Page 29 - voice-international-oct2022

Taiwan Insights

Voting Awareness Promotion Campaigns

for New Immigrants

mmigration is an
important issue.
I The importance of
immigration in elections
has been rising around
the world. It may be
a major component
of election platforms
and influences voting
in many countries.
For example, Brexit Multi-lingual voting guide (in English. Vietnamese, Indonesian, Tagalog, Khmer, Thai versions)
was heavily shaped by help new immigrants to better understand the voting process.
migration and border
control issues in the United Kingdom. Immigration immigrants are giving a brand new and diversified
policies could dominate politics in the United States, style to Taiwan society. On the other hand, Taiwan’s
Germany, etc. democratic society has to ensure their voices are
heard and involve them in the political process.
Immigration Issues It is clear that civil and political rights of new
However, immigration issues are relatively new immigrants have been gradually immersed in
to Taiwanese voters and were never core parts Taiwan society. The 2020 presidential election
of party platforms in Taiwanese elections, until could be seen as the first time that immigration
now. While traced back to anthropology, Taiwan was front and center at an election in Taiwan.
is a multicultural society comprising diverse Han As more and more new immigrants are becoming
subgroups, as well as eligible voters, political
indigenous Malayo- parties are realizing
Polynesian peoples and The static parts included posting promotional the importance of
immigrants from all over posters and distributing promotional advocacy addressing new
the world. The influx of etc. Through dynamic interactions, the immigrants and their
new arrivals has been promotional activities were active and varied. needs. Both the
a familiar one for this presidential candidates
island country. of two major parties,
In recent years, trans-national marriages have the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and
become more and more common and have been the Kuomintang (KMT), stood on immigration
on the rise in Taiwan. Currently, the number of and expanded their policies to include issues
new immigrants in Taiwan is more than 550,000. surrounding immigrants.
Of these predominantly married new immigrants,
around 270,000 are eligible voters, half of whom Electoral Promotion Campaigns
originate from China; the others are mainly from In order to protect basic rights and requirements
Vietnam and Indonesia. On one hand, these new of new immigrants, Taiwan government designed

October 2022 | VoICE International | 29