Dozens of Chinese women married to men from Taiwan took to the streets yesterday along with women's rights activists to protest the government's decision that "marriage immigrants" must provide proof of financial support that the protesters say is unreasonably high.
The Chinese spouses and the women's groups delivered an appeal to a representative of the Executive Yuan, asking the government to repeal the new regulation requiring that Chinese spouses applying for permanent residence or Republic of China citizenship show proof that they have savings of NT$380,000 or make double the minimum wage of NT$15,840 a month.
Originally, the government was planning to require that Chinese spouses show that they have NT$5 million or that they earn double the minimum wage.
Some Chinese spouses said they were more upset about frequent changes in regulations that apply to them than about the amounts of money specified in the regulations.
"The reason I am here today is not because of the burden of financial proof, but because of the ever-changing immigration policy on Chinese spouses," said Cao Rong-zhen (
Cao's husband was managing a business in China when the two met.
"I think the annual income regulation is reasonable. However, the policies on Chinese immigration keep changing, and this regulation regarding financial proof came so suddenly," Cao said.
Cao also said that simply having a work permit does not lead to work opportunities without an identification card.
"Although we Chinese spouses can work under certain circumstances, such as if our family members are underprivileged, without an identification card, nobody wants to hire us. To make matters worse, it takes eight years to get an identification card for a Chinese spouse," Cao said.
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