1. Introduction
4.6 Loosening Restrictions on the Influx of Foreign Workers?
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4.6 Loosening Restrictions on the Influx of Foreign Workers?
The government has been strict in allowing unskilled and low-skilled foreign workers to Taiwan, but has been generous to highly skilled and professional foreign workers and tried unsuccessfully to solicit them as part of their globalization strategies. As far as the policy is concerned, it has not been so successful in attracting global talents and keeping migrant workers from becoming permanent members of society (Yoon, 2009). The current condition of the Taiwanese skilled labor market is adversely affecting the country‘s economy due to lack of professional orientation. Local entrepreneurs and companies have been blaming the country‘s hard and rigid immigration policies for discouraging import of foreign skilled professionals into Taiwan (Visato News, 19 August 2012). Due to such criticism, the government finally gave way for the new reforms to take place. The Taiwanese authorities are now making certain reforms in the immigration system of Taiwan for making it more favorable for permanent residents and foreign investors. According to the Ministry of the Interior, the aim of such reforms is 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 ((Visato News, 19 August 2012). On November 16, 2012, at the opening of an international forum on immigration policy, Minister of the Interior Lee Hong-yuan said that ―Taiwan is vying for foreign talents, but as of now, many of our rules are still not very friendly. Taiwan needs to further ease its immigration regulations, starting with citizenship and permanent residence rules, in order to attract more white-collar foreign talents‖. However, the current regulations on hiring a foreign white-collar employee are still strict. The applicants with bachelor‘s degree are required to have two years of relevant working experience and their monthly salary must not be lower than NT$47,971. Due to these restrictions, many small and medium-sized local businesses might be less inclined to hire a foreign national.
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In order to capitalize on the recruitment of foreign workers to increase employment for local workers and to enhance the nation‘s competitiveness, The CLA proposed a plan which has taken effect on 1 November 2012, to introduce an influx of 80,000 extra foreign blue-collar workers as an incentive to attract new investors to Taiwan. Taiwan uses a five-tier system to regulate the permitted ratio of foreign blue-collar workers in an enterprise‘s total workforce in different industrial sectors, ranging from 10% to 35%. Under the new plan, mainland China-based Taiwanese businesspeople who relocate their businesses to Taiwan and meet certain investment criteria will be allowed to recruit 15% to 20% more foreign blue-collar workers than other companies. For other investors, enterprises that establish a factory in the country will be allowed to recruit an additional 5%
to 10% of their total workforce from overseas. The maximum number of foreign workers in a company‘s workforce is set at 40%. The relaxation of the quota would push up the number of foreign workers employed in Taiwan to more than 520,000, from the current record high of 440,000 (Taipei Times, 10 October 2012). Furthermore, the government has set its sights on five free trade port zones — Keelung Harbor, Taipei Harbor, Kaohsiung Harbor, Taichung Harbor and Suao Harbor — and Taoyuan Aerotropolis to begin this transformation. Fewer restrictions on the flow of foreign investment, workers and information are among the main attractions of the highly anticipated free economic demonstration zones. To spur the development of the free trade zones, the government has drawn up some incentives to lure foreign investment, in particular loosening restrictions on the influx of foreign workers and lifting some tax regulations. The government plans to ease restrictions on white-collar foreign workers who wish to work in Taiwan, reducing their Taiwan-based income tax and their foreign earned income tax (The China Post, 28 March 2013).
On the other hand, Taiwan‘s migration policies put the emphasis on ―national security‖.
China has long been a source of insecurity for Taiwan. Population movements between
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Taiwan and mainland China have been regarded as threatening for national security, especially applied to immigrants from mainland China. However, the incumbent KMT government is heavily tilting to China. And the government has lifted regulations to allow more mainland Chinese coming to Taiwan for economic investments and activities, touring, and academic studies. Mainland Chinese students who study in Taiwan will be very likely to settle in Taiwan after the graduation and become permanent residents (Wang, 2011).
In the past, Taiwan has privileged foreign labor over mainland Chinese under its descent-centred exclusionist policy. Nowadays, with the inauguration of President Ma in 2008, the government is actively relaxing its political vigilance towards the inflows of mainland Chinese people. For example, under the existing regulations, only foreign multinational enterprises are allowed to transfer their Chinese executive staff and professional technicians to positions in Taiwan. In contrast to the brain drain of Taiwan's high-tech talents to mainland China, the number of mainland Chinese high-caliber tech talents registering for a long stay in Taiwan amounted to only 82 between 2007 and 2011, although the government has lifted restrictions on the applications by mainland Chinese high-tech talents to reside or have a long stay in Taiwan (Asia One News, 9 August 2012).
The government has now drafted a regulation amendment which will extend the same treatment to Taiwanese multinationals to allow mainland Chinese white-collar managers and workers at Taiwanese multinational enterprises to work in Taiwan, according to a report released on March 2013 by the country's Ministry of the Interior. The planned opening, however, will be limited to 10 Chinese white-collar workers in one company, who will be permitted to stay in Taiwan for at least one year (CNA, 28 March 2013). However, the more mainland Chinese are introduced to Taiwan, the more possibilities will endanger Taiwan‘s national security. With the closer relationships with mainland China, more than 2.5 millions mainland Chinese tourists visited Taiwan last year. President Ma noted that the resulting rise in Chinese visitors was ―leading to higher security risks‖. Taiwan also
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continues to face cyber attacks from the mainland. President Ma conceded that closer ties had led to ―occasional incidents‖ of secrets being leaked. Chinese spying on Taiwan has intensified even as relations between Beijing and Taipei have improved. Chinese hackers were targeting Taiwan‘s infrastructure, including its financial system, in addition to trying to steal corporate secrets. However, President Ma said the attacks would not prompt Taiwan to slow down its rapprochement with Beijing. He said he hoped to conclude more trade and services liberalization deals this year with mainland China, as well as free-trade agreements with New Zealand and Singapore this year (Financial Times, 31 March 2013). Ironically, up to now, Taiwan has yet to move beyond preliminary drafts of its immigration policies even though the government claimed that Taiwan will take a more open immigration policy to attract more foreign talents to come to Taiwan, and import more blue-collar foreign workers to Taiwan as well.