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Immigrant spouses are more than propaganda

Yadrung Panaput is an immigrant from Thailand who has lived in Taiwan for 10 years. Out of a pool of more than 300 nominees, she was selected for the National Youth Public Participation Award’s highest honor — the Outstanding Contribution Award — personally presented to her by Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮).

This award was decided unanimously by 18 judges with background in promoting public participation.

In her congratulatory speech, Lu said that Panaput had lit the flame of Taiwanese women’s rights and the award showed was another step forward in the nation’s move to promote the rights of immigrants.

Taiwan’s nearly 400,000 “foreign brides” — including spouses from China — find themselves in a strange position as their presence pricks at Taiwan’s racial consciousness.

On the one hand, the nation’s immigration policy stigmatizes them through a harsh and unreasonable system that ties them down. The difficult and arcane naturalization exam is an example of this. Their bodies are also subject to a high level of monitoring by means of all sorts of regulations — multiple physical exams and mandatory fingerprinting are required for entry and residence application procedures.

What has received the most criticism from international and local immigrant rights groups is the requirement to provide documentation proving assets of NT$410,000 in order to obtain citizenship. Furthermore, Chinese spouses must undergo several interviews.

On the other hand, politicians always love to throw around slogans such as “we are all one family,” “Taiwanese daughters-in-law,” and “mothers of new Taiwanese” as they hold these “new Taiwanese” children in their arms for campaign ads touting their achievements. Apparently, with this second change of political power, new immigrants and their children are still the government’s best props in commercials for “respecting cultural diversity” and “improving human rights.”

Underneath the lofty declarations of the government’s immigration policy still lie real problems that many immigrants face. Many of our sisters from Southeast Asia must still put up with biased rules. For example, they must pass multiple physical examinations to demonstrate the “purity” of their bodies so as not to contaminate the Taiwanese population.

If they have the misfortune of falling victim to domestic violence or face divorce, given the limitations of the law, many of these women have no way to overcome the bias in the legal system toward husbands. In the end they are forcibly separated from their children and return to their home countries with their hearts and spirits completely shattered.

Taiwan appears to possess a healthy amount of resources for looking after members of society, but it falls short when compared with countries such as Japan and Sweden. Moreover, more mutual understanding and education are necessary to eliminate the widespread prejudice and misunderstanding that exists in society toward immigrant women.

We hope that after this change in political power, immigrants would no longer serve as mere propaganda tools for the government to announce to the world its human-rights achievements. We hope that the hard work of these women can be truly recognized and commended.

We hope that society will treat them justly. Compared to politicians who shout “I love Taiwan” at election time, many immigrant women like Yadrung Panaput have demonstrated through their actions and visible contributions to society that their love for Taiwan is genuine and sincere.



Chou Yi-ju is the director of the TransAsia Sisters Association, Taiwan.

Translated by James Chen
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