Yesterday marked the first anniversary of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) inauguration. During an interview on Sunday last week, she listed progress on pension and judicial reforms, transformation of the nation’s energy mix, the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program and transitional justice as the policies her government has set in motion.
Premier Lin Chuan (林全), who also marked his first complete year in the job, mentioned immigration as another important issue, adding that the Executive Yuan intends to introduce legislation to recruit skilled foreign workers in the hopes of improving business opportunities and the nation’s competitiveness.
Immigration is important due to the demographic realities the nation is facing.
Due to its post-war “baby-boomer” generation, greater longevity, a brain drain and one of the world’s lowest fertility rates, it is thought that the nation will soon become an “aged” society, with more than 14 percent of the population aged 65 or older, and it is well on its way to becoming a “hyper-aged” society, with 20 percent of the population 65 or over, by 2025.
Greater longevity comes from medical and lifestyle improvements, together with an excellent National Health Insurance (NHI) system, and the reason for the declining fertility rates is certainly not helped by educated, skilled young people moving — and staying — overseas in search of better career opportunities and higher salaries, something which has also hurt the nation’s economy and competitiveness.
This worsening demographic shift will bring all kinds of challenges, putting excess strain on the pension system and the NHI system, with fewer people working and contributing taxes to pay for it all.
Encouraging people to retire later, thereby reducing the burden on pensions and maintaining higher tax revenue, is one answer. Promoting higher female participation in the workforce is another.
The government could also encourage higher levels of immigration, and give those immigrants the reasons and wherewithal to stay.
Immigrants can be highly skilled professionals, blue-collar workers — skilled or not — or spouses.
For highly skilled workers, Taiwan has a competitiveness problem: It has to vie with other places — Hong Kong, Japan, Shanghai and South Korea — in terms of salary levels and must also offer peripheral enticements that would make Taiwan a preferable place to live.
Ways to make the decision to come to Taiwan easier include: removing limits on citizenship or dual nationalities; enabling economic and cultural activities outside the scope of a work permit; making the application for permanent residence easier; and the extension of residency privileges to a foreigner’s children should they wish to stay into adulthood.
Incremental improvements have been made in these areas by the previous administration and into the present.
Tsai has also been introducing changes to make it easier for new, less-skilled immigrants to establish a stable life in Taiwan.
For example, the Democratic Progressive Party caucus on Tuesday inaugurated the Immigrant Affairs Development Alliance, aimed at communicating with immigrant communities to better understand their needs and possibly revising laws to lay a better legal framework for foreigners seeking residency or citizenship.
This ties in with Tsai’s “new southbound policy,” aiming to increase understanding of the cultures Taiwanese businesses will deal with as they seek opportunities in Southeast Asia.
Increased immigration of all kinds will bring its own challenges, of course. Taiwan has assimilated waves of immigration in the past and these waves have greatly influenced the nation’s trajectory.
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