“The Catholic Church in Asia Cares for the Migrants in Taiwan”

March 16-19, 2007 - Wencui Center

Taiwan New Immigrants

( Foreign Spouses )

Prepared by:

Fr. Eliseo “Loloy” Napiere,

Director

Center for Migrants' Concerns

Central Taiwan (CMC-CT)

“Christians must in fact promote an authentic culture of welcome capable of accepting the truly human values of the immigrants over and above any difficulties caused by living together with persons who are different.” (EMCC Part II, # 39)

INTRODUCTION:

Foreign brides' issue in Taiwan was not always the hot-button issue as it is today. Foreign brides were little more than a curious anomaly when their numbers were relatively small, but a few years ago they began to appear on society's radar screen. In recent months, the Taiwanese press has paid significant attention to brides from Southeast Asia, with most stories falling into one of three categories. The first fixates on the sheer number of mixed marriages in Taiwan today. Not surprisingly, this is a headline-grabbing sociological trend in a country with a strictly homogeneous population, at least compared to nations like the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, which are accustomed to immigrants and welcome them warmly.

The second focus is the less-than-ideal conditions many imported brides must endure after arriving in Taiwan. Some arrive only to find that the men they are betrothed to are extremely poor, for example, while others suffer spousal abuse and maltreatment at the hands of their new in-laws. The third focus of many human-interest stories, and one that always seems to invite strong comment, is the issue of raising and educating the children that come from such unions.

  The first issue is the mounting number of mixed marriages, confirms the suspicions of many people that Taiwan is moving towards becoming a multi-ethnic society, a trend that arouses as much resentment as it does acceptance.

On the religious sphere, the Catholic Church of Taiwan is trying to find ways to respond to the pastoral needs of this growing minority. The missionaries are establishing avenues for pastoral responses. The local clergy is also responding to this new challenge by creating a hospitable atmosphere towards them. However, there is still a need to emphasize pastoral care for migrants among local parishioners in order to transform the local community's attitude from passive observers into active participants in this particular missionary endeavor inspired by the social doctrine of the Church.

In this presentation, I would like to expound, first the present situation of the Foreign Brides in Taiwan according to the result of my survey-interview of the 100 respondents in Central Taiwan areas which is under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Diocese of Taichung, second is to present to this august body what the Diocese of Taichung is doing in response to this missionary challenge, and third is to hand-over some suggestions and recommendations to strengthen pastoral approaches towards the new immigrants in Taiwan.

SITUATIONER 1: A brief background

A. PUSH FACTOR: For Taiwanese men to marry foreign women

One of the main reasons so many men import wives from abroad is that they claim to be unable to find suitable Taiwanese women to marry. Although there is an anomalous excess of male over female births in Taiwan, and therefore too many men competing for too few women, experts believe that the real problem is that Taiwanese men and women today have vastly different expectations of marriage.

Women today enjoy more educational opportunities and generally go much farther in school than their mothers and grandmothers did. They are likewise making great strides in the workforce, and are more likely to develop a rewarding career, preferring financial independence and the satisfaction of achievement over marriage. These women are less likely to commit to an uncertain lifelong relationship, unless they feel they have truly found their soul mates and are confident of a strong marriage.

Women have achieved a new degree of respect in society, and they expect their husbands to value them not just as wives and mothers, but as full partners in the union. Some may not necessarily believe in total gender equality as it is defined in the West, but they do assume that their husbands should at least share the household responsibilities. In contrast, many men still cling to a more traditional view of marriage, where the duty of the wife is simply to stay home, serve her husband and parents-in-law, rear the children and generally remain submissive to him at all times. Today's well-educated, assertive, career-oriented women do not fit the role of the traditional Chinese wife.

Rather than change their traditional view of marriage and the role of the wife, many Taiwanese men decide to seek foreign wives from countries with similar, often Confucian-inspired belief systems. The matchmaker has an honored place in Chinese societies, and a proliferation of marriage brokers has capitalized on this, stepping in to meet the high demand in this growing "marriage market." Their advertisements, designed to appeal to frustrated Taiwanese men, suggest ways of helping single males find spouses.

The types of men that choose to import brides from Southeast Asia and China tend to be, as described, very traditional in their thinking: Farmers who want a large family, or unmarried senior citizens in need of a caretaker. Often they are impoverished and uneducated, spending their relatively meager savings on marriage brokers, agency fees or dowries. Many of the new brides, just off the boat, have very little time to adjust to their new environment before being put to work to support the family.

B. PUSH FACTOR for Foreign brides in leaving their home country is clearly about economic and social reasons where the country of origin cannot provide. Like; unemployment, salary differentials, family and social pressures, escape from poverty, ambitions, etc.

C. PULL FACTOR of Taiwan in General

Since Taiwan is a developed country in Southeast Asia, it gave economic attraction to the women in the neighboring third world countries. The promised of job opportunities and financial security brought by Taiwan's Industrial advancement are the main pulling factor why impoverish foreign women tried their luck. Taiwan is a very attractive nation in Southeast Asia where women are lured to its economic achievement is a short period of time. Therefore, foreign brides tried their luck to marry Taiwanese men as a kind of a “long term high risk investments” with an expectation of higher returns.

D. NORMAL FACTOR: Out of 100 respondents, mostly Filipinos, only 5 respondents who said they were married through a normal process. Normal process means, there was courting for quite sometimes, decide to settle down on their own without any outside forces and hidden motives/agenda. Even though they were married in a normal way, they are still subjected to the dilemma of cultural differences and social predicament.

SITUATIONER 2: The plight of the new immigrants (Foreign Brides)

•  Statistics: Foreign Brides from mainland China and Southeast Asian Countries

Based on recent statistics, the foreign brides are forming a growing minority in

Taiwan Society and even pursued the total numbers of 13 distinct aboriginal tribes in Taiwan which comprise the 2% of the total population in Taiwan.

In the Diocese of Taichung which comprises the 3 counties in Central Taiwan namely: Taichung County, Changhua County, and Nantou County.

STATISTICS BY NATIONALITIES:

According to government tallies, one out of every five marriages in Taiwan is between a Taiwanese national and a foreigner, and one out of every eight newborns are children of foreign spouses.

2. Struggle and Difficulties:

Marriage migration in Taiwan has been an issue since the late 1990's. Marriage migration mainly involves the immigration of foreign brides (new immigrants) from Southeast Asian countries who are more likely to live in rural areas in Taiwan. While most studies have emphasized the negative social effects of marriage migration, the effects of institutionalized racism and sexism in rigid immigration laws and regulations have been neglected. According to the Ministry of the Interior (MOI), the numbers of those who entered as a spouse have climbed to over 383,204 people in the end of 2006. (MOI, 2004) 57.8 percent of marriage migrants were from the Mainland China including Hongkong and Macau, while 42.2 percent of them were from Southeast Asia which includes the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand.

Indeed, advertisement for marriage migration has been almost everywhere in Taiwan's daily existence. Such as: “They bought a foreign bride for NT$300,000.00 – 500,000.00.” “They bought a Vietnamese bride for NT$200,000.00.” You heard these commoditized marriages all the time, but government sees these as invisible. When we talk about buying foreign women for marriage with the amount stated above is misleading. The truth is, they were not bought but deceived. Only a small portion of it or worst nothing at all goes to the woman or her family and the bigger slice of the pie goes to the broker – A lucrative business of deception.

•  On Labor:

Since1999, when the immigration law was first enacted, marriage migration has not been the focus of the government at all. For example, the immigration laws and regulations themselves have forbidden foreign spouses with residence permits from working. Since 2003, foreign spouses with residence permits were allowed to work after the amendment of the Employment Law. In addition, abused foreign spouses with residence permits were allowed to access free vocational training and employment arrangements sponsored by the government. However, once abused foreign spouses applied for restraining orders, they face deportation and the loss of custody of their children. These basic human rights of foreign spouses are addressed in the amendment proposed by the Immigration League instead of the one by the government. Thus, the rights to welfare, custody of children and employment in Taiwan-New immigrant marriages should be properly analyzed and discussed.

