The Bureau of Immigration is run too much like a police station, academics said at a conference on immigration policy yesterday.
"Our immigration policy focuses too much on population control. We also need to establish a system to integrate immigrants into society," said Tseng Yen-fen (曾嬿芬), professor of sociology at the National Tai-wan University.
The draft guidelines in the ROC immigration policy (
"The use of the word `outstanding' is inappropriate," Tseng said. "It's hard to predict the performance of second-generation immigrants. Attracting `outstanding' immigrants now doesn't mean that the next generation will be the same. In the US, second-generation immigrants are very competitive, even though first-generation immigrants didn't necessarily speak or read English."
Tseng suggested that bilingual schools and educational programs presented in Mandarin and Vietnamese or other Southeast-Asian languages could promote the integration of immigrants into Taiwanese society.
Tsay Ching-lung (蔡青龍), coordinator of the Taiwanese Migration Research Network, said there was a need for facilities devoted to the study of long-term immigration needs and trends.
"Our current immigration policies have been formulated in a hurry to deal with problems as they came up. To prevent rushed policy-making in future, we need to establish a bureau of immigration research, like the one in Australia," Tsay said.
Tsay expressed approval for the policies geared toward attracting foreign professionals and investors.
"It's not a matter of whether we want this policy or not. This is what has to be done if we are to stay competitive as a nation," Tsay said.
But despite the definite need for white-collar immigrants, Taiwan also needs laborers, he said.
According to his research, the number of laborers in Taiwan will begin to dwindle by 2015, and by 2030 there will be fewer laborers than there are now.
The research also showed that 10 percent of Taiwan's population will be over the age of 65 by 2011, and by 2031 this figure will increase to 22 percent.
"Taking care of the elderly is not a job that can be fulfilled by professionals in the high-technology industry," Tsay said.
Ko Chyong-fang (柯瓊芳), research fellow at Academia Sinica's Institute of European and American Studies, also said that long-term planning needs to be emphasized in policy-making.
"Immigration policy is about sustainable development. The real question we need to be asking is what kind of population this piece of land can accommodate. What population size do we want in 10 years? Unfortunately, policies always follow in the footsteps of reality and never come before problems hit," Ko said.
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
China has reserved offshore airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts that are usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. The alerts, known as notice to air missions (NOTAMs), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert
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