The Taiwan International Family Association (TIFA) and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) yesterday called for an amendment to the Nationality Act (國籍法) to remove higher citizenship requirements for foreign spouses with children who have been widowed or divorced.
“Mother’s Day is coming, yet one group of mothers is suffering unequal treatment under the law just because they are immigrant spouses and their husbands have died or left them,” Lin told a press conference at the legislature.
“They work as hard as anybody else to feed their family and kids, yet they have to cross a higher threshold to naturalize — something must be done to change this situation,” Lin said.
Lin and the association urged the Ministry of the Interior to draft an amendment to the law.
Currently, foreign spouses must reside legally and continuously in Taiwan for three years and complete a 72-hour language course or score 60 percent or higher on a Chinese test before obtaining citizenship.
But foreigners with children whose Taiwanese spouse has passed away must reside in the country for five years and take a 200-hour language course or score 70 percent on the test.
The rule is even stricter for divorced foreigners with children, who must have five years’ residence, take a 200-hour language course or score 70 percent on the test and show they have a stable income of at least NT$420,000 per year or real estate worth at least NT$5 million (US$150,000).
“Life is already harder for widowed or divorced immigrant spouses with children. They must endure the psychological pain and face harsher economic difficulties because something unfortunate happened,” TIFA social worker Lee Tan-feng (李丹鳳) said.
But “instead of helping them, the government makes it harder for them to become naturalized citizens,” Lee said.
“I don’t understand the logic behind it. Is it because they’ve divorced or been widowed that they’re no longer qualified to become Taiwanese? What happened to the human rights for immigrants that the government’s always talking about?” Lee said.
The association doesn’t want special treatment for widowed or divorced foreigners, Lee said, but rather equal treatment.
Chen Hsien-chi (陳先琪), an official in charge of naturalization affairs at the interior ministry, said the higher language requirement was to make it easier for widowed or divorced foreigners to mix into society.
“Of course, we will still look at the law to see how we can revise it to better help them,” Chen said.
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