Is the number of immigrants from Taiwan increasing?What a California lawyer said | Minhui Tsai | Qi-geng Chen | Gan County Taiwan-American Chamber of Commerce

[The Epoch Times, November 09, 2023](Epoch Times reporter Xu Manyuan reported in Los Angeles) Recently, many media reports in Taiwan have discussed and reported that cross-strait tensions have triggered a new wave of immigration; some relevant industry insiders also said that Taiwanese people have prepared “two passports” “It is already underway, and the number of people preparing to immigrate overseas has increased significantly. California lawyers Cai Minhui and Chen Qigeng respectively provided their personal professional observations and opinions on this phenomenon in the United States.

Min-hui Tsai came to the United States from Taiwan. After obtaining a doctorate in law and a lawyer’s license, she practiced law in California for many years. She currently has three offices in Irvine, Rowland Heights, and Rosewood. She was the president of the Taiwan-American Lawyers Association. She is enthusiastically involved in overseas Chinese affairs and actively Fight for the rights of the Chinese community. She believes that the Russia-Ukraine war and the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip will indeed make people worry about whether there will be a conflict in the Taiwan Strait, but the current geopolitical conflicts have not really prompted Taiwanese to immigrate. .

“The immigration cases or consultations I have received have not increased. Although the cross-strait situation has been tense in recent years, I have not seen an obvious increase in immigration.” Cai Minhui said that compared with Taiwan’s early immigration waves, such as When Taiwan and the United States severed diplomatic relations in 1979, many Taiwanese immigrated out of fear of a cross-strait war. Nowadays, Taiwanese are not enthusiastic about applying for immigration.

According to a press statement issued by the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of China on November 7, according to business statistics reported by immigration companies, the number of people who have been approved (passed) by the local country for immigration cases in the past five years were 1,077, 874, 499, 469 and 704 respectively. , of which the immigrant population in 2022 is 704, which is not higher than in the years before the epidemic, although after the epidemic is lifted, the number of immigrants consulting may increase.

Taiwanese who leave the country and fail to return within 2 years will have their household registrations removed. However, as of the end of October, the number of people whose household registrations have been removed this year is only more than 20,000, which is a significant decrease from 2021 and 2022 during the epidemic. The statement said that there is currently no surge in Taiwanese emigration, and the outside world should not make generalizations that would affect social stability.

Although there are no exact statistics, according to Tsai Min-hui’s observation, most of the Taiwanese students who came to the United States in the 1980s or earlier would apply for permanent residence. However, the proportion of Taiwanese students who stay after graduation is not high. Tsai Min-hui believes that the main reason is considering the overall environment. The living gap between Taiwan and the United States is no longer that big, and people will make the choice that suits them best. After considering economic and political stability, international students have no motivation to choose to immigrate to the United States. So big before.

In addition, the epidemic is also an important influencing factor. During the outbreak, many international students chose to return to their places of origin, and global population movements were not as frequent as in the past. She said that most people have strong motives or goals for immigrating, and currently there is no large-scale immigration wave in Taiwanese society.

Tsai Min-hui said that TSMC’s establishment of a factory in Phoenix has increased the number of Taiwanese employees who immigrated to the United States, but they are still a minority and are not a common situation in Taiwanese society as a whole. Because TSMC meets the conditions of a multinational company, these employees who come to work in the United States can apply for employment-based immigration through the company. As long as both the worker and the employer are willing, the application process is not complicated; even if the employer cannot help apply, employees can still try. If you apply for immigration independently and meet the criteria, you may be able to obtain U.S. citizenship.

Chen Qigeng is a lecturer at the American Immigration Lawyers Association and an “Immigration Law Professional Witness” in the U.S. courts, helping judges and juries decide immigration law-related litigation cases. He said that the immigration population data of the United States are transparent. Currently, the number of immigrants from around the world to the United States is increasing every year, and the number of Taiwanese immigrants to the United States is indeed increasing.

He said: “Taiwanese people may not necessarily choose to come to the United States to study, but more and more Taiwanese people are aiming to work, live, and permanently reside in the United States.” Most of the Taiwanese immigrant clients Chen Qigen comes in contact with are applying for investment and employment. Or immigrants with outstanding talents, they immigrate to the United States mainly for work and prioritize “economics”.

Chen Qigeng believes that although the political situation on both sides of the Taiwan Strait has been tense in recent years, those who will choose to immigrate may only be “self-employed”. If, like TSMC, sets up a factory in the United States, the immigrant population will easily be dozens or hundreds of households. He said It is speculated that this is the main reason for the increase in the number of Taiwanese immigrants to the United States.

Since the U.S.-China trade war, many industries in the United States have not allowed mainland China to supply parts or materials, and some supply chain manufacturers must go to the United States to set up factories. Chen Qi-geng speculated that this is one of the reasons for the increase in the number of Taiwanese immigrants to the United States. Most of these new immigrants do not settle in big cities where traditional immigrants gather, such as Los Angeles, San Francisco or New York, but settle in places where they work, such as Phoenix, Arizona. Or cities such as Austin and Tyler, Texas, because there are many newly built factories there, attracting workers to move in. ◇

Editor in charge: Jialian