The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has approved a proposal to set up a committee that will address the needs of the nation’s growing number of immigrant spouses.
The committee is to be composed of 11 to 19 members, half of whom would be new immigrants, the party said on Wednesday last week.
Committee members — which may include non-DPP members — and the chairperson are to be appointed by the DPP.
The committee chairperson’s tenure will be concomitant with that of the DPP chairperson, the party said.
Taiwan Women’s Link secretary-general Tsai Wan-fen (蔡宛芬), who is to serve as the committee’s chief executive, said that she hoped the inclusion of new immigrants in the committee would help the DPP better understand the group’s needs.
The committee will act as an intermediary between new immigrant spouses and the government, DPP spokesman Ruan Jhao-syong (阮昭雄) said.
Its aim will be to safeguard the rights and well-being of those spouses, Ruan added.
The committee will help the government become more multicultural in its outlook and promote exchanges with different cultures, he said.
Tsai said Taiwan Women’s Link had a program that encouraged second-generation immigrants to visit their parents’ home countries to learn more about their roots.
The committee will hold a series of conferences with city and county governments across the nation to gather more input about the daily challenges that new immigrant spouses and their children face, Tsai said.
“We hope these women will feel that Taiwan is their home and that we are here to support them,” she said.
There are about 500,000 immigrant spouses in the nation, including about 150,000 from Southeast Asia, making them the country’s fifth-largest demographic, Ruan said.
“These women are found throughout the country toiling away for Taiwan,” Ruan said, adding that the DPP has a responsibility to hear their concerns.
“Let us join hands with this community to help Taiwan become the friendliest multicultural society,” he said.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
RSS