Taiwanese immigrants in the US are known as "model immigrants" among immigration authorities there because most of them have high levels of education and are white-collar workers, Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission (OCAC) Chairwoman Chang Fu-mei (
Chang made the remarks yesterday at a press conference to announce the results of a survey of Taiwanese immigrants in the US, home to 55 percent of all Taiwanese emigrants, according to a 2003 commission survey.
The commission serves the interests of Taiwanese abroad.
"Many of us in the commission have resided in the US for many years, so we're not surprised at the [positive] results of this year's survey," she said.
The survey, which is conducted every three years, is meant to gauge immigration trends among Taiwanese in the US.
Based on mail and Internet-based questionnaires filled out by nearly 1,400 Taiwanese immigrants in the US last year, the survey found that more than 70 percent of Taiwanese immigrants have college or university degrees, with more than 35 percent having doctorates.
Seventy percent of Taiwanese immigrants in the US who are employed there work in white-collar jobs, and earn higher-than-average salaries, the survey showed.
The results are compiled in The 2006 Investigative Report on Taiwanese in the US.
"Taiwanese immigrants don't create problems for the US government," Chang told the news conference, which was held to release both the survey and the report.
The report said that more than half of those surveyed reported that they had "absolutely no trouble" adjusting to life in the US; those who did cited language barriers, economic troubles, their children's education and residency status, among other concerns, as the sources of their problems in the US.
Despite getting along in the US overall, more Taiwanese immigrants there "are considering returning to Taiwan" than ever before, the report said.
According to the previous survey in 2003, 27 percent of respondents said that they would consider coming back to live, while nearly 33 percent of respondents in the latest survey would consider returning.
Chang said Taiwan's relatively good healthcare system and the desire to "come home" were behind the trend.
Some 600,000 Taiwanese reside in the US, she said, adding that that figure was a "conservative estimate."
Fast food chain McDonald's is to raise prices by up to NT$5 on some products at its restaurants across Taiwan, starting on Wednesday next week, the company announced today. The prices of all extra value meals and sharing boxes are to increase by NT$5, while breakfast combos and creamy corn soup would go up by NT$3, the company said in a statement. The price of the main items of those meals, if ordered individually, would remain the same. Meanwhile, the price of a medium-sized lemon iced tea and hot cappuccino would rise by NT$3, extra dipping sauces for chicken nuggets would go up
Yangmingshan National Park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) nature area has gone viral after a park livestream camera observed a couple in the throes of intimate congress, which was broadcast live on YouTube, drawing large late-night crowds and sparking a backlash over noise, bright lights and disruption to wildlife habitat. The area’s livestream footage appeared to show a couple engaging in sexual activity on a picnic table in the park on Friday last week, with the uncensored footage streamed publicly online. The footage quickly spread across social media, prompting a tide of visitors to travel to the site to “check in” and recreate the
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
GROUNDED: A KMT lawmaker proposed eliminating drone development programs and freezing funding for counterdrone systems, despite China’s adoption of the technology China has deployed attack drones at air bases near the Taiwan Strait in a strategy aimed at overwhelming Taiwan’s air defense systems through saturation attacks, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. The council’s latest quarterly report on China said that satellite imagery and open-source intelligence indicate that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had converted retired J-6 fighter jets into J-6W drones, which the PLA has stationed at six air bases near Taiwan, five in China’s Fujian Province and one in Guangdong Province. The report cited J. Michael Dahm, a senior fellow at the US-based Mitchell Institute, as saying that China has