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`Cross-border couples' discussed

For Ron Hsue-ming (阮雪明), a Vietnamese immigrant, arguing with her Taiwanese husband once meant frantically flipping through a Vietnamese-Mandarin dictionary in search of the right word to yell at him.

"Whenever we fought, I would grab my Vietnamese-Mandarin dictionary, and he would grab his Mandarin-Vietnamese dictionary, and we would go at it," Ron said.

She added that their method of bickering was so absurd they couldn't keep a straight face, no matter how angry they were.

However, for many other "cross-border couples," communication problems are no laughing matter, Ron said at the three-day Conference on Intermediated Cross-Border Marriages in Asia and Europe, which concluded yesterday at Academia Sinica.

She and other Southeast Asian "foreign brides" shared their experiences of acclimating to Taiwan at the conference.

"Communication is the biggest problem between Vietnamese and Taiwanese spouses," Ron said in fluent Mandarin, adding that the problem was often just as much cultural in nature as linguistic.

Cross-cultural communication in the context of international couples and migration was a major theme of the conference, which drew on the research of experts worldwide.

The timeliness of the conference, organized by the National Science Council and the International Institute for Asian Studies in the Netherlands, was underscored by a recent Ministry of the Interior announcement that one out of every four newly-wed couples in Taiwan this year is a cross-border couple -- meaning that at least one spouse is from another country.

The ministry also announced in a recent press release that it will offer free Mandarin courses to foreign spouses nationwide, and encouraged migrants to contact their county or municipal governments for further details. According to the release, each student will be given NT$500 (US$15) for transportation costs, and free child care services will also be provided.

But some panelists at the conference slammed the ministry for basing its migration policies on allegedly ill-conceived notions of "population quality."

Wang Hong-zen (王宏仁), a professor of Southeast Asian Studies at Chi Nan University, recognized that the ministry invested copious resources in helping "foreign brides" adapt to life in Taiwan in a paper presented at the conference. However, Wang also accused the ministry of harboring class-based biases in determining who can immigrate to Taiwan.

"[According to the ministry's] `Migration Policy Guiding Principles' draft released in 2004, skilled professionals and overseas investors are targeted as a `high quality population,' and the government should provide all necessary means to help them [immigrate]," the paper stated, adding that the draft openly excluded "foreign workers, which in Taiwan ... means unskilled guest workers from South Asia," from receiving permanent residence status.

Foreign brides, meanwhile, are valued for their reproductive capabilities amid plummeting fertility rates among native women, the paper added.

Daniele Belanger, a professor of sociology at the University of Western Ontario and a co-author of the paper, wrote that biases behind migration policies were more blatantly expressed by Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Legislator Liao Pen-yan (廖本煙) in April.

Liao was quoted by local media as saying that Vietnamese brides should be tested for Agent Orange before being allowed to give birth in Taiwan.

Liao told the Taipei Times by phone yesterday that he was just expressing his concern for Vietnamese brides, and called on the government to help them because they are an "underprivileged group."

"But too many are entering into fake marriages with Taiwanese men to come over here, and that needs to be stopped," he said.

Agent Orange was a toxic defoliant that the US sprayed on the jungles of Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

Lucy Williams, a University of Kent researcher of migration trends, said at the conference that migrants are often viewed as "pollutants" by the host society, and are thus rejected as the impure "other."

Marloes Schoonheim, an Academia Sinica demographer from the Netherlands, said that members of host societies often fear migrants.

She added that the term "foreign bride" (外籍新娘) emphasized that which is different or foreign about such migrants, revealing deep-seated notions that make social integration difficult.

The conference's own press release referred to the fact that one out of every 8 newborns in Taiwan is from a cross-border family as a "severe" situation. Vice Minister of the Interior Chien Tai-lang (簡太郎) admitted at the conference's opening ceremony that such wording was inappropriate. Chien added that the government welcomed foreign brides and would continue to help them adjust to their adopted country.
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