The government will continue to empower immigrants and their children through financial assistance and relaxation of immigration policies, Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said yesterday.
More than 300 immigrants, mostly from Southeast Asian countries and married to Taiwanese, attended the “New Immigrant Forum” at the National Immigration Agency (NIA). The event’s aim was to disseminate information about government empowerment programs for immigrants.
Hsu said there are an estimated 550,000 immigrants living in Taiwan.
Photo: CNA
New residents have enriched Taiwan’s national strength with their contributions to society, Hsu said.
He also encouraged immigrants to speak in their native languages with their children to enhance their competitiveness in the future.
He cited the story of Cheng Tsui-hsuan (鄭翠玄), a 19-year-old Vietnamese woman who came to Taiwan two years ago when her mother married a Taiwanese, as an example of how, with hard work and dedication, success is attainable for every immigrant.
Cheng, whose Vietnamese surname was Nguyen, was adopted by her Taiwanese stepfather and had to work as a vendor in a market to support the family after her parents fell ill. She has also been responsible for the care of her younger sister.
Despite these challenges, including the language barrier, she passed the accounting competency test for senior high-school students last year and was ranked first in Yilan County.
Cheng expressed hopes of becoming a human rights lawyer to look after immigrants and their children in Taiwan.
Residency restrictions for immigrants who marry Taiwanese have been relaxed, giving them more leeway to stay in Taiwan, even if they get divorced or if their spouse passes away, the NIA said.
Other empowerment measures include a NT$20,000 to NT$70,000 subsidy for second or third-generation immigrants to visit their grandparents abroad.
Another project, called “New Residents and Children Dream Plan,” provides up to NT$80,000 to help immigrants and their children fulfill their dreams, as well as scholarships for disadvantaged students, outstanding students and those with special talents.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS