Walking down the streets and alleyways of Taiwan, one can hardly miss the growing number of Indonesian, Vietnamese, and other Southeast Asian restaurants everywhere. The world has come to Taiwan!
Migration is now a global phenomenon. It is estimated that 200 million people live outside their countries of origin, voluntarily or involuntarily. The following diagram will give us a glimpse of the bigger picture.
What about Taiwan? Although not shown in the above diagram, it is actually one of the top six migrant-receiving countries in East Asia. However, for political reasons, it is almost always missing from official statistics. Fortunately, the National Immigration Agency of Taiwan has compiled its own statistics:
Taiwan—Poised to Become a Land of Immigrants
Like many other developed parts of the world, Taiwan is seeing a drastic drop in the birth rate. It has one of the world’s lowest birth rates, driven by high living costs—especially housing, long work hours, intense education pressure, and changing gender roles, leading to delayed marriage and childbearing. Partly for that reason, foreign nationals have to be brought in to take jobs that many locals find too dirty, dangerous, and demeaning to accept. These migrant workers are often shining examples of service, devotion, and loyalty. One recent example can be seen in the tragic deaths of nine Indonesian domestic workers and one Filipina domestic worker in the catastrophic fire in Tai Po, Hong Kong. They held to their posts to the last minute, protecting the young, the old, and people with disabilities that they had been brought in to take care of with their very lives, and eventually fell in the line of duty. On a broader scale, migrant workers are contributing significantly to the local economies by freeing their employers to focus on their careers.
Back in their home countries, these migrant workers account for a significant portion of GDP. In the Philippines, for example, Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) remittances are a massive pillar for the Philippine economy, consistently contributing around 8–9% to the country’s GDP and a significant chunk of GNI. In 2024, record highs of over $38 billion were sent home, supporting household consumption, local businesses, and providing crucial foreign exchange for the nation.1 They have also become natural cultural bridges, enriching both their host and home communities with the beauty and diversity of each culture. There are many other reasons for migration into Taiwan.
Here are a few examples:
- Vietnamese brides in Taiwan are a significant demographic, primarily driven by economic necessity in rural Vietnam, seeking financial security through marriage to Taiwanese men.
- Young people from politically troubled Myanmar are looking for every possible way to come to join the Chinese-Burmese communities in Zhonghe District, New Taipei City.
- In 2025, Taiwan continues to be an increasingly popular destination for international education, reaching a five-year high of nearly 125,000 foreign students in 2024.2 Students find Taiwan attractive due to its affordability, safety, and quality.
It goes without saying that most of these migrants to Taiwan have come looking for a better life and a better future. However, many of them would quickly come to realize that life as a migrant is not always rosy and smooth sailing. Local sentiments can vary, and often migrants find themselves on the margins of the mainstream society. Their dreams are quickly shattered by the hard rock of reality. In the end, there is no paradise on earth. The better life and the better future that they have come looking for cannot be found apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, who alone is able to transform and renew lives, families, and communities. This only echoes what the ancient church father Augustine said: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” That is precisely why the Lord has brought the migrants to Taiwan as part of his plan to move people globally en masse. Regardless of what the human intentions behind these movements might be, God’s overriding will and purpose stand:
“And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him. Yet He is actually not far from each one of us.” (Acts 17:26–27, ESV)
Missions are indeed no longer from the West to the rest, but from everywhere to anywhere, including from Taipei to Taipei. It can happen across the globe, and it can also happen across the road! With the influx of migrants into Taiwan, there is indeed a mission field at our doorstep (⾨前宣教, mén qián xuān jiào). He who orchestrated these global movements has graciously given the global Church and the local churches a part in fulfilling his plan and purpose. We are called to join him in what he is already doing.
Biblical Perspective of Missions at the Doorstep
The word “diaspora” gives vocabulary to this ministry. Stemming from ancient Greek for “to scatter” and originally referring to Jewish exile, it is now used broadly to cover large groups of people from the same homeland or a shared heritage who are scattered across different regions, maintaining cultural, emotional, or political ties to their places of origin. The Third Lausanne Congress in Cape Town (2010) recognized “diaspora” as a strategic focus area for the global Church, with a mandate to “advance God’s mission to, through, and beyond diasporas worldwide.” That mandate has since been updated to “advance God’s mission to, through, with, and beyond diasporas worldwide” in order to recognize the significant contribution that these diasporas can and will make in his global outreach—a point that will be picked up later in this article.
Although the word “diaspora” might be new to some of us, the phenomenon itself is as old as Genesis and pervades the entire Bible. In his book Christ and Migrants, Reverend Dr. J. N. Manokaran helpfully runs us through the following:
• Adam and Eve, who were exiled from their place of birth—Eden—into a diaspora
• The grand global migration from Babel
• Abraham, who was called to be a migrant
• Lot—a miserable migrant
• Rebecca, who migrates to get married
• Joseph, who was sold into Egypt and became a victim of human trafficking
• Naomi and Ruth, who became distress migrants
We can even think of the dispersion of the Jerusalem church in Acts 8, shortly after Stephen was stoned to death. 1 Peter was written to “the elect exiles of the Dispersion.” In history, we have seen slaves coming from Africa to America against their own will, refugees fleeing from dictatorship, and “boat people” taking to the high seas, to name but a few. Can you see parallels of the modern-day migrants in these examples? How does Rebecca remind us of the Vietnamese brides in Taiwan? How do Naomi and Ruth remind us of the Indonesian and Filipino workers in our midst? How do the boat people remind us of the Burmese seeking asylum? God in his sovereign wisdom has orchestrated events in the world to scatter people from their homelands (sometimes through humanly tragic and inexplicable circumstances), in order to gather them into his kingdom, only to scatter them again to share his truth and love with those who are yet to be gathered into his kingdom.
