This study examines the transnational migration experiences of young Taiwanese female Mandarin-speaking early childhood educators working in Singapore. Through semi-structured in-depth interviews and narrative analysis, the research explores how these teachers navigate career decisionmaking, cultural adaptation, and identity reconfiguration within the context of cross-border educational labor mobility. The findings reveal that these teachers are motivated by both the shrinking preschool job market in Taiwan, driven by demographic decline, and the policy-driven demand for bilingual educators in Singapore. Their migration reflects a strategic career breakthrough. Upon entering the Singaporean education system, they confront challenges such as linguistic translation, pedagogical adjustment, and institutional adaptation. Through practical learning and cultural negotiation, they gradually accumulate new forms of cultural capital and develop professional agency. However, the stratified employment pass system and the intermediary role of recruitment agencies in the governance of labor and capital conversion often result in the institutional devaluation of their prior credentials and constrain their autonomy. Gender further shapes their migratory experiences, as teachers must negotiate multiple roles across career, family, and reproductive expectations. In response, many build peer support networks and develop self-strengthening strategies to navigate these structural limitations. This study argues that transnational mobility among educational workers is not a linear process of capital accumulation, but a dynamic interplay between structural regulation and agentic practice. It calls for a dual analytical lens that integrates the politics of cultural capital conversion with the gendered governance of migration.
Keywords: transnational mobility, cultural capital, identity reconfiguration,gendered migration, early childhood educators

This study examines the inconsistencies in official statistics regarding the prevalence of disability among Indigenous populations in Taiwan, focusing on their implications for population health surveillance and policy formulation. Using document analysis and secondary data analysis, the research explores the institutional mechanisms behind statistical discrepancies and their policy relevance. Three official data sources are compared: (1) statistical reports from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, (2) the Disability Registry maintained by the Social and Family Affairs Administration, and (3) the Population and Health Reports published by the Council of Indigenous Peoples. The major findings are as follows: (1) significant discrepancies in Indigenous disability prevalence across sources, often with contradictory trends; (2) duplicated individual records that distort prevalence estimates unless corrected through proper deduplication; (3) divergent statistical outcomes resulting from differences in data linkage and processing practices across agencies, even when drawing from the same source data; and (4) the absence of standardized ethnicity fields and consistent formats in existing databases, which limits the development of Indigenous disability research. The statistical invisibility of Indigenous persons with disabilities reflects a lack of ethnic sensitivity within Taiwan’s data governance framework. The study calls for the establishment of an integrated, inter-agency data coordination mechanism and the development of culturally responsive classification systems to support data justice and responsive policymaking.
Keywords: indigenous peoples, disability, data governance, dark data

Life expectancy is an important indicator of national development, reflecting the level of economic development, public health, and medical care across regions. It is typically calculated through the construction of life tables. The results can be used to explore temporal changes and regional disparities. However, due to the difficulty in collecting data for small areas such as townships and districts, mortality rates in these areas often fluctuate significantly, making life table construction more challenging. Currently, Taiwan only publishes official life tables at the national and county levels. This study aims to evaluate the feasibility of estimating life expectancy of small areas via the standardized death rate (SDR) and standardized mortality ratio (SMR), without constructing life tables. These two indicators are commonly used to compare mortality rates across different regions, helping to reduce the distortion caused by differences in population age structures. Based on SDR and SMR, we develop linear models to estimate small-area life expectancy. We apply our approach to simplified life tables for Taiwan (at the national and county/city levels) from 2000 to the present, as well as to data from the human mortality database (HMD). Model performance is evaluated using cross-validation. The results show that SDR and SMR are closely related to life expectancy. When applied to smaller populations, the estimated life expectancy yields lower bias and variance than estimates derived from life tables.
Keywords: life expectancy, small area estimation, standardized death rate, regional difference, linear model