Taipei Zoo yesterday hosted an event ahead of International Migrants Day on Friday, with immigrants from all over the world donning their national dress for the walk.
Interior Minister Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺), dressed in traditional Korean garb, greeted participants in Korean.
“There are 960,000 new immigrants in Taiwan and they have injected fresh blood into this land and enriched Taiwan’s culture,” Jiang said.
National Immigration Agency (NIA) Director-General Hsieh Li-kung (謝立功)wearing traditional clothing from Southeast Asia, laid out his agency’s goals.
“Human rights, jobs, language training and helping people get accustomed to life in Taiwan are the goals the NIA will strive for,” Hsieh said.
The NIA official said that his agency was working with the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to deal with the top complaint among new immigrants — the use of different Romanization systems at public facilities and on the roads.
Many foreign nationals who took part in the walk said they had a favorable impression of Taiwan.
Nathan Kaiser from Switzerland, who has lived in Taiwan for a decade and was with his Taiwanese wife and their two-and-a-half-year-old son, said he loves living here and intends to stay.
Salieh from Malaysia, who works in Taiwan and had her two children with her, said “cultural barriers” were not a problem because “everybody is very friendly here.”
Malaysian Kamalrudin Bin Ali, in Taiwan with his children to visit his wife, who works here, said he felt Taiwanese were friendly toward Islamic culture.
The Ministry of the Interior, which sponsored the activity, estimated that more than 2,000 people showed up for the walk.
Most were Taiwanese, but there were also many immigrants and foreign workers.
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