After the Martial Law was lifted in 1987, freedom of the economy, political democracy, and diversification of the society brought about more and more marriages with foreigners and Mainland Chinese. From January 1988 to the end of December 2004, a total of 336,483 foreign and Mainland spouses has landed in the country; in which, 121,804 are spouses of other nationalities and 214,679 are Mainland Chinese.
In view of the increasing number of Mainland spouses, to prevent family and social problems from occurring due to poor adaptation, the Ministry of the Interior works to assist these new migrant spouses to successfully settle and adapt to the life in Taiwan, so that they will be able to lead happy family lives with citizens of our country. For which, the Ministry drafted the Foreign and Mainland Chinese Spouse Care and Counseling Measure on the 7th of May 2003. This measure covers eight major areas of work, categorizing the basic rights and needs of Foreign and Mainland Chinese spouses into the following categories: life-adaptation and counseling, medical and eugenic care, employment rights protection, culture education, child-care education assistance, personal safety protection, legal system improvement, and social value promotion. After careful reviews and amendments, fifty-six concrete measures were set and delegated to the Ministries of the Interior, Education, Foreign Affairs, Justice, Transportation and Communications and Finance, and Executive Yuan Department of Health, Government Information Office, Council of Cultural Affairs, Council of Mainland Affairs, Council of Veterans Affairs, and local governments for implementation. Through integration of public and private resources, the Ministry of the Interior expects to construct a multi-elemental care and counseling measure and provide needed assistances based on the spirit of respecting multi-cultural social values. This dedicated line is exactly one of links to the above-stated Measure.
To establish an open and easily accessible channel for care and counseling of foreign (including Mainland) spouses, the Ministry expanded the scope of the existing Foreign Spouse Protection Counseling Line, 08000-088885, into an all-encompassing information and counseling service line for foreign spouses. The service center provides interpretation and care counseling services in six languages-Mandarin, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Thai, English, and Cambodian. Areas of services include life-adaptation, education/culture, employment service, medical hygiene, personal safety, children education, residency, and regulations. The service hours for Mandarin and Vietnamese are Monday to Friday 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and for Indonesian, Thai, English, and Cambodian 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Through which the service center will provide life-adaptation and relevant information services provided by personnel familiar with the local languages as well as the mother tongue of the client.
Due to cultural differences, different values, and language barriers, foreign and Mainland spouses often bring along family and social problems. The government has become aware of and actively seeking solutions for this problem. By implementing the Foreign and Mainland Chinese Care Measure and setting up the Foreign Spouse Care/Counseling Fund, the Ministry tackles the problems with positive and active attitudes, and, through the active attitude, the Ministry continues to care and answer to problems brought about by migration with the concept, Melting New Blood-jointly we build a harmonious and diversified society, as the policy axis. In the meantime, people in our nation should also have the attitude - "Harmonious Coexistence, learning the diversified culture" with a broad-mind of respect and tolerance to help the new migrants to settle successfully in Taiwan and build a new society and culture of harmony and diversity together.