Foreign wives see discrimination

It's Saturday afternoon and Filipina, Esther Hsu, sits in church sobbing over her husband's efforts to divorce her so he can marry another Filipina.

But Esther's friends' worry that her divorce could leave her stateless.

Esther, who is 47 and has been in Taiwan since 1989, married her husband in 1996. She renounced her Philippine nationality before applying for Taiwan citizenship last year, but her application remains under review, a process which is is not expected to be completed until next June. She will not, however, be entitled to Taiwanese citizenship if her husband divorces her.

Her husband is trying to divorce her to marry another Filippina who carried his child.

According to statistics from the Ministry of the Interior, 101,469 women from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippine, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Singapore came to Taiwan between 1994 and March this year to marry Taiwanese men. The Straits Exchange Foundation says that another 157,681 brides arrived from China between 1993 and April this year.

The figures show that there is one imported bride for every five couples marrying in Taiwan each year.

Esther's case reflects the main concern that Taiwanese grooms have when they marry foreign brides -- to have a son to carry on the family name.

Many scholars say that the government has failed to take account of the problems faced by foreign brides, including linguistic and cultural difficulties, and has therefore failed to develop policies to address those problems.

An official from the MOI's Population Administration, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, admitted that Taiwan has failed to develop an appropriate policy.

Hsia Hsiao-chuan (夏曉鵑), a sociologist at Shih Hsin University (世新大學), said, "We in Taiwan just look down on individuals from third-world countries.

"Government officials have even told me that they believe foreign brides could harm the quality of Taiwan's population," Hsia said.

Wang Hong-jen (王宏仁), a sociologist at Chung Hsing University, said that government welfare policies exclude foreign brides.

"Despite the number of brides from these countries, only a few Taiwanese learn the languages of these countries, while everyone else studies the cultures of Western countries," Wang said.

Wang added "Officials from the Population Administration don't even speak their languages."

"No government department is in charge of taking care of the problems of foreign brides in Taiwan, and none of them think they should," Hsia said.

"The government has pretended that the situation doesn't exist, and hoped that it would disappear, which of course didn't happen," Hsia said.

The MOI only started providing education for foreign brides at the end of 1999, after the passage of a bill by the Legislative Yuan.

Hsia, however, said that the classes are inadequate. "Foreign brides need a specially tailored education," Hsia argued.

The MOI official however defended the government. "We have done a lot for them, but most of these women have a low level of education."

Wu Hsueh-hsiang (吳雪香), a Vietnamese who married her Taiwanese husband last February, said that she has experienced difficulty "fitting in," because she feels that most Taiwanese look down on foreign brides.

"My colleagues ask me every day why I married my husband. At first I answered their questions, but I started to feel humiliated after a few days," Wu said.