More and more foreign spouses have been immigrating to Taiwan. The ¡§New Taiwan Children¡¨ are consequently expected to become the elites of Taiwan¡¦s next generation. The political education and learning in families, as well as the political attitude of the husband¡¦s family, will all influence the political attitude and national identity of foreign spouses and their children. Most of the dissertations regarding foreign spouses now, however, are focused on the life adaption and Chinese character recognition services for foreign spouses. Little effort has been made to explore their political attitudes. In this research, therefore, we focus our research on the participants of the Chinese-character Recognition Classes in 24 elementary and junior high schools in Kaohsiung City and probe their political attitude after attending the courses.
In this paper, we will discuss the factors influencing the political attitudes of foreign spouses, particularly, their personal backgrounds (including nationality, language and education), family backgrounds of their husbands (e.g., the political party supported by their spouse and their perspectives on unification or independence), and social inclusion factors (for example, political-related discussions with neighbors and friends, community activities, participation in Chinese-character recognition classes or life adaptation-courses organized by the government, etc.) The ultimate purpose of the study is to determine whether innate factors (i.e., personal backgrounds) or environmental factors (i.e., the social factors) are more influential on their political attitudes. If environmental factors turn out to be more influential, we may expedite the social inclusion process through collaborative efforts between the government and private agencies. We will also incorporate in the ¡§conclusion¡¨ our recommendations for further facilitating social inclusion.
It was found in the research process that, in terms of political inclusion, a significant level (P<.001) has been reached in four aspects including ¡§Evaluation of Government Performance¡¨, ¡§National Identity¡¨, ¡§Political Participation¡¨ and ¡§Political Efficacy¡¨. The correlation coefficients between social inclusion and political inclusion are, respectively, .370, .362, .187 and .270. It is therefore recommended that increasing the political participation of foreign spouses may be achieved by encouraging their social inclusion.
The research results also show that, for foreign spouses with different language proficiency, there is a significant variance in the extent of social inclusion. On the average, more foreign spouses communicate with the families of their husbands in English, Mandarin or Fukienese, as compared with those communicating in the language of Thailand, Philippines or Indonesia. We suggest that the authorities should provide more subsidies/incentives to encourage foreign spouses to participate in language-training courses. The survey also shows that foreign spouses rarely attend the community activities or discuss with their friends, mainly because of language barriers. Improvement of language ability will be a motivating factor for their social inclusion.
Foreign spouses seldom participate in community activities or in political discussions. The main reasons for this include busy with childcare or household chores, language problems or inadequate Chinese proficiency, which causes insufficient social inclusion. It is recommended that the government should provide subsidies/incentives to encourage their participation in community activities, including attending the life coach classes and Chinese-character Recognition Classes, etc. The research shows that foreign spouses with better Chinese proficiency are better prepared to participate in political activities. For example, they will find it easier to read election-related information. Among the foreign spouses surveyed this time, few have the habit of reading political commentary in newspapers or TV programs; this is due to their incompetency in Chinese language. One of the ways to improve their abilities in political participation, therefore, is to encourage them to participate in the Chinese-character Recognition Classes. In our visit to the Immigrant Center of Learning in the city, we learned from an instructor at the YMCA that free Chinese courses are now offered by the YMCA to the foreign spouses. It is our hope that through close cooperation between the government and the private institutions we can expedite the social and political inclusion of foreign spouses, enabling them to enjoy a happy life in Taiwan with all of us.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0206109-090935 |
| Date | 06 February 2009 |
| Creators | Tseng, Ching-chin |
| Contributors | Chun-chen Wen, Da-Chi Liao, Chyi-lu Jang |
| Publisher | NSYSU |
| Source Sets | NSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive |
| Language | Cholon |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0206109-090935 |
| Rights | restricted, Copyright information available at source archive |
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