This would encourage thousands of Antipodeans, Europeans and North Americans already settled in Taiwan to apply for ROC citizenship. Given the nation’s economic difficulties and rapidly aging population, this is something the government surely desires.
Most of these potential citizens, some of whom describe themselves as Taiwanese in their hearts, have called the island home for more than a decade. Many have local spouses and children; more than a few run businesses which employ Taiwanese people.
Not everyone in this category is interested in becoming an ROC citizen, but those who have looked into it describe most of the naturalization requirements as reasonable. Applicants must meet certain residential and financial criteria; there is a Chinese language test, a health examination and a background check. However, one complaint surfaces again and again: that candidates renounce their original nationality. This, they claim, is unfair, illogical and pointless.
It is unfair because the ROC allows those who are already citizens to hold dual nationality. There is no legal obstacle, from the ROC side at least, if a Taiwanese who has become a citizen of another country wishes to retain his or her ROC nationality and travel on an ROC passport. The U.K., U.S. and some other countries allow their citizens to hold two or more nationalities. South Korea and Japan are among those who expressly forbid it. Taiwan’s nationality law is almost unique in being asymmetrical.
If the requirement that those seeking to be naturalized give up their old citizenship was designed to ensure the loyalty of new citizens to the ROC, it is illogical. Those who drafted the rule seem not to have considered that some people already have more than one nationality. These people could, it seems, abandon one in order to become Taiwanese while retaining another.
Also, the requirement is rendered pointless because some countries, including Australia and the U.K., allow ex-citizens to reapply and easily get back their old nationality. Australians and Britons can become ROC citizens and later resume their original nationality, although there is some hassle and expense involved. People from countries that do not allow the reacquisition of nationality will think long and hard before making the commitment.
Americans, especially successful businesspeople, are reluctant to give up their nationality. This is because U.S. law penalizes former citizens believed to have had a tax-related motive for renouncing their citizenship.
Applicants for ROC citizenship must renounce their original nationality at the beginning of the naturalization process. For a period, therefore, they are stateless. This adds a degree of uncertainty as those who renounce their old nationality, but whose application for ROC citizenship is unsuccessful, could be left high and dry.
The European Convention on Nationality, which has been ratified by 16 nations including Germany, enshrines an individual’s right to renounce his or her nationality. However, it makes a specific exception: where renunciation would leave a person stateless, it is not allowed. Thus Germans who wish to become ROC nationals fall at the very first hurdle.
On the face of it, the renunciation requirement is only something people from rich, developed Western countries would worry about. People do not, generally speaking, abandon their original nationality unless the one they stand to acquire is better in some respect. This explains why in recent years Southeast Asians have accounted for more than 90 percent of those opting to naturalize in the ROC.
However, non-Westerners would also benefit if the renunciation requirement were dropped. There have been cases in which naturalized ROC citizens originally from Southeast Asia have decided to move back to the countries where they were born, but found they could not because they no longer held that nationality. They are forced to stay in Taiwan. Those who drafted the ROC’s nationality law cannot have intended this consequence.
Now that longstanding foreign residents can apply for permanent residency certificates, some of the steam that had built up over the naturalization issue has dissipated. Much has been said and written about perceived flaws in the permanent residency system. This aside, there are several reasons why citizenship is preferable to permanent residency. Eligibility to vote is one, but there are more day-to-day considerations.
Local banks are still very reluctant to issue credit cards to noncitizens, regardless of how long they have lived in Taiwan and how good their credit record is. As a result, many long-term foreign residents use credit cards issued by banks in their home countries. This is inconvenient for foreign cardholders living in Taiwan, and represents lost revenue for ROC banks. Taiwan’s land law is based on reciprocity; foreigners are only allowed to own real estate in Taiwan if ROC citizens can do so in their home countries. People from places where Taiwanese cannot buy real estate might want to become citizens for this reason if no other.
This simple reform would not greatly change Taiwan society. There would be no sudden influx of people. The number of new citizens would be too small to sway election outcomes. But it would help retain talent and wealth, and send a signal that Taiwan is genuinely international and genuinely welcoming.
—Steven Crook is a freelance writer based in Tainan. These views are the author’s and not necessarily those of “Taiwan Today.” Copyright © 2010 by Steven Crook
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