The diasporas are “scattered to be gathered and gathered to be scattered again.”
Four Phases of Missions at the Doorstep
So how can the local churches in Taiwan minister to, through, with, and beyond the diasporas that the Lord has brought to our midst? One of the first things we can do is to help our brothers and sisters in Christ catch the heart of the “Motus Dei” (Latin for “Movement of God”) and make it their own. His will for the diasporas to “seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him” (Acts 17:26, ESV) should be our command. We can also actively advocate for the rights of the migrant workers, brides, and students. Oftentimes, the non-believing public would see them as less than image-bearers of God, here to be “used” and exploited as sheer commodities. The voices of the migrant workers are often muffled due to disadvantages in language, culture, and even status and identity—or lack thereof. As God’s people, we are to “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.” (Proverbs 31:8, NIV)
Beyond that, the Taiwanese churches can consider adopting and adapting a common model in missiology that describes the evolving relationship between a foreign mission agency (or missionaries) and the emerging indigenous church. This framework, often attributed to the work of Melvin Hodges and further refined by others like Ron Anderson, outlines a healthy progression as a new church moves from a dependent state to full maturity and interdependence. An easy way to remember it is the “four P’s”:
1. Pioneer: In the initial stage, there is no existing indigenous (or contextualized) church in these diaspora communities. Taiwanese churches, in collaboration with specialized mission agencies that have experience in and connection with the homelands of the diasporas, serve on the frontline to evangelize and establish the first Christian communities. Their role is to initiate the work and lay foundational structures. An Indonesian sister, for example, is now based in Taiwan and serving with a mission agency to minister to the Indonesian migrant workers as a pioneer.
2. Parent: As the new diaspora church begins to form, the Taiwanese churches and mission agencies act as a spiritual “parent,” nurturing, guiding, and providing essential resources (such as training, financial assistance, and leadership guidance) to help the fledgling church mature. The goal is for the diaspora church to become self-governing, self-supporting, and self-propagating.
3. Partner: Once the indigenous/contextualized diaspora church has achieved a degree of maturity and competence, the Taiwanese churches and agencies transition from the role of a parent to an equal partner. The relationship becomes one of mutual respect and collaboration, working side-by-side as elder siblings in joint executive committees and through negotiated working agreements.
4. Participant: In the ideal final stage, the relationship is fully interdependent. Taiwanese churches and agencies may work alongside indigenous diaspora leaders as integrated participants within the diaspora church structure, contributing their unique gifts and experience, but without paternalistic control. The focus shifts from the churches’ and agencies’ work to the shared mission of the global Church. This model helps local churches and agencies assess their relationships with the diaspora communities and ensure they are fostering healthy development rather than creating prolonged dependency. After all, we are just “scaffolders,” here to build a temporary structure that would help the construction of a permanent one. Once our job is done, we should leave that permanent structure to its rightful owners—in this case, the diaspora church leaders—and move somewhere else to build scaffolding for new permanent structures to go up.
The Role of Taiwanese Churches in Response to the Opportunities at the Doorstep
In the process, we can intentionally find opportunities to learn from existing diaspora ministries in other parts of the world and bring back transferable principles and practices that we can tweak for our own context. Already, a Taiwanese church has sent a team to Germany through a mission agency to observe, be part of, and learn from the German church’s outreach ministry to the refugees in their midst. And make no mistake—diaspora ministry doesn’t end when we see a diaspora church movement started. Remember the “with and beyond” part of the mandate that was mentioned above? Once the diaspora churches are able to stand on their own, they are best positioned to share the Gospel, not only within their own diasporas, but beyond them to reach out to other unreached people groups. Already, we have seen encouraging examples of Vietnamese-background believers from Canada serving in missions in Cambodia—Cambodian-background believers from the UK serving in missions in Japan, and Japanese-background believers from the US serving in missions in East Asia—and many, many other examples too numerous to be included here. The diaspora is not only a mission field to be ministered to, but a mission force to be reckoned with! They are the ones we need to work with in order to see the following heavenly scene unfold before our eyes when the fullness of time comes:
“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb’!” (Revelation 7:9–10, ESV)
May that heavenly vision stir a passion in us to join him in missions at our doorstep (⾨前宣教)!
A Chinese version of this article was previously published by CES Taiwan (see original here)
- Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, “Personal Remittances Reach a Record High of US$3.7 Billion in December 2024 (Full-Year Level of US$38.2 Billion Highest to Date),” Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, published February 16, 2025, https://www.bsp.gov.ph/SitePages/MediaAndResearch/MediaDisp.aspx?ItemId=7426.
- Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, “Personal Remittances Reach a Record High of US$3.7 Billion in December 2024 (Full-Year Level of US$38.2 Billion Highest to Date),” Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