Marriage migration in Taiwan consists of two major groups: one from the Southeast Asia, in particular from the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and one from the Mainland area. With the numbers of marriage migration increasing and the numbers of migrant domestic workers decreasing, marriage migration has replaced labor migration fulfilled the roles of reproduction and production in Taiwanese society. According to research samples, the average age of Taiwanese grooms were 36-38 years old who tend to be 12 years older than the foreign brides. In terms of education, occupation, and residency areas, the majority of Taiwanese grooms located in the lower tier of social status were less likely to marry local women. Survey has shown that 40 percent of Foreign wives were highly educated than their Taiwanese husbands. While the middle-upper class families hire migrant domestic worker to do traditional roles of women, the lower-middle class families marry to foreign women to care for elderly. At the same time, foreign brides got pregnant in a short period of time after marriage in comparison with local women. In other words, Taiwanese grooms married foreign women for the purpose of reproductive and productive roles as well.

Foreign brides tend to work unpaid jobs at home, such as child care, home making, elderly care, etc. Due to the status of migrant women, they tend to employ in the informal sector. As the statistics shown, 82,219 out of 101,615 new immigrants with residence permit are eligible for work, but only 28,496 new immigrants employed. Most new immigrants complain that residence permit is never equal to ID card. Research results have shown that foreign spouses employed the same job as the national did but paid differently and they were subject to racial discrimination when they go to work with residence permit (Lin, 2005). The recruitment of foreign brides primarily from Vietnam, but also from other Southeast Asian nations, is poorly controlled and, as a consequence, has become a major conduit for the trafficking of girls and women into the Taiwan sex trade, as well as for forced labor (Tier 2, TIP Report).

•  On Socio-Cultural difficulties

Obviously for wives from China language is far less of a difficulty unlike those who come from Southeast Asia particularly the Philippines for they have real difficulties in adjusting to language, culture and religious traditions. But generally, all wives tend to face social prejudice in Taiwan. They are often seen simply as commodities, sexual and domestic servants, even by their husbands. They also tend to have an even lower standard of education than their husbands, often primary school only. This makes it difficult for them to navigate Taiwan's bureaucracy if they have to, difficult to seek legal redress if they are ill-treated and difficult to educate their children. Educational theorists now accept the central role of a mother's educational level in the schooling of her children, and the question that is beginning to be asked in Taiwan is whether the children of foreign brides might develop as an educational underclass.

Unlike other nationalities, like Vietnamese, Filipinos tend to be biased or quite proud of themselves for they have the advantage of understanding English language and can read Romanization which they consider as superior language. The Vietnamese and other nationalities can easily adjust to Taiwanese culture since there is similarity in culture and spoken language.

•  Religious difficulties

Religion in Taiwan is not a big social issue. But if we try to dig deeper on religious freedom, many of the foreign brides particularly Filipinos, who are mainly Catholics, have no access to their own religion especially those living in the outskirt areas. Another problem is their freedom to visit the church especially those who are living with their traditional in-laws and husbands. Catholic foreign brides are open to any religious practices even without jeopardizing their own faith. They keep the Catholic faith and sometimes practice Taoism especially during “pai-pai” just to please their husbands and in-laws.

Talking about the religious formation of the Catholic foreign brides and their families is a big challenge to the local Catholic Church. Most of the Catholic Foreign Brides, particularly Filipinos, have this inferiority complex considering that they come from low stratum of Philippine society and still remain in that stratum in Taiwan standard. Their focus is to keep dreaming for economic advancement. They view the Church as a place for the affluent people especially that most of them established biased against the locals based on their personal experience in their own environment and in their work places. There is a feeling of insecurity on their part and unwelcoming attitude on the part of the local Catholic Community. There is an invisible wall that separates the two entities within the church. The Church for them is supposed to be a venue to express themselves freely as their own home but the feeling of aloofness and reservation prevail. They have no Church or place to call themselves their own without fear of being discriminated. The feeling of being a second class Parishioners in the local Church still lingers in their hearts. They share with the locals the use of the Church building and the Parish activity center which oftentimes become a source of apathy between them. Keep adjusting to the schedule of the local parishioners slows the process of formation, especially if the local community is lack of interest towards them.

Religious Education for children of Catholic Foreign brides is highly necessary and must be given priority by the local Church. These children are the future of the Church in Taiwan.

