[0]It has been 20 years since Taiwan opened its doors to foreign workers, and the number of foreign laborers has now reached over 400,000, marking a new high on the island. As of today, 200,000 of them are working in factories, while more than 190,000 individuals are long-term caretakers. ## [1]Many people in Taiwan are hiring foreign workers as house helpers, who can help clean the house and also take care of the young or old family members. Based on Council of Labor Affairs' (CLA) latest research, there are around 190,000 households in Taiwan who hire foreign domestic helpers. As Taiwan is entering an aging society, the demand for long-term caretakers has increased. Regarding the type of jobs, around 200,600 foreign labors work in manufacturing sector and 193,000 foreign "social welfare" workers are working in households, a new record high this year. After Taiwan opened its door to foreign labors 20 years ago, the number of foreign labors just increased from a few thousand to 200,000 in 1996, 300,000 in 2001 and 338,000 in 2006. As for now, the number has reached over 399,000 in May. The number for June might has already broke 400,000 as it has been on a steady rise at 3,000 people per month. The CLA said that the number of foreign social welfare workers will inevitably go up, and it is urgent that the long-term care system should be established soon, which stipulates that local governments' social welfare departments should help families to hire local caretakers. Civil groups criticized the government for failing to establish a well-organized policy for foreign labors, which resulting in foreign labors took over as the major workforce in social welfare sector. [2]"The foreign social welfare labors, especially the foreign caretakers, have become the majority of the entire workforce, instead of supplementary workforce. Even though the government, the Ma administration, has promised to implement the long-term care policy, unfortunately, so far we just can't feel the government's sincerity in doing it." [3]They criticized that the government is merely solving the demand for social welfare workers by allowing foreign workers to fill up the demand, rather than trying to solve the problem fundamentally, while at the same time, edging out domestic workers' opportunities. With more and more foreign social welfare workers in Taiwan, it will just be harder and harder to establish the long-term care system.&&