DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen has proposed new measures designed to strengthen benefits for immigrants from Southeast Asia.
During a meeting with Southeast Asian immigrants on Wednesday, Tsai called for improving immigrants’ access to social welfare and improving the availability of public services in multiple languages.
Tsai also called for broadening accreditation of Southeast Asian universities to give immigrants from the region more opportunities for employment and continuing education.
Tsai called the Taiwan-born children of Southeast Asian immigrants “Taiwan’s greatest resource”, and said that the DPP will encourage them to study their parents’ mother tongues. Tsai said that their knowledge of both Taiwan and their parents’ homelands in Southeast Asia gives them an advantage. She said these second-generation Taiwanese will lead Taiwan and the countries of Southeast Asia to closer cooperation.