COPING MECHANISMS:

•  1. The Healthy Coping Mechanisms of the Foreign Brides are: Getting involved in Local Community Activity (village program organized in their locality); Church Activities; Government offered activities (Program for foreign brides). These women are those who are educated and exposed to healthy environment even before they were married. Out of 100 respondents only 30 percent practiced these healthy coping mechanisms while 70 percent belong to the next category.

•  2. The Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms are: Frequent visit to entertainment houses; Creating wrong friends which lead to unhealthy relationship; Looking for someone to lean on which leads to extra-marital affairs or infidelities; Gambling; Drugs / Substance abuse; Frequent alcohol drinking; Wrong business enterprise like engaging in Loan shark activity. Most of these women are those who are less/not educated and influenced by bad social milieu which raped their innocence from the beginning.

LOCAL CATHOLIC CHURCH'S RESPONSE:

Apostolate to foreign brides was given much emphasis in the early 2000. Mission in Pintung in the Diocese of Kaoshiung started with the Dominican Fathers and now being run by the Filipina sisters whose missionary focus is to assist the Filipinos married to Taiwanese. Vietnamese concerns are taken cared of by the Vietnamese Missionaries in different Dioceses of the island. Originally, the focus of the chaplaincies are for the migrant workers but now, due to the pressing demands for the religious and social formation of the foreign brides, there is this paradigm shift of pastoral concern towards foreign brides. St. Christopher Church in Taipei, Hope Workers Center in Chungli and in Holy Cross Church in Changhua focus on Family and life concerns for the foreign brides. The Vietnamese Center in Taoyuan, which is founded and managed by Fr. Peter Hung, focused its attention on Vietnamese who are victims of trafficking and its advocacy has stirred the whole island through its effort of getting the attention of the global community on trafficking in person.

PASTORAL RESPONSE IN THE DIOCESE OF TAICHUNG:

The Diocese of Taichung is making progress in responding to the pastoral needs of the new immigrants (foreign brides) and the migrant workers. The existence of 3 pastoral areas for migrants have been in placed in order to easily respond to their pastoral needs and easily facilitate proper implementation of the Diocesan pastoral programs. Even though there has no collective and unified pastoral plan for the Foreign Brides in the whole Diocese but there are pastoral plans initiated by some local and missionary priests in some Parishes and Chaplaincies. Pastoral concerns for Vietnamese brides in the Diocese are being handled by a Vietnamese priest, Fr. Van Du Nguyen, in Tungshih. They have regular Vietnamese masses and some advocacies pertaining to the plight of the Vietnamese brides.

In Southern part of Taichung Diocese based in Holy Cross Church, Changhua City, the Chaplaincy is formulating a holistic pastoral program for the foreign brides under the general pastoral plans of the Center for Migrants' Concerns – Central Taiwan (CMCCT), a front NGO of the Chaplaincy for social concerns. The CMCCT has a “Daluyan” Pastoral Development Plans. “Daluyan” means “Channel.” This Pastoral Development Plans is spread out not only to the foreign brides but also to the migrant workers. This is financially supported by our mission-partner foundation, the Taiwan Catholic Mission Foundation, and also from our meager income in Mass collections. Aside from Religious formations to sustain their faith, the CMCCT is trying to find answers to their basic needs. Like cultural and language formations; technical/practical learning; etc. The children of these foreign brides are the captured subjects for evangelization as second generation Catholics in Taiwan which should be given proper attention by the Church. Basic programs have been developed to attract children towards the Church. One of these is summer/winter camp; on going English literacy; etc.

By the start of the next school year, Daluyan Learning Center will open an English class and catechetical instruction to children in grade one as their after class activity program.

THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION:

According to the Judeo-Christian Scriptures, immigration is not simply a sociological fact but also a theological event. God revealed his Covenant to his people as they were in the process of immigrating. This Covenant was a gift and a responsibility; it reflected God's goodness to them but also called them to respond to newcomers in the same way Yahweh responded to them in their slavery: "So you too must befriend the alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt" (Deuteronomy 10:19).

Building on this same foundation, Catholic social teaching has reiterated that the true moral worth of any society is how it treats its most vulnerable members. John Paul II has consistently underscored the moral responsibility of richer nations to help poor nations, particularly with regard to more open immigration policies. While some in Taiwan claim these immigrants have no right to be here, the church believes that a person's true homeland is that which provides a migrant with bread.

