| 英文摘要 |
This research examines the underexplored process through which migrant workers in Taiwan assemble and sustain culturally-grounded collectives. Using an Indonesian dance troupe formed by migrant workers as a case, the paper presents how migrants cultivate group cohesion in a foreign setting, how they engage in the promotion of cultural activities from their country, and what these practices reveal about the meanings of cultural linkage and their broader implications for the host society.
Taiwan hosts approximately 877,000 migrant workers as of January2026, with Indonesians comprising the largest group. However, public discourse has long been shaped by reductive media framings that oscillate between victimization and problematization, reinforcing narratives that associate populations from peripheral countries with social disorder. Even under the government’s New Southbound Policy, which incorporates migrants into more affirmative storylines, mediated representations continue to reproduce narrow and stereotypical imaginaries.
Situated within an increasingly-networked media environment, this research centers on migrant workers’communicative agency. Drawing on a case study of an Indonesian dance troupe formed by migrant workers in Taiwan, it investigates how migrants leverage digital access and mobilize cultural resources from their country of origin to develop mediated practices that reflect their lived experiences of migration. The analysis further examines how these actors work to reposition themselves as energetic producers of cultural meaning, sustaining and rearticulating transnational cultural linkages through both online and offline practices.
The study also highlights how migrant workers’participation in cultural organizing constitutes a form of mediated cultural production that generates meanings for both migrants and the host society. Tracing how the identities of a marginalized population are constructed, negotiated, or constrained within specific representational and institutional contexts, the research demonstrates how cultural participation may broaden the discursive space for public deliberation and challenge dominant media narratives surrounding migrant communities.
This portrays an Indonesian traditional dance troupe organized by migrant workers in Taiwan as its empirical study’s entry point. Over a two-year fieldwork period, I engaged in sustained participant observation, interacted with twenty troupe members, and conducted semi-structured, in-depth interviews with eight migrant workers. These qualitative approaches are supplemented with an analysis of digital and social media materials produced by the troupe, allowing for a triangulated examination of their mediated cultural practices.
The study analytically focuses on how migrant workers mobilize information and communication technology (ICT) as communicative resources within their cultural practices. Particular attention is given to the infrastructural and interactional conditions that shape ICT use, the media forms and promotional modalities employed by the troupe, and the relational dynamics between organizers and participants.
To situate these practices within broader structures of power, the study draws on Bourdieu’s field theory to identify the forms of cultural capital articulated through performance and mediated representation. This framework assesses how migrant workers’symbolic practices position them within the social field, and how these positions in turn shape their capacity to participate in and intervene in ongoing struggles over the representation, visibility, and cultural voice of migrant communities.
The findings indicate that digital technologies play a crucial role in connecting migrant workers who are geographically dispersed across Taiwan. Among Indonesian migrant workers, shared interest in traditional dance from the homeland serves as an initial point of cohesion, while online dissemination of activity information enables the continual recruitment of new members. This circulation of digital messages helps sustain the troupe despite the constant turnover of participants as members complete their employment contracts and return home.
Online video content further facilitates the learning of traditional Indonesian dance in the host society. Because the participants are not professionally-trained dancers, movements are often adapted or simplified to increase the feasibility of cultural practice under the constraints of migrant life. These adaptations also generate distinctive choreographic forms shaped by transnational mobility, implicitly invoking embodied memories of the homeland even as they transform traditional aesthetics.
Building on these dynamics, the troupe strategically mobilizes cultural capital to open spaces for social dialogue. Through various performance invitations, they create opportunities for audiences in the host society to encounter migrant workers beyond the dominant imagery of low-wage labor. In this process, homeland cultural forms function as an entry point, a so-called communicative door-opening device, through which migrants engage with the Taiwanese public. Such interactions foster a sense of confidence among the performers and allow them to position themselves as cultural mediators. This role not only strengthens their sense of belonging and embeddedness in an unfamiliar society, but further reframes migrant visibility through cultural expression rather than labor alone.
The structural constraints of Taiwan’s guest-worker regime at the same time mean that troupe members possess limited economic, social, and symbolic capital. Their participation in collective cultural activity relies primarily on the one form of capital they do hold, Indonesian traditional dance, as an asset valued for its cultural distinctiveness, but not recognized within the labor system.
After more than three decades of hosting foreign migrant workers, Taiwan has reached a juncture where the cultural practices of migrant communities make their agency increasingly visible. This study demonstrates how such agency becomes manifest through migrants’cultural participation, prompting a reconsideration of how the host society might cultivate relations of social inclusion grounded in mutual recognition and subjectivity.
Initiatives organized by state institutions for immigrants and migrant workers should particularly incorporate meaningful participatory mechanisms that allow migrants to contribute to the planning and deliberation of such events. Without this, cultural activities framed as Southeast Asian risk reproducing narrow and repetitive imaginaries of migrant workers, rather than fostering more nuanced and equitable representations.
This study is limited by the scope of its empirical field, which centers on a single Indonesian migrant dance troupe. While the case offers valuable insight into the communicative practices and cultural agency of migrant workers, its specificity may not fully represent the diversity of migrant cultural formations across different nationalities or regions in Taiwan. Additionally, the research relies on qualitative methods and extended field engagement, which, although providing rich contextual understanding, do not capture the broader structural patterns that may shape migrant cultural participation at a societal level. Future research may deepen the comparative dimension by examining multiple migrant cultural groups, including those that differ in organizational forms, cultural repertoires, or levels of digital engagement.
This paper highlights the need to address issues of continuity and succession within migrant cultural organizations. The Indonesian dance troupe examined has existed for thirteen years, yet Taiwan’s current guest worker system restricts the long-term retention of members. Future research should consider how institutional constraints on migrant workers’ability to remain in Taiwan create structural gaps in transmission, and how such gaps shape the sustainability of migrant-led cultural practices over time. |
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