According to the calculation of the Ministry of the Interior National Immigration Agency, there are in total over millions of new immigrants in Taiwan by the end of October in 2021. No matter the new immigrants come to Taiwan for studying, working, or marriage. Taiwan’s multi-culture has added a more splendid chapter with their striving experiences. The world can re-discover Taiwan from a different perspective. These excellent new immigrants have become great models for Taiwan’s international popularity and become the “Outstanding immigrants in Taiwan”.
【Taiwan Immigrant’s Global News network】launches the unit of “‘New’ Glory of Taiwan.” We interviewed a few beloved new immigrants for our readers. With their excellent accomplishments, Taiwan could exert our visibility and influence with our wonderful stories on the international platform.
Outstanding immigrants in Taiwan - Meital Margulis (Israel)
Meital Margulis is from Israel and has been a Taiwanese wife for 10 years already. She enjoys having Taiwanese cuisine with her children and parents-in-law after work. These are her happiest hours.
Meital said, “I had no idea about where Taiwan is when I was young. I only knew that a lot of toys would print ‘Made in Taiwan’ on their back. My father is an engineer. He encouraged me to study Chinese so that it would be easier to have a job at the high-tech companies in Israel in the future. After graduating from university, I applied for a scholarship to Taiwan. I planned to study Chinese in Taiwan for a year then I would go back to Israel for work. Little did I know, I would meet the most cordial Taiwanese boy on my tenth day in Taiwan who kept me staying here until now.
After becoming a Taiwanese wife, Meital Margulis has two lovely children. In her leisure time between taking care of her family and children, she starts writing a blog, Taiwanit online in Hebrew to record her life in Taiwan. Her blog becomes the most valuable resource for Israel to know Taiwan due to their lack of information about Taiwan. If you search for Taiwan in Hebrew, Taiwanit would come up on the top of the Google search list.
Meital Margulis starts to realize there are many collaboration opportunities between Taiwan and Israel, but there are only a few people who could work as translators and coordinators. Then, Meital begins to receive some work opportunities to translate and communicate between Taiwan and Israel for universities, research institutes, companies, and so on.
In 2018, Taiwan Tourism Bureau wanted to promote Taiwan’s tourism to Israel. They saw Meital Margulis’s blog used Hebrew to introduce Taiwan’s tourist attractions, Taiwanese cuisine, culture in detail for the past few years. Therefore, they asked her to be the image ambassador to promote Taiwan’s tourism for Israel and shot a series of video introducing it. Meital is also the representative for Israel's tourism promotion. She accompanied the Taiwan travel agencies to attend the travel fair in Israel and visited the local travel agencies.
Meanwhile, both Israel and Taiwan’s travel agencies asked her to plan the travel packages. In just two years, Israeli tourist to Taiwan has reached over twenty thousand people.
Not only did the Taiwan Tourism Bureau find Meital Margulis, but also academic units and government agencies noticed her endeavor for being the bridge between Taiwan and Israel. MOEA (Ministry of Economic Affairs R.O.C ) was able to create business opportunities for Taiwan’s startup companies in Israel via Meital’s help. There were quite a few Israeli companies that invited Meital as a cross-culture consultant and asked her to use video courses about Taiwan’s culture including how to negotiate and make business in Taiwan.
Meital said, “Israelis teach their children to dare to dream and challenge themselves.” When she came to Taiwan, she demonstrates this spirit. Aside from educating her children, she hopes that young people in Taiwan will also dare to follow their dreams. For the past three years, Meital has teamed up with TXI Center to promote a student exchange program between Taiwan and Israel. There are more than 80 schools in the exchange collaboration program. Even received as a representative of Taiwan promotion of the world’s best and Israeli most ancient university, Israel Institute of Technology. Taiwan and Israel have communicated and developed better in academic exchange, business collaboration, and government agencies via this educational cooperation.
For these ten years, Meital has passionately built the bridge between Taiwan and Israel. Even the retired Taiwan ambassador of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Tel Aviv praised her dedication to promoting Taiwan for Israel as well.
The story of Meital Margulis making her dream come true in Taiwan has become the best model for the younger generation in Taiwan and Israel. It is also because of her, more and more Israelis would notice Taiwan.
