Receptivity to Different Types of Migrants in Taiwan: Civic Behaviour and Support for Same-sex Marriage as Novel Correlates

In an era of rising global intra-regional migration, in-depth explorations of attitudes toward immigrants and immigration (ATII) in emerging migrant-hosting societies in Asia are scarce. Using Taiwan as a case of an emerging non-Western, democratic migrant-hosting context with a racially homogeneous population, aging social structure, and vibrant civic culture, this study examines the receptivity to three major migrant types: foreign professionals, marriage immigrants, and migrant workers. In this talk, Dr Hsin-Chieh shows how this study moves beyond traditional ATII research and argues that receptivity serves as a more accurate conceptual tool to address the general public’s perceptions toward immigrants of different categories or groups. It tells a contextualized story of 21st-century Taiwan: how its ethnocentrism is playing out with grassroots civic development and the more liberal end of cultural diversity. The findings on receptivity toward intra-Asia migrants in a 21st-century Asian democracy illuminate possibilities for reinventing theories on the social organization of difference and the socio-cognitive construction of ethnicity, with broader relevance to inter-minority relations among Asians in traditional Western immigrant societies.