The Catholic church recognizes the right of a nation to control its sovereignty, but it does not see this as an "absolute right," nor does it see sovereign rights as having priority over basic human rights. While acknowledging the ideal of people finding work in their home country, the church teaches that if their country of birth does not afford the conditions necessary to lead a fully human life, persons have a right to emigrate.

A community of faith reflects on the fact that when it comes to commerce, we have borders that are becoming more and more open. When it comes to labor, however, we have borders that have become more and more restrictive. In brief, we have created a society that values goods and money more than human beings and human rights, which contradicts the biblical narrative.

The gospel vision challenges the prevailing consumerist mentality of Taiwan culture, which sees life as an endless accumulation of goods, even while the rest of the world suffers. Jesus in his life and ministry went beyond borders of all sorts -- clean/unclean, saintly/sinful and rich/poor -- including those defined by the authorities of his own day. In doing so, he called into being a community of magnanimity and generosity that would reflect God's unlimited love for all people. He called people "blest" not when they have received the most but when they have shared the most and needed the least. Christians, as such, distinguish themselves not by the quantity of their possessions but the quality of the heart, which expresses itself in service. Above all, this quality of the heart is measured by the extent to which one loves the least significant among us.

Many immigrants sit at Taiwan's door like Lazarus, hoping for scraps to fall from the Taiwan's table of prosperity. They are seeking not simply charity but justice. In Matthew , Jesus says, "I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me." The corollaries to the immigrant experience are striking. Hungry in their homelands, thirsty for justice as they cross the border, naked after being fooled and robbed by their brokers, emotionally sick in their strange household, imprisoned against their will in an inhumane situation and, finally, strangers in a new land, they bear many of the marks of the crucified Christ in our world today.

As John Paul II notes:

"The immediate reasons for the complex reality of human migration differ widely; its ultimate source, however, is the longing for a transcendent horizon of justice, freedom and peace. In short, it testifies to an anxiety which, however indirectly, refers to God, in whom alone humans can find the full satisfaction of all his expectations." Many immigrants offer a compelling witness of faith.

The Catholic Church itself affirms, again and again, that we are one body in Christ. In the Eucharist, the church protests against the walls and barriers we set up between ourselves. If "migration" worked itself into the self-definition of all people, we might then realize that before God we all live in the same country, we all live on the same side of the fence. In reality, death is the ultimate border, the journey of faith is the ultimate migration, and God is the ultimate Promised Land. Christ teaches that we will be able to cross over this final border to the extent that we have been able to cross over the smaller borders in this life and see interconnectedness to each other.

According to the eschatological reflection on migration by Anselm K, Min of Clearmont Graduate University in California said: “The phenomenon of international migration raises a number of complex human issues, such as how to find a better match between supply and demand for migrant labor, how to develop the poor nations economically and politically so as to reduce the need for migration out of necessity, how to regularize migrants with irregular status, how to protect the human rights and human dignity of migrant workers, and how to socially integrate them as full participants in the countries of destination.” 

From a theological perspective these issues raise three major issues.  How do we motivate and empower the poor in developing nations to struggle for their own liberation from poverty and injustice?  How do we motivate the citizens of rich nations to think and act, beyond their own national interests, in solidarity with the poor of the world whose well being can be affected by the foreign and domestic policies of their own governments?  How do we rethink universal humanity in this age of globalization which brings together people of different cultures and religions into common space and compels them to find a way of living together as citizens of an increasingly integrated and interdependent world? 

The Christian tradition has many resources to respond to these issues.  The preferential option for the poor, the universal destination of earthly goods, the common good as norm of politics, the solidarity of all humanity as brothers and sisters of Christ the Son and sons and daughters of the Father in the unifying, reconciling, and transforming power of the Holy Spirit:  these doctrines, appropriately deepened and politicized, can provide a profound motivation and empowerment for all parties concerned.

