Taipei, Dec. 5 (CNA) The government pledged Sunday to protect the rights of migrants in the country and to promote cultural diversity, because Taiwan itself has always been a migrant country.
"From the days of Koxinga to 1949, when millions of people from China came here, to the present, when there are about 910,000 migrants in Taiwan, this place has always been a country of migrants, " Premier Wu Den-yih said at the opening ceremony of the International Migrants Day Carnival that was held in the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall plaza.
The carnival wrapped up a series of events organized by the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to celebrate International Migrants Day Dec. 18, which was appointed in 2000 by the United Nations General Assembly to take into account the large and increasing number of migrants around the world.
The migrant population in Taiwan consists mainly of foreign spouses, of whom a large number come from Southeast Asian countries and China, and foreign workers, most of whom came from Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines.
"Being a stranger in a country one hardly understands can be frightening, " Interior Minister Jiang Yi-huah said, adding that "this is why new migrants in Taiwan need as much help as physically handicapped or under-privileged people."
In the past, the biggest challenges for migrants were the language barrier and adapting to a different culture and society, said Hsieh Li-kung, NIA director-general.
Thanks to the help and assistance of hundreds of local non-government organizations (NGOs) and local government agencies, those issues have become of less concern, he said.
With one in six marriages being transnational and one in eight babies born to families in which one spouse is a migrant, Hsieh said, the new challenges for Taiwan in the future will be creating jobs for migrants and providing help to children of migrant families in terms of education and development.
Citing the example of 12-year-old Penny Hsieh, who won the national women's tennis title in the age-12 group and whose mother is originally from Cambodia, the director-general said his agency has helped Hsieh to secure local sponsorship to cover her training expenses.
Hsieh, who comes from the central county of Changhua, attended the carnival, which had more than 100 booths, including food stands and stalls run by local government agencies and NGOs to promote awareness of cultural diversity.
Foreign representatives from the Marshall Islands, Peru, Haiti, The Gambia and the Philippines also attended the event. (By Chris Wang) ENDITEM/J