1. Introduction
4.7 Comparing Immigration Policies among Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan
4.7.2 Differences in Immigration Policies among Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan
國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
Singapore are keep at a level that is satisfactory to replace the low birth rate while not compromising the quality of life here.
4.7.2 Differences in Immigration Policies among Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan
Compared with Singapore and Hong Kong, the foreign labor migration policy has long been more security-centred in Taiwan, so the Taiwanese government has long adopted the most conservative policies and implemented strict regulations on discouraging foreign workers to come to Taiwan. In terms of introducing mainland Chinese people, so far, except marriage immigrants, mainland Chinese people can only come to Taiwan to conduct business activities or sightseeing for a short period (at most three months), or foreign multinational enterprises are allowed to transfer their mainland Chinese executive staff and professional technicians to positions in Taiwan (the duration is at most three years and is renewable), or students can be allowed to study in Taiwan‘s universities. On the other hand, Hong Kong also has long adopted some measures to tighten the entry of mainland Chinese due to its special relations with mainland China. In the Singapore case, it is obviously least xenophobic in nature, but the city-state's migration policies are now testing its society and politics. Cracks and tensions are appearing everywhere in this tightly managed country. Singapore is now faced with a vast array of challenges in the area of migration policy, which is the country's most important issue now. The discussions and debates over the White Paper show that Singapore's citizens wish to have a say in the elaboration of migration policy.
In Hong Kong and Taiwan, the governments‘ policies on the importation of foreign labor in general is that local workers must be given priority and that employers who import foreign labor are unable to recruit local workers; employers must show that they are genuinely unable to recruit local workers. Due to the government‘s excessive open
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
immigration policies, Singapore lacks of such mechanism to encourage employers to recruit more local workers instead of introducing foreign workers. Consequently, as the Singaporean interviewees responds and suggests as follows:
It is definitely a challenging task and the Government has to tread cautiously to calibrate the inflow. On the foreign labour migration policies, I am definitely in favour of the test marketing approach adopted in countries such as Australia and New Zealand where companies intending to recruit from overseas have to prove with substantial evidence to the Government authority that the skills and knowledge which they are looking for in a candidate are not available locally and that they have exhausted all means of attempting to hire locally.
On the other hand, the special relation between Hong Kong and Beijing still means that a steady stream of immigrants from the latter has to be reckoned with. In general, unlike Singapore, the Hong Kong government does not obviously tighten related immigration policies to decrease the inflows of foreign labor force. Instead, the government has maintained its stance to draw more highly-skilled foreign talents, including professionals from mainland China into Hong Kong. The government has controlled more tightly the coming of immigrants from the mainland while it is also opening the door, to attract highly skilled migrants from mainland China. Professionals from mainland China are the main target of the recent more liberalized schemes in Hong Kong. However, due to its special relations with mainland China, the Hong Kong government has set a strict quota for legal immigration from mainland China while other foreigners, including blue-collar foreign workers (domestic helpers) and white-collar foreign workers, are free from the immigration quota to Hong Kong. In addition, with their superiority complex to mainland Chinese, the public discontent of Hong Kong towards the growing number of mainland Chinese migrants is increasingly stronger.
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
Taiwan should learn from the open immigration policies of Singapore and Hong Kong to lift restrictions on introducing foreign labors and to facilitate their living there. For example, a Singapore permanent resident‘s application is open to those who have been living and working in Singapore for at least ―six months‖ while in Taiwan, the applicant of permanent resident must reside there for at least ―five years‖. Obviously, it is much easier for a foreigner to garner permanent residence in Singapore. In addition, a permanent resident of Singapore can enjoy a range of practical benefits while a permanent resident of Taiwan can enjoy few tangible rights. As a matter of course, Taiwan has not been environmental friendly to foreigners and has failed to attract foreign talents to migrate there. In terms of mainland Chinese workers, Taiwan may also face the similar problems and concerns arising from importing mainland Chinese workers to Taiwan in the foreseeable future. Thus Taiwan should follow the example of Hong Kong to set a strict quota for legal immigration from mainland China as well as to open the door to attract highly skilled migrants from mainland China. Furthermore, after interviewing Taiwanese immigration officials, the researcher finds that there are some other crucial reasons beyond the government‘s conservative immigration policies which are revealed by the interviewees as follows (the replies are translated from Mandarin into English):
Taiwan is an island state and businesses in Taiwan are mostly small-sized and medium-sized. In other words, Taiwan lacks internationally competitive enterprises.
With the economic stagnation in recent years, many local companies cannot afford to pay higher wages to employ foreign workers. Thus it is difficult to retain international talents in Taiwan. In addition, compared with Singapore and Hong Kong, Taiwan lacks friendly international environment to facilitate foreigners’ life here, let alone to attract more family dependents to migrate here. In recent years, the government has implemented some schemes to facilitate the entry and residence of international
‧
professionals in Taiwan, and has proposed to loosen related regulations to attract more foreign talents to Taiwan.
