One of the most significant issues that has been raised and discussed in this thread is whether or not Taiwan should change its law requiring renunciation of original citizenship for naturalizing foreigners. Some have expressed the view that it should, while others (particularly those who have already gained ROC nationality) have argued that there is no good reason for it to do so. I belong to the former camp.
A couple of years ago, as some may recall, I formally submitted a proposal for the law to be changed. This proposal was adopted by the CEPD’s regulatory reform committee, which pressed the case for it at a meeting with the MOI.
The CEPD represents the progressive mindset in the government, intent on opening Taiwan to the world and bringing it into line with international norms. The MOI represents conservative thinking in the government, intent on keeping things as much as possible as they are. The former has the backing of President Ma, but cannot always prevail, especially in matters such as this that aren’t being called for by powerful external voices (such as foreign chambers of commerce or governments) or by any significant constituency in Taiwan. My proposal lacked any such backing, hence the MOI felt able to reject it even though it could not come up with any but the most risible grounds for its opposition.
Here, for those who haven’t seen it before, is the English version of my proposal (which was presented to the MOI, with suitable adjustment, in Chinese):
Here are the MOI’s grounds for rejecting the change - their Chinese with my summarized English version and comments:
[quote] Those in charge at the MOI evidently don’t want bignoses becoming ROC citizens and assimilating into their society, and they know that this requirement will deter all but a tiny minority of us from applying for naturalization, so they want to keep it in place. As far as they’re concerned, it’s enough that they let us obtain the very minimal and shaky rights of so-called “permanent residency,” and there’s no compelling reason to offer anything more.
Here is their official response, which they say is consistent with the position they took on this issue when it was raised during interpellation in the Legislative Yuan:
有關 貴會函送「工商團體及各部會所提財經法規鬆綁議題」中與本司有關議題為：建議以下列兩種方式修正國籍法第9條：
(一)刪除申請歸化應提出喪失原有國籍證明。
(二)增列申請人原屬國允許我國國民不須放棄國籍即可歸化，其申請歸化亦不須提出喪失原有國籍證明之互惠規定。
本司回應意見如下：
(一)目前採行歸化者須喪失原有國籍，即採行原則上單一國籍立法例之國家有日本、韓國、菲律賓、印尼、馬來西亞、泰國、中國大陸、比利時、瑞典、沙烏地阿拉伯、新加坡、德國、奧地利、義大利等，實非少數。故各個國家之國籍政策均有考量該國國情、歷史背景及社會資源等因素，並據以研訂符合國家利益及當前實際需要之國籍法規。
(二)再者，各國國籍法歸化條件採行之標準不一，有些國家採行多項條件兼容並濟，且各國國籍法亦常有修正之情形，倘一味追求平等互惠原則，除造成查證困難，其歸化條件須隨各國之國籍政策改變而變更，更易形成因原有國家國籍法規定不同，而生差別待遇之不公平現象，實非妥適。
(三)此外，89年2月9日修正公布之國籍法第9條，增列但書規定「但能提出因非可歸責當事人事由，致無法取得該證明並經外交機關查證屬實者，不在此限」。已可解決部分國家國籍法規定不得喪失其原有國籍及因相關政策不允許其國民喪失其國籍，而無法歸化之困難。
(四)另依入國出國及移民法第25條等相關規定，針對有長期居住我國之需求而不願放棄其原有國籍者，尚有申請永久居留證之制度。
(五)基於國家忠誠、減少雙重國籍者之考量，且慮及我國地區人口密度高，為提升國民生活品質，杜防大量外移人口，實有維持原歸化條件之必要。
綜上，修正國籍法第9條涉及我國人口、移民及國籍政策，宜審慎考量，爰建議無庸再行放寬現行規定。
As you can see, their arguments against the change include:
(1) Saudi Arabia requires naturalizing foreigners to renounce their original citizenship.
(2) Our national circumstances, historical backgound, and social resources make it inappropriate for us to give foreigners the same rights and benefits that we Taiwanese enjoy in their countries.
(3) Those other countries all have different laws on this, so how can we implement reciprocity? Yes, sure, we already do it for driving licences, real estate ownership, etc., etc., but it’s bloody mafan, would require a bit of Googling, and could possibly impinge on our tea drinking and other far more important activities, so we’re bloody well not going to saddle ourselves with any such burden unless we’re absolutely forced to.
(4) We already changed the law once, a mere ten years ago, to make an exception for people who cannot renounce their original citizenship. Fer Christ’s sake, isn’t that enough?
(5) We’re already being more than generous in offering permanent residency, and those bloody foreigners don’t even have to give up their foreign passports when we grant them this oh-so-fortunate status.
(6) Our country’s too densely populated already. If we allow bignoses who have already settled in our country to obtain local citizenship, we’ll be overrun by them and it’ll cause the country to collapse.
(7) How can we raise the quality of our citizens’ lives if we allow bignoses to naturalize without giving up their original citizenship?
Pretty compelling set of arguments, eh?
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[url=Rumoured Changes to Naturalization Legislation the thread in which we discussed this in 2010.[/url]
The new minister of the CEPD, Yiin Chii-ming, has said he believes Taiwan has fallen a long way behind its main economic rivals – South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong – in internationalization, deregulation and opening to the world. He believes that the government needs to place very high emphasis on rectifying this situation during Ma’s second term as president, and this will be one of his main goals as head of national development planning. He appears to have strong backing from Ma to achieve this, but many commentators still expect him to face great difficulty in obtaining the requisite cooperation from other Cabinet agencies. It will be vital for Taiwan’s competitiveness and future prospects that he makes good headway on this front. If he does seem to be getting good results, I may resurrect my proposal and try to win some support for it from other influential quarters, perhaps even having a tilt at gaining a sympathetic ear at the very top.
