s colonial past as well as its indigenous heritage on a trip to the National Taiwan Museum on 7 September. On this day, the students also visited National Chengchi University (NCCU), one of the more prestigious universities in Taiwan to meet with Sociology professors and students. Sociology Professor Ping-Yin Kuan made the meeting possible and students from both NCCU and Soka talked about pressing issues between their two countries. Topics discussed ranged from social inequalities, women empowerment, LGBT issues, foreign migrant workers, and challenges of aging societies, among others. Several sociology professors were also present to talk to the FILA students.

Taiwan is host to 730,844[1] migrants, with most of them coming from Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, and Myanmar. To learn more and experience firsthand the foreign newcomers’ presence in the country, the students visited Huaxin Street, also known as “Little Burma”, an ethnic enclave comprised of migrants from Myanmar. These Southeast Asian migrant workers also converge every Sunday – their day off – at the Taipei Main Station, and the students were able to talk to some of them and ask them about their lives in . This experience made the students aware of the similarities between neighboring countries Japan and Taiwan, as well as the important roles migrants play in both these aging societies.

[1]Foreign Residents by Nationality (27 July 2018 data). https://www.immigration.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=1351282&ctNode=29986&mp=2. Accessed 15 September 2018.