Eschatologically, what we do to the “least” of our brothers (best exemplified today in the figure of the migrant workers and new iimigrants) is the test or criterion of our eternal salvation.  The eschatological ideal of reconciled humanity in a new heaven and a new earth to which the Holy Spirit is calling us today empowers a hope for struggling in solidarity with the poor across the many boundaries of alienation.  The symbol of “migration” also indicates to all, rich and poor, that our final destiny is not in this world but in the world yet to come.  We should not live in this world as though our eternal home were here, absolutizing our attachments to material goods to the point of excluding others, nor should we live in this world as though our failure here were our total failure.  We should live in this world faithfully because how we live here determines our eschatological destiny, but we should live in this world with detachment because excessive attachment leads to greed and despair.  Rather, we are invited to live with eschatological hope, hope that empowers us to live faithfully in this world but also with a necessary tension between this world and the world to come.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

1. FOR THE LOCAL CHURCH (Receiving Church)

The new immigrant issue in Taiwan is now taking the center stage in Taiwan modern history. The issue that the Local Church should not neglect. The following are the recommendations which the Church in Taiwan should boldly consider:

•  The Catholic Regional Bishops' Conference (CRBC) should strengthen the apostolate of ECMI by providing a systematic approach and logistics in coordinating Migrants' Apostolate throughout the island.

•  Pastoral Implementation needs logistics and financial support:

•  Migrants should be given a proper place for their regular activities

•  Eliminate payments on Migrants' use of Church buildings and Activity Centers in Parishes that are serving the Migrant Workers and the new Immigrants. Donations/Contributions to the Parish/Church should depend on the availability of funds since the Mass collections of migrants are varying and not enough to finance its programs.

•  OR Centralize the financial system for migrants' apostolate. Funds should be managed by the Diocesan Chancellor and be released based on the annual budget proposed by the Chaplain/s.

•  Diocesan clergy must be given inputs on Migration and their role in establishing a culture of welcome in their Parishes.

•  Migrants' Sunday should be celebrated and promoted throughout the island among local Parishioners. Not only to be celebrated by the migrants themselves.

•  Commission on Migrant apostolate should be created in every Diocese.

•  “Where migrants are more numerous they, in particular, should be offered the possibility of taking part in the diocesan/eparchial and parochial pastoral councils , so as to really take their place in the particular Church's structures of participation.” (EMCC # Chapter I, Art. 3, par. 2).

1. FOR THE CHURCH OF ORIGIN (Sending Church)

For the Church whose members are migrating to other Countries should consider the following recommendations:

•  Strengthen the Pastoral work of the Episcopal Commission on Migration and the Itinerant people (ECMI). This will include the proper monitoring of marriage between the Local women and the foreigners.

•  Strengthen the education campaign regarding the evil of marriage by convenience.

Sources:

•  = Survey-interview of Foreign Brides in Central Taiwan with 100 respondents mainly Filipino Brides;

•  = www.ris.gov.tw/ch4/static/st1-9-95.xls

•  = Chang, Shu-ming and Hong-Zen Wang. 2002. “ The Commodification of International Marriages: Cross-Border Marriage Business in Taiwan and Vietnam ”, International Migration 6: 93-116

•  = Hsia, Hsiao-Chuan. 2003. “Internationalisation of Capital and Trade in Asian Women: the Case of 'Foreign Brides' in Taiwan” in Women and Globalisation , ed. Delia Aguilar and Anne Lacsamana. Humanity Books Press.

•  = Tsai, Pan-long and Ching-lung Tsay. 2004. “Foreign Direct Investment and International Labour Migration in Economic Development: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand,” Chapter 4 in International Migration in Southeast Asia, ed. Aris Ananta. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

•  = Tsay, Ching-lung. 2004a. “Marriage Migration of Women from China and Southeast Asia to Taiwan,” pp. 173-191 (Chapter 7) in (Un)tying the Knot: Ideal and Reality in Asian Marriage, ed. Gavin W. Jones and Kamalini Ramdas. Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.

•  = Tsay, Ching-lung and Ji-ping Lin. 2003. “Return Migration and Reversal of Brain Drain to Taiwan: an Analysis of the 1990 Census Data,” pp. 273-292 (Ch. 15) in Migration in the Asia Pacific: Population, Settlement and Citizenship Issues, ed. Robyn Iredale, Charles Hawksley and Stephen Castles. Edward Elgar.

•  EMCC # Chapter I, Art. 3, par. 2