Kaohsiung City New Immigrant Family Service Center / 新移民家庭中心 貼心的小天地
Kaohsiung City New Immigrant Family Service Center
◎Text by Kuan-Chun Che
◎Photos courtesy of Kaohsiung City New Immigrant Family Service Center, Chung-Hui Pao
Browsing through the Indonesian magazine, Elisabeth Jama Rimbe from Indonesia felt grateful that she could read familiar books here in the New Immigrant Family Service Center.
The New Immigrant Family Service Center has been established for 3 years. In addition to providing general counseling, the Center also serves as a learning center for foreign spouses. Elisabeth, who has been married to a Kaohsiung resident for 13 years, is the chairman of the Indonesian Sisterhood Association of Kaohsiung. She always encourages others to come to the center. With computers, magazine, books, and play rooms, the center is a perfect place to mingle and learn.
Elisabeth is active in public affairs and loves to help others solve issues with her own experience. She not only encourages foreign spouses to be more active, but also acts as a communication bridge between spouses and their Taiwanese families, in the hope of avoiding confusions and misunderstandings. Elisabeth said that participating in more activities and events could prevent these spouses from being closed off. She took herself as an example. She used to be scared of talking to her son's teachers in parent-teacher meetings because of her lack of language skill. But after consistent practice, her Chinese is getting much better, and she loves to interact with teachers to get to know more about her son's school life.
Overall, adjusting themselves is still the major issue for these spouses. Therefore, the center has authorized the Kaohsiung Christian Family Service and the Shepherd Life Association to provide counseling services for New Immigrant Spouses and Chinese spouses respectively. At the same time, to better assist foreign spouses in need, the Social Affairs Bureau has also set up eight community services branches within Nanzih, Siaogang, Sanmin, Cianjhen, Lingya, Cianjin Districts. Meanwhile, the bureau also helped to establish the Indonesian Sisterhood Association of Kaohsiung, the Vietnamese Sisters Association of Kaohsiung, and the Thailand-Philippine Sisterhood Association of Kaohsiung, in the hope of relieving their homesickness. This year, the bureau will do its best to establish the Chinese Sisterhood Association.
The center also provides services to foreign spouses who were not able to obtain citizenship due to special circumstances. The center provides them with living stipends, childcare, subsidies, and legal advice with foreign laws, the Act Governing Relations Between the Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area, or divorce lawsuits. The center also holds regular holiday celebrations for foreign spouses to participate in and mingle. In the future, the center plans to arrange more and various courses, so that these new immigrants one day will consider Taiwan their second home.
新移民家庭中心
貼心的小天地
◎文／王雅湘
◎照片提供／新移民家庭中心、鮑忠暉
印尼籍的伊麗莎翻閱著書架上的印尼雜誌，在新移民家庭中心裏，伊麗莎可以閱讀得到她熟悉的印尼文書籍，貼心的感受不言而喻。
成立近３年的新移民家庭中心除了提供一般的生活輔導外，中心另一個重要的功能為提供學習資訊的場所讓外籍配偶們使用。嫁到高雄13年的印尼好姊妹支持聯誼會的會長伊麗莎表示，她常鼓勵姊妹們來中心，這裡有電腦、雜誌及書籍、兒童遊戲室等，姊妹們可以在這邊學習與休閒聯誼。
伊麗莎積極參與公共事務，以過來人的經驗協助姊妹們解決適應上的問題。不但鼓勵姊妹們走出來，她同時也與姊妹們的夫家溝通，免除他們的疑慮。伊麗莎表示多參加聚會與活動，比較不易自我封閉。像她參加兒子學校的家長會時，一開始因為怕自己的發音不正確，還不太敢用國語跟老師溝通，但是在她勤加練習之下，國語愈來愈熟練，她就願意與老師互動，了解兒子的學習狀況。
然而，適應台灣的生活環境仍是新移民配偶面對的首要課題，目前中心委由高雄市基督教家庭服務協會以及中華民國牧愛生命協會分別為新移民配偶以及來自中國的新移民配偶進行服務，除了這兩個協會之外，為了能就近照顧需要協助的外籍配偶，社會局也於楠梓、小港、三民、前鎮、苓雅、旗津等地成立８個社區服務據點。此外，為協助新移民配偶建立非正式支持網絡、紓解思鄉情誼並安定其身心，社會局輔導成立「高雄市印尼好姐妹支持聯誼會」、「高雄市越南姐妹同鄉會」及「高雄市泰國菲律賓姐妹同鄉會」，今年積極籌備「大陸好姐妹支持聯誼會」成立。
遭逢特殊境遇未有身分證的外籍配偶，也是新移民家庭中心的扶助對象，提供生活津貼、托育、補助等服務，協助解決各項法律問題，對於遭遇涉外法規、兩岸人民關係條例、離婚訴訟等相關法律問題予以協助。該中心定期安排活動，如婦女節、母親節、印尼國慶日等節慶，讓姊妹們一同參與，並連繫情感。未來希望可以籌辦更豐富、多元的課程，讓新移民配偶們能更適應本地的生活，期待讓新移民配偶日久他鄉是故鄉。