The State's first dedicated information and advice centre for immigrants has expanded its services to include a China desk.
The telephone help-line is aimed at the thousands of Chinese students and workers in Ireland, many of whom have poor English.
The service is in the Migrant Information Centre in Dublin which offers advice on legal as well as social and cultural issues on a drop-in basis to immigrant workers of all nationalities.
Staff at the centre handle many queries from people from outside the EU who hold one-year work permits or two-year work visas.
More than 16,000 work permits have been issued this year to date, primarily to workers in the agriculture, catering and service sectors.
"What we see are the common problems of migrants relating to adjustment and culture shock, and you also have the added problems of the work-permit system," said Father Bobby Gilmore, a Columban missionary priest who helped start the centre last January.
Father Gilmore said the centre set up a China desk within the past month following approaches from the Chinese community.
It is staffed by a Chinese national, Ms Ping Cao, who works afternoons on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Flicking through a neat ledger, she outlined the recent queries from Chinese people concerning lost passports, marriage plans, banking and medical problems.
"The way of doing things in China is different, and it's hard to accept a new way, particularly for students aged between 18 and 30," she said.
"Language is a big problem as well. Chinese people do not say when they have problems. They hold it in, even when it's not serious.
"I'm afraid that's Chinese nature. They don't speak out about things and they can end up getting worse because they don't."
Ms Cao said cultural differences were hard to overcome for many.
She cited the example of a female student who was worried about her legal status after the birth of her baby and who failed to attend an interview with an immigration official to discuss her case because she was fearful.
"At the last minute she was afraid because the authorities here and in China are different. In China, people are afraid to go to the government," said Ms Cao.
The centre, in a basement building in Beresford Place near Busáras, also has volunteers who speak Korean, Spanish and languages used in the Philippines, from where most foreign nurses in Ireland are recruited.
Mr Michael O'Sullivan said the range of problems faced by work-permit holders showed that the current system was not working and badly needed reforming.
"After one year the right to residency ends and there can be a three- to four-month delay in getting a new permit, but that means the person is living here illegally," he said.
"The gardaí are reasonable about it, but people are very vulnerable and open to all sorts of exploitation.
"The system isn't working, although the people dealing with the system are helpful."
Father Gilmore said the work-permit regime should be reformed so that migrants acquired more entitlements after 90 days, including the automatic right to have their families join them in Ireland.
He said Europe's ageing population would make immigration inevitable in years to come if our economies were to survive.
"One thing that's being highlighted is the need of the European Union for migrants, and political leadership has to inform the public of that need.
"Otherwise there's going to be tension between the public and migrants into the future," he added.
•The Migrant Information Centre, 3 Beresford Place, Dublin 1. Tel: 01-8881355. China desk: 01-8881086.