Local community petitions foreign workers to leave

Background:

Ethnocentrism is judging another culture solely by the values and standards of one's own culture.

Racism 1. is the belief that some races of people are better than others 2. the unfair treatment of people who belong to a different race; violent behavior towards them 

The article:

 Local community petitions foreign workers to leave

Following recent accusations of discrimination against foreign workers by Taipei Railway Station, another incident of alleged discrimination has surfaced, with about 1,000 residents in a Taoyuan County community petitioning to have 30 Filipino workers move out of the area.

1.     accusation: a statement saying that you think a person is guilty of doing something wrong, especially of committing a crime; the act of accusing (verb) somebody

2.     discrimination: the practice of treating somebody or a particular group in society less fairly than others - age/racial/sex/sexual discrimination, discriminate (verb)

3.     alleged: adjective from the verb allege - to state something as a fact but without giving proof I.e. alleged attack

4.     surface: to suddenly appear or become obvious after having been hidden [or kept secret] for a while

5.     resident: a person who lives in a particular place or who has their home there

6.     petition: - a written document (noun) signed by a large number of people that asks somebody in a position of authority to do or change something or the act of doing it. (verb)

Hanging up large banners that read “No to foreign workers in our community,” residents of Rueilian Community (瑞聯社區) in the county’s Bade City (八德) said they did not want the foreign workers from the nearby Ablecome Technology company to stay in the community because of safety concerns.

“We are concerned about our safety,” a resident, Lin Feng-mei (林鳳美), said in a video clip aired by Public Television. “There are many children living in this community. Most of the families here have children, and they are afraid of playing in the park because those foreign workers also spend their leisure time in the park.”

7.     air: (verb) to broadcast a programme on the radio or on television; to be broadcast

8.     leisure time: time that is spent doing what you enjoy when you are not working or studying

About 1,000 residents of the community signed a petition earlier this month, asking Ablecome to resettle the foreign workers as soon as possible.

9.     resettle: to go and live (or help others to) in a new country or area

While Ablecom general manager Liang Chien-fa (梁見發) said he disagreed with their views, he has agreed to find another place for his employees to stay by Oct. 6.

“They [the Filipino workers] have been staying in the community for only about two weeks, and there have been no problems at all,” Liang said, adding that foreign workers are no different from locals, but the company has agreed to relocate them because of the community’s opposition.

Taoyuan County Councilor Lu Lin Hsiao-feng (呂林小鳳), who represents the constituency, denied that residents wanted foreign workers to leave because of racial discrimination.

10.  constituency: a district that elects its own representative to parliament or the people who live there

“It has nothing to do with discrimination,” she said. “With 460 households and more than 1,000 residents, Rueilian is a peaceful community. They are merely worried that clashes could happen because of these foreign workers, with their different skin color and different culture, going in and out of the community.”

11.  clash: noun and verb form - a short fight between two groups of people (n)

The incident in Taoyuan is the second case of apparent discrimination that has surfaced recently in the nation. Earlier this month, Taipei Railway Station came under fire for cordoning off parts of its lobby on weekends after receiving complaints that gatherings of migrant workers to celebrate Eid al-Fitr last month were bothersome.

12.  cordon off: to stop people from getting into an area by surrounding it with police, soldiers, etc.

13.  migrant worker: a worker moving from one region of the country to another to find employment

14.  bothersome: causing trouble of difficulty – synonym: annoying

Taiwan International Workers Association secretary-general Chen Hsiu-lien (陳秀蓮) said that she was not surprised because discrimination has always existed, “it’s just a matter of whether it surfaces.”

“Last Sunday, a member of our association took a group of Filipino workers to Xinsheng Park in Taipei to practice drumming, and police officers appeared within 30 minutes, saying the Filipino workers were too noisy and could disturb people in a nearby library, and that they were violating the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), because they did not apply for an assembly permit in advance,” Chen said.

15.  violate: to go against or refuse to obey a law, an agreement, etc.

16.  act:  (noun) a law that has been passed by a parliament

17.  assembly: the meeting together of a group of people for a particular purpose, (verb) assemble

“But there’s no library near the park. It’s already very noisy there because it’s close to Songshan airport, and, when have you heard of people needing to apply for a permit to practice drumming in a park? What about those who exercise and do aerobics dancing in the park?” Chen said.
Chen said what happened last Sunday was not an isolated case.“We often have difficulties renting an office too, because some of our neighbors pressure the landlord since they don’t want ‘people with dark skin’ to be going in and out of the building,” he said.

18.  landlord: a person or company from whom you rent a room, a house, an office, etc.