Hoping to reduce the alleged negative impact of Chinese spouses in the country, the Cabinet yesterday decided to tighten immigration regulations for Chinese nationals -- effectively Chinese women -- until the national birth rate meets upgraded population goals.
"Immigration is like tap water. We don't want too much of it, but not too little either," Cabinet Spokesman Chen Chi-mai (
Under the new regulations, the annual number of Chinese immigrants will be set at 16 percent of the difference between the expected average population growth over the past three years and the actual growth.
This formula has resulted in an annual quota of 10,000 being imposed on Chinese immigrants over the next six years. The annual quota for permanent residency for Chinese nationals is also expected to drop to between 5,000 and 8,000 by 2010.
Around 9,700 of the 131,000 Chinese nationals resident in the country were granted permanent residency last year. About 42 percent of the total number of Chinese who obtained permanent residency last year did so through marriage.
An average of 2,110 non-Chinese foreign spouses and 7,249 Chinese spouses were granted permanent residency each year between 1999 and last year. Last year saw the total of Chinese and other foreign spouses rise to 280,000, or 1 percent of the population.
Last year saw one in every 3.1 marriages involve a foreign spouse, including Chinese spouses, and one in every 7.5 children born had a foreign parent, including Chinese parents.
Although Chinese spouses and their children bring many advantages to the country, there was a growing problem of many single Taiwanese women being unable to find partners, Chen said.
Figures showed that marrying at an older age had resulted in a lower birth rate, with the nation's total fertility rate (TFR) declining from 6.55 in 1955 to 1.22 last year. When a family planning program aiming for two children per family was introduced in 1964, the TFR was 5.1.
In response to the decreasing birth rate and a rise in the proportion of elderly people, the draft will encourage Taiwanese to have more children.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
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