Eight years after the government's original "go south" policy triggered a rush of local men marrying Southeast Asian women, many children born to these couples are expected to enter elementary schools this autumn, education sources said yesterday.
The ratio of schoolchildren born to Southeast Asian women in some rural and remote regions is likely to reach 20 percent, or even as much as 50 percent, in the next few years, the sources said.
As Taiwan's current educational system has yet to formulate a clear mechanism to cope with the situation, it remains unclear exactly how many of these mixed-race children will enter the school system. However, statistics compiled by the Ministry of the Interior and other relevant government agencies all indicate that this will be a special year in terms of elementary school admissions.
Taiwan began promoting a "go south" policy in 1994 to divert investment away from China by encouraging businessmen to invest in Southeast Asia.
According to MOI tallies, the number of inter-marriages (not including mainland spouses) has increased rapidly in recent years. The number was 20,000-plus in 1999, doubling to 41,000 in 2000 and further zooming to more than 60,000 last year. These figures do not include foreign spouses that have obtained ROC citizenship.
Of the marriages registered in the first half of this year, 11 percent involved foreign spouses and more than 90 percent of those foreign spouses were Southeast Asian brides, with Vietnam as the largest source, followed by Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia and Malaysia. The percentage of Taiwan's newborns with Southeast Asian mothers could reach 10 percent of the total or even higher in the next few years.
The percentage of inter-marriages is even higher on Taiwan's outlying islands and more remote regions. MOI tallies show that inter-marriages accounted for 18.8 percent of all new marriages registered in the offshore county of Penghu in the first half of this year. The ratio was the second-highest in Miaoli County at 14.87 percent and the lowest in Tainan City at 7.49 percent.
Yeh Tien-chao, president of Chiangchun Elementary School in Penghu County's Chimei Village, said that if the trend continues, mixed-race students could exceed half of the school's new recruits in the next two or three years.
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