President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday encouraged senior foreign missionaries to apply for Taiwanese citizenship now that the government has amended regulations to allow foreign nationals with special contributions to the country to apply for naturalization without having to surrender their original citizenship.
Many foreign missionaries came to Taiwan to support the country when economic development was still in its fledgling stage, Tsai said, adding that it’s time for Taiwan to pay them back for their many decades of service.
Well at least the requirements are clear now! Don’t think I will be able to get approved though.
Maybe the US can have the same policy for Taiwanese? Sounds fair to me… You must be Mother Teresa and not an ordinary human taxpayer to get a passport.
How is Taiwan going to pay them back for their many decades of service?
What benefit aside from not giving up their nationality will they get? Do they have NHI now? Laobao? Who takes care of them when they cannot take care of themselves?
Would local Taiwanese feel cheated if people who have not paid income taxes not laobao receive a pension from the government? I know that this people did a selfless service to the country/community/more neededy citizens of ROC Taiwan- but technically speaking, they are not like the rest of us mortals who pay taxes on our income, our shopping, the services we give/hire, etc.?
Are you sure this will make us furriners more amenable to stay? Aside from lenght of service -50 years or more- you have to be celibate. So, you stay but cannot have descendents here/mix your blood with ours. WTH!?
It is like they have a quota to fill… but do not want like people who would reproduce into a minority. They fear we´d be the Israelites to their Egyptians?
Then, despite not having Taiwanese nationality and the right to vote. I’m going to go to a local MP. I think we need to tell them what we need. Perhaps we can find a sympathetic ear.
After that, we tell the media too. We need to speak up.
One of my home country’s missionaries order have/had a property in Taipei where they have/had an office and a kind of retirement home for priests-missionaries that have been in Taiwan for decades. Some just return home and retire there at an abbey or monastery.
I know. We did a piece of them. My point is that most misionaries are covered one way or the other by their own people, so how is the government going to make it up to them? If they are not covered by their congregation, how will the government justify pension? Would that give teh iodea to taiwanese people that we furriners are freeloaders? Or that we are not doing things for free?
This kind of exclusionary policy makes me think Tsai is not one bit different from the KMT. They are adopting a Bolshevik attitude towards citizenship – granting membership to a few that they deem as the vanguard.
I prefer a Menshevik policy that applies to the wider masses.
Putting it in a cruder but proper way – instead of giving it to missionaries that helped locals, why not to people that have helped the locals in the missionary position?
I know it is going to sound arrogant and imperialist, but a lot of Asian countries should be giving North American or Europeans citizenship or very beneficial PR/rights with this type of ceremony. We are conquering heroes in terms of the experiences we provide. Singapore gets it right with their foreign talent scheme. Other Asian nations do not come close to their 1 in 4 quotas (25 percent of Singapore is expat). Taiwan`s is window dressing at the best.
It is what blows me away when I hear West-Coast Asians in the US complain about Trump`s very minor changes to the immigration system. I feel like shouting to these people that often have one or more Asian nationalities as well. Do you lobby Asian governments such as China, Taiwan, Japan or Thailand to adopt modern immigration laws? Ya – did not think so!!!
(1) If 7 % of priests abuse children, about how many child molesters must have received citizenship by now? 3 or 4? (If I were a bishop trying to get rid of one, Taiwan sounds like a convenient place to send him.)
(2) Somebody should lobby for parity between the various religions (so far Catholics have received the lion’s share of these things, possibly by design), and between the sexes.
(3) What about all those rabid Protestants who’ve been protesting against gay rights? Are their ringleaders going to be eligible for this?
The Han race must remain pure.
Singapore gets it right with their foreign talent scheme. Other Asian nations do not come close to their 1 in 4 quotas (25 percent of Singapore is expat). Taiwan`s is window dressing at the best.