I have been thinking about something very interesting to me lately, namely, social integration in Taiwan. Take a look at this article : currently, 1/5, 20%, of Taiwanese marriages are to a foreigner, apparently because of the disparity between what Taiwanese men and Taiwanese women want. Men want someone to carry on male-based traditional society; modern women want a more exciting life or a more respectful marriage than they think "traditional" Taiwanese men can deliver. Many of my Taiwanese female friends have confirmed these same thoughts from the article, although they probably represent a skewed population. But regardless, Taiwanese men are increasingly marrying women from overseas, especially in SouthEast Asia.
Also now, Taiwan is promoting a influx of high-knowledge employees, indicating it needs to import about 100,000 high-tech foreign workers between now and 2009. That doesn't include the number of migrant laborers or other forms of residents, including students and other laborers. According to Taiwan's Ministry of the Interior statistics, currently only ~424,333 foreigners reside in Taiwan. Adding 100,000 high tech workers increases the number of foreigners greatly, but the percentage in the population is still only about 2.2% Still, that increases the number of foreigners available for dating/marriage to "modern" women, and those who are married and bring their families add to the foreigner population significantly. If they stay in Taiwan, that would lead to much more foreigner growth in future generations.
All this points to a significant change in Taiwan's population base: a large influx of hi-tech foreign, typically male workers and their families, combined with HUGE amounts of Taiwanese male marriages to SE Asian women, leads me to believe the current demographics here will soon shift significantly. I just wonder how the Han population will react.
What do you think? Will all this immigration result in massive Nationalism/foreigner-phobia/fear of lost jobs to "wai guo ren"? Religious problems like Thailand's Muslim insurgency? Or will it be nothing special? Love to hear the opinions of others, and I hope I haven't speculated too much.
