| 摘要: | 近二十年來，由於台灣女性的教育程度提升，以及勞動參與率的增加，使得台灣「男高女低」的傳統婚配型態受到擠壓，在男不上娶、女不下嫁的情況下，導致台灣男性欲成家則必須轉向迎娶外籍配偶，因此台灣跨國婚姻現象日益顯著。大量外籍配偶的出現對台灣社會造成很大的衝擊，尤其在媒體的大量渲染下，外籍配偶現象被建構成一個社會問題。多數媒體認為外籍配偶來台的目的並不單純，例如「假結婚，真賣淫」或「假結婚，真打工」，及使是真結婚者，也被視為生育的機器，且認為她們所生育的下一代品質堪憂，將加重台灣的社會負擔。 隨著外籍配偶人數的增加，「新台灣之子」人數自然水漲船高，佔總生育數的比例逐漸上升。即使2004年起，因為面談制度的實施，限制了外籍配偶人數，但是其子女數量依然有一定的比例，能見度仍相當高。「如果」外籍配偶本身就是問題了，其所生育的子女當然更是問題，「如果」她們的生育率又較高，將會形成台灣龐大的社會負擔並拉低台灣的人口素質。但這些「如果」並沒有堅實的基礎，大部分只是媒體與民眾的想當然爾。 為了釐清社會大眾對外籍配偶的想像，我們將針對外籍配偶的高生育率以及低生育品質這兩個印象做詳細的說明，以呈現外籍配偶較真實的生育率和新生兒的健康情況。我們利用內政部戶籍登記資料、2003年「外籍與大陸配偶生活調查狀況調查」與國民健康局1998年第八期「台灣地區家庭計畫與生育力調查（KAP VIII）」，來呈現外籍配偶與本籍配偶的「婚齡別」生育率差異，並利用衛生署國民健康局2003年至2007年出生通報，比較外籍配偶與本籍配偶的生育品質，包括死產、體重不足、先天缺陷、早產以及Apgar評分五項指標。 研究結果顯示外籍配偶的生育率不但不高，還低於台灣有偶婦女的生育水準；至於生育品質，不論是從死產、體重不足、先天缺陷、早產或是Apgar評分的比例來看，她們的生育品質也沒有比較差，有些甚至於更好。台灣現在人口老化越來越嚴重，加上生育率經常創新低，如果外籍配偶能夠多生育，不但可以減緩台灣的人口老化，其較佳的生育品質對於台灣的人口其實貢獻良多。
For the last two decades, traditional Taiwanese women’s hypergamy is squeezed due to their promotion of educational level and labor participation. As Taiwanese men refuse to marry “upper” women, foreign spouses turn to be their practical choice. As transnational marriage impacts on Taiwanese society, the media constructs many negative images of foreign spouses, such as commercialized marriage, prostitution and low quality of their new-born babies. Along with increasing foreign spouses, the number of their children moves up as well. Higher proportion of “new Taiwanese children” and their “lower quality” initiate serious worry on how foreign spouses and their children will pull down average quality of Taiwanese population. Unfortunately, these worries have not been supported by sound evidence so far as we understand. In order to clarify public misunderstanding, this study intends to explore real situation of foreign spouses’ fertility rate and birth quality of their babies. By employing household registration data from Ministry of the Interior, the Survey of Foreign and Mainland Spouse in 2003, and the eighth survey of knowledge, attitude, and practice of family planning and reproductive health in 1998 (KAP VIII), we present the significant difference of marriage-years-specific fertility rates between foreign and Taiwanese women. We also compare birth quality of foreign spouse with that of Taiwanese women including stillbirth, low birth weight, birth defect, prematurely born, and Apgar score by the birth notification data between 2003 and 2007 from Bureau of Health Promotion, Department of Health. Contrary to public understanding, our study shows that fertility of foreign spouses is actually lower than that of Taiwanese women. Their birth quality is not worse than that of Taiwanese women either in terms of their ration of stillbirth, low birth weight, birth defect, prematurely born, or Apgar score. As a matter of facts, some indicators demonstrate that the qualities of foreign spouses are even better than those of Taiwanese women. As Taiwan faces threat of aging population and ever-lower fertility rates, promotion of foreign spouses’ fertility should be able to delay population aging and improve quality of Taiwanese population. Foreign spouses and their children are actually making a lot of contribution for the whole Taiwanese population. |
