本研究中，所有個案皆表示是主動從外籍勞工成為外籍配偶，不論成為外籍配偶是來台工作後認識伴侶自由戀愛走入婚姻，或是為了經濟想繼續留在台灣工作，所有個案皆表示來台工作和原生家庭比較可賺取較高報酬，與台灣人結婚之後生活又比外籍勞工更好，不用面對年限限制且可以轉換雇主賺取更高報酬，在台行動相對更自由，在筆者所接觸的受訪者中，婚姻與工作交互融合，兩者已模糊難以劃分界線。 Taiwan government legally opened foreign labor to work in Taiwan since 1992. Generally most foreign labors in Taiwan are female except Thailand. Thai labor is mostly dominated by men who came to do a short-term supplementary work in manufacturing and construction industry. The initially limitation of staying for them is three years per time but now it has been extended to 12 years. Although the duration has been extended but foreign workers still have to face many restrictions. In addition, many Southeast Asian women came to Taiwan by “marriage immigration” as foreign bride that has been discussed for so many years, however, there’s only few research for discussing transnational marriage of men. This research is aimed to the interviewees who are the Thai workers intended to work in Taiwan at first but later on married with Taiwanese. The research is also discussed why they chose to marry after worked in Taiwan. Is the reason for economic factor or for non-economic factor?
According to this study, the primary reasons that cause the Thai workers to come to Taiwan for a job are based on the economical factors, but after they have a factory life in Taiwan and get along with the Taiwanese for a longer time, the co-workers from Taiwan are those they choose to marry finally. This fact shows that the economical factors are not the only reasons in these marriages and indicates that the foreign workers can get married due to the love since Taiwan has welcomed them to have a job legally twenty years ago. However, there is a contradiction now─ Taiwan needs more foreign workers and agrees them to stay here for a longer time, but at the same time, strongly forbids them to be immigrants by the exotic marriage.
In this study, all of the respondents are willing to become a foreign spouse from a foreign worker. No matter their marriages are based on the love or the economical factors, all of them show that they can get higher salary in Taiwan instead of in Thailand, especially for those are in the exotic marriage because of the endless time for staying in Taiwan and the fact that they can change their boss. To sum up, the exotic marriages are so related to the jobs so that the boundary between them is very difficult to point out clearly.
