Fighting for ‘Fairness’: Double Standard for Dual Citizenship in Taiwan

TaiwanPlus News

Taiwan requires most foreigners to give up their nationality if they want to get Taiwanese citizenship. A campaign now aims to change that demand.

Transcript

00:00Sam Khan and his wife Jane are testing their daughter's Chinese.

00:23Surprised at all the words she already knows.

00:25They bought this house a year ago and set up home here in Kaohsiung, Taiwan's largest

00:31port city.

00:33Khan gave up his Pakistani nationality to become Taiwanese, a decision he made for his

00:39daughter.

00:40You know, it's a highly developed country with very safe, good education, good quality

00:46standard of living and I wanted my daughter to have access to Taiwan, have the right to

00:52live here freely as a Taiwanese.

00:56But to his frustration, four-year-old Zara is still not Taiwanese.

01:00She was born here to Khan and his Filipino wife before he gained citizenship.

01:06And under Taiwanese rules, she has to renounce her Filipino citizenship too, which as a child

01:12she can't do.

01:15Unlike Khan, of the 3,000 to 4,000 foreigners who become citizens here each year, less than

01:21three percent don't have to give up their original nationality, deemed by the government

01:27to be highly specialized or to have made a significant contribution to Taiwan.

01:34Like the late US missionary and English teacher Doris Brougham, who was handed a Taiwanese

01:39passport by former President Tsai Ing-wen after 72 years in the country.

01:46Now a campaign is pressing the government to make it easier for foreigners to become

01:50Taiwanese, arguing that more citizens could even help Taiwan as it faces an existential

01:57threat from China.

01:59One of the things that China is putting its mark on Taiwan is to say that, well, you guys

02:06are mostly ethnic Chinese and hopefully with more diversity, with more countries and their

02:12people invested in Taiwan on a longer term basis, this will provide some type of even

02:18greater hesitation on the part of China to be like, well, we're just going to take it

02:22over.

02:23Nonprofit group Crossroads says that making foreigners renounce their original nationality

02:28is unreasonable and unfair, especially as Taiwanese can have dual nationality.

02:35The push to make it easier to gain citizenship comes as Taiwan ages fast. Next year it's

02:41set to become a super-aged society, meaning that more than a fifth of its population will

02:47be 65 or over. That means higher health care costs, fewer working-age people to pay for

02:54them and potentially slower economic growth. Activists say welcoming more people will help

03:00to offset all that.

03:02But the Ministry of Interior declined to say whether there were any plans to change or

03:06debate the nationality law, telling Taiwan Plus that foreigners must renounce their nationality

03:13to avoid active conflicts of nationality between parties in enjoying rights, performing

03:19obligations and national loyalty.

03:22Khan, who works for a firm making materials for high-tech devices, remembers his citizenship

03:29process as stressful, at times fearing he might become stateless. Despite that, he says

03:36he doesn't regret it. And if China does one day attack and many people flee, he will stay

03:43behind.

03:44Khan hopes his new country will make it easier for others to follow in his footsteps. People

03:57born elsewhere who do not just feel at home here, but want to proudly call themselves

04:03Taiwanese.

04:05Klein Wong and Louise Watt for Taiwan Plus.

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