Noting that the number of immigrants has grown steadily over the years, President Chen Shui-bian (
Since January 1987, more than 382,000 foreign spouses have come to Taiwan. More than 28,400 Taiwanese nationals married foreigners last year, accounting for 20 percent of the total number of married couples. Around 26,500 babies were born last year and one in every eight new-born babies has a foreign parent.
"A new immigration era has arrived," Chen said. "Marriage between locals and immigrants has become a trend in our society."
Chen made the remarks while addressing a public function at the Presidential Office.
The event, dubbed "Our Daughters-in-law, Our Sons," was co-organized by the Ministry of the Interior and the Pearl S. Buck Foundation Taiwan as part of the activities marking international Human Rights Day, which fell on Dec. 10.
Minister of the Interior Lee Yi-yang (
Human rights are a universal ideal and Taiwan is a country that attaches great importance to human rights, Chen said.
"Foreign spouses become a part of Taiwan when they marry into local families," he said. "It is the administration's duty to protect their rights."
To help foreign spouses better adapt to Taiwanese society, Chen said the administration must offer them a helping hand.
Chen said Taiwan's embassies or trade offices would offer assistance to immigrants before they entered the country.
Lena Lopez from the Philippines was one of the foreign spouses invited to the Presidential Office yesterday to deliver a speech in Mandarin.
The 65-year-old grandmother, who moved from the US to Taiwan seven months ago to be with her Taiwanese husband, said that language was the biggest barrier she faced.
"I want to learn how to speak Mandarin very much," she said. "It's very difficult because my pronunciation is so bad. And the characters, oh! If you compare it with English, it's entirely different. The easier part is the grammar -- [there is] no grammar."
Lopez said she had thought of giving up many times but her husband was the driving force that kept her going.
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