However, the government’s efforts in simplifying the administrative procedure for facilitating these foreigners’ living are not effective and not sufficient. The main crucial reason is that the stance from local people and Legislative Yuan are far more conservative than the government authorities. Many bills proposed to the Legislative Yuan have been boycotted, and the authorities are demanded to evaluate the drafts of proposed laws more cautiously and must hold the public hearing to garner the agreement of the majority. As a result, it’s difficult for the government to adopt open immigration policies to attract more foreign talents to Taiwan.
Table 15: Comparison of Characteristics of Foreign Labor Policies
Item Singapore Hong Kong Taiwan
Principle of indigenous
Manpower Department of Labor Council of Labor Affairs
‧
49 The Singapore Government is tightening the criteria for work pass holders to sponsor dependants as part of the overall direction to moderate the growth of Singapore‘s non-resident population.With effect of 1 September 2012, S Pass and Employment Pass (EP) holders need to earn a fixed monthly salary of at least $4,000 to sponsor the stay of their spouses and children here; P1 Pass holders will no longer be able to bring in their parents-in-law.
They may still bring in their parents, spouses and children; P2 Pass holders will no longer be able to bring in their parents or parents-in-law. They may still bring in their spouses and children.
50 In practical, the average month wage is about S$1,000 (retrieved 9 July 2013, from
https://sites.google.com/site/povertyknowledge/lao-dong-shu-ju/wo-guo-yu-xiang-gang-xin-jia-po-ji-han-guo-zhi-zao-ye-wai-ji-lao-gong-cheng-ben-bi-jiao).
‧
Table 16: Numbers of Foreign Labors in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore52
Unit：thousands，%
Item 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Taiwan
population 305 304 300 314 327 339 358 365 351 380 426 percentage
Source: The Council of Labor Affairs, the 2011 Hong Kong Annual Digest of Statistics, the Ministry of Manpower-Manpower Statistics in Brief Singapore
51 With effect from 20 September 2012, the MAW for FDHs should be increased by $180 from $3,740 to $3,920 per month (retrieved 9 July 2013, from http://www.labour.gov.hk/eng/plan/iwFDH.htm).
52 Source: Council of Labor Affairs (retrieved 9 July 2013, from http://statdb.cla.gov.tw/html/nat/0125menu.htm)
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
Notice：The numbers of Hong Kong is the data of foreign domestic helpers; the numbers of Singapore is including professionals, skilled workers, middle level skilled workers and blue-collar workers.
4.8 Summary
Taiwan has kept up restrictions on immigration policies and has a demand-driven foreign labor recruitment system. In addition, its foreign labor policy has strictly controlled the inflows of mainland Chinese to Taiwan due to the special cross-strait relations.
However, with the problems of brain drain in recent years, the government finally gave way for the new reforms to take place. The government is now making certain reforms in the immigration system to attract more foreign professionals and entrepreneurs to work and invest in Taiwan. The new reforms are expected to relax most of the restrictions in the country‘s immigration system. Ironically, up to now, Taiwan still lacks a complete set of immigration policies; the authority is still drafting the policies even though the government has claimed that Taiwan will take a more open immigration policy to attract more foreign talents to come to Taiwan, and import more foreign blue-collar workers to Taiwan as well.
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
CHAPTER FIVE
5. Conclusion and Suggestion
Taiwan has started to introduce foreign workforce since the 1980s. According to official statistics, marriage immigrants and blue-collar foreign workers from Southeast Asian countries and mainland China make up the majority of the total immigrants in Taiwan. These two main sources of immigrants are usually identified as the low class and serve as unskilled or low-skilled workers. Thus the government has put more emphasis on these foreign spouses and foreign labors, especially in terms of social integration, guidance and assistance while neglect on moderating related policies to attract highly skilled workers from abroad. Many entrepreneurs complain that it is too difficult to employ foreign talents in local companies due to strict regulations and unfriendly living environment of Taiwan. Meanwhile, Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam also cited Taiwan as a cautionary tale to highlight the importance of attracting foreign talents. Thus Taiwanese authorities are now making certain reforms in the immigration system to attract more foreign professionals and entrepreneurs to work and invest in Taiwan.
In order to resolve the problem of brain drain, the researcher intends to put emphasis on exploring the development of managing foreign talents and using the most similar case study on Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and furthermore making the comparative method to analyze the similarities and differences among these three countries. This study will definitely provide practical contribution for immigration policy studies in the less explored Asian labor receiving nations, especially in Taiwan. In addition, as Taiwan is undertaking to adopt a more open immigration policy to attract foreign talents to Taiwan, and is even lifting restrictions on the inflows of mainland Chinese talents to Taiwan, it will provide important policy implication for Taiwan‘s foreign labor migration policies, especially in undertaking the schemes and in evaluating the impacts on importing mainland Chinese workers. Thus in this study, there are
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
some suggestions as follows for the policy implication to attract foreign talents: