2031

Rebuilding a country takes a lot of work. And not just any sort of work: it takes manual labor. Construction is a younger man's game, with the average age of construction workers in the United States sitting at about 42.

Unfortunately, Taiwan doesn't have many young people. Much like the rest of East Asia, Taiwan is in something of a demographic crisis, with a rapidly aging population; already, most of the country is over 40 years old. The war has greatly exacerbated this crisis: of the roughly 40,000 military casualties assumed during the course of the conflict, the overwhelming majority were young--25 or younger--and all but the leading officers were under the age of 40 (the age where most personnel age out of reserve service). This has left Taiwan with a severe shortage of the sort of young labor necessary to do the manual labor of the rebuilding effort.

In hopes of relieving this crisis, the Republic of Taiwan is turning towards the age-old, tried-and-true solution used by rich, developed countries throughout the world: guest workers. The Legislative Yuan, at the urging of the office of the President, has altered the existing guest labor visa system in Taiwan to allow guest workers to stay for up to three years, rather than two years. The number of countries covered under the program has also been expanded: where previously only Thai, Filipino, and Indonesian workers were eligible under the program, it has been expanded to include most ASEAN nations (sans Myanmar), India (though Indian workers will be subjected to extra screening, given the reports of new terrorist cells sprouting up throughout the country), and Sri Lanka.

Under this program, the Taiwanese government expects Taiwanese construction firms to extend visas to upwards of 100,000 guest workers over the next three to five years, who will help provide the requisite labor to help with the rebuilding of Taiwan.