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German engineer’s case highlights dire state of Taiwan’s immigration system

The law did not make it easy for him and his family to stay together, as two of his four children were forced to leave the island.

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Photo courtesy of Ralph Jensen's Facebook page

Photo courtesy of Ralph Jensen's Facebook page (Taiwan News photo)

During her campaign, President Tsai Ing-wen promised to introduce a series of policies for attracting and retaining skilled foreign talent. However, the existing immigration system in Taiwan has proved difficult for foreign workers to stay in the nation, whose families are forced to leave Taiwan after reaching the age of 20.

Ralph Jensen, a German engineer who has been working in Kaohsiung for 18 years, recently wrote to United Daily News (UDN), detailing the difficulties he and his family have encountered working in the nation.

He came to Taiwan in 1998, when the then government adopted a liberal immigration policy to attract foreign talent, and had obtained permanent residency in 2006.

However, the law did not make it easy for him and his family to stay together, as two of his four children, who were born in Taiwan and have reached the age of 20, were forced to leave the island and find jobs elsewhere, splitting the family apart.

According to the policy, foreign workers’ children automatically lose their dependent resident visas once they reach 20, and without Taiwanese nationality, they would have to find a job with a monthly earning exceeding NT$47,940, along with a professional license/ bachelor/master degree, to be able to stay in the country.

The law is outdated and needed reform, Jensen said. While his children were born in Taiwan and received their education here, they were not considered Taiwanese and therefore severely limited by their status the right to remain in the nation.

It is not fair that the ROC allows its nation to have dual nationality, but demands applicants for voluntary naturalization to give up their citizenship, he added.

Liao Ching-jung, president of the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, said in the UDN article that family arrangement is a crucial component of international migration, and an important factor for foreign skilled workers contemplating a long stay.

Taiwan needs to speed up the reform and improve the lives of immigrant families soon, he added, so that the nation can ensure a greater competitiveness in bringing in foreign talent.