Equality urged for all foreign spouses

The organizations said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese nationals do not have the same rights as foreign spouses, calling the situation “discriminatory.”

“We demand that the government at least make equal the rights of foreign and Chinese spouses,” said Wang Chuan-ping, president of the New Immigrants Labor Rights Association,complaining that the Mainland Affairs Council’s plan to amend existing regulations did not go far enough.

MAC Chairwoman Lai Shin yuan said last week that her agency plans to amend the Act Governing Relations Between Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area to permit Chinese spouses who enter Taiwan legally to work immediately and allow them to apply for permanent residence six years after they arrive rather than the existing eight years.

Wang argued, however, that the waiting period for Chinese spouses to apply for permanent residence must be reduced to four years as is the case for other foreign spouses.

Even the rights of foreign spouses are not completely guaranteed, said Dana Wu, a member of the TransAsia Sisters Association.

She noted that foreign spouses who get divorced due to domestic violence or without being given custody of their children are deprived of their rights to apply for permanent residence in Taiwan.

According to an amendment to the Immigration Law approved by the Legislative Yuan in late 2007, these divorced foreign spouses can only apply to extend their stay in Taiwan.

To highlight the discriminatory nature of existing regulations against foreign spouses, the organizations staged a satire in front of the Executive Yuan in which two women dressed in Chinese and Southeast Asian traditional wedding dresses were handcuffed, chained and beaten by a man disguised as an official.

At present, Chinese spouses have to wait for two years to obtain a dependent residence permit and the right to work, while other foreign spouses can start working two weeks after entering Taiwan, the rights groups said.

In addition, though the government promised that foreign spouses will be able to receive consumption vouchers being distributed to stimulate economic activity, some Chinese spouses remain excluded from the program.

Vice Interior Minister Chien Tai-lang announced last week that new immigrants holding a residence card, including a dependent residence permit or long-term residence card, will be entitled to receive the NT$3,600 in shopping vouchers to be handed out to the country’s citizens.

Chien estimated that more than 150,000 foreign and Chinese spouses will benefit from the policy at a cost of NT$550 million, as part of the overall NT$82.9 billion program.

But the program excludes about 33,000 Chinese spouses who only hold a “reunion” certificate, given to those who have been in Taiwan for less than two years.

The United Nations General Assembly designated November 25 as International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women in 